A Review of 'Recipe to Riches'

You can't imagine the excitement I felt when I found out that Laura Calder, notable host of French Food At Home on Food Network Canada, was going to be part of a new television show, Recipe To Riches. This show involves a panel of three judges who travel across Canada to find what they consider to be the best recipes, with the goal of them becoming President's Choice products. Galen Weston, executive chairman of Loblaws also makes an appearance every episode.

Each episode is based around a specific category of food like appetizers, cakes, frozen treats, or entrees just to name a few. At the beginning of each episode the judges immediately pick out three people and their recipes to compete for $25,000 and for their recipe to be featured as a President's Choice product. The winner of each category will eventually compete for a bigger prize.

Up to this point, all the episodes have aired, with the exception of the one where we find out who wins the biggest prize, and all the recipes are available in supermarkets where President's Choice products are sold. I can't say that I've tried any of them yet, because personally I find them too expensive at $6.99 for a small box of Luscious Lemon Pudding or $3.49 for an even tinier box of Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies. I'm also a home cook and baker so I do not find these things necessary to buy. Obviously I'm not in the target market, so there, I'll let that go.

In terms of the concept behind the show, I find it very interesting, because each contestant is required to do a batch-up challenge of their recipe and create two hundred servings of it. The real kicker is that their recipe has to taste as good, if not better, as/than the original that they served the judges, and on top of that, they have to maintain consistency of the product through the batch-up. After that, one contestant is let go and the remaining two work with a marketing team to create an event to find out if the public really wants the product.

I'm not certain about the execution of the show, however, because they are missing the American Idol aspect of travelling place-to-place and meeting all applicants. I personally don't want to see the cruelty that American Idol has demonstrated so often in the past, but I would like to see the other applicants the three main contestants had to beat to get to the batch-up and marketing challenges. I feel this would give more depth and quality to the show, because viewers would be able to see exactly where the judges were coming from when they chose their three contestants for such and such a category. Also, how many gold tickets do they give out in a day? And do they have to narrow their final number down?

Anyway, it is a very entertaining show and I will certainly continue watching it in the future. What are your thoughts on Recipe to Riches?