What To Binge This Weekend: Cutthroat Kitchen

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Did you watch the new episodes of Nailed It on Netflix? Of course you did. They were great. They always are. However, there were only a few of them, and now you’ve watched them all. What are you supposed to watch this weekend? Well, you’re in luck. This weekend’s binge-watching recommendation is a good competition show that combines the fun of Nailed It with actually talented chefs! We’re talking Cutthroat Kitchen.

Cutthroat Kitchen aired on Food Network from 2013 through 2017, but in classic Food Network fashion put out 15 seasons and 189 episodes in that time. A lot of it features the typical trappings of food competition shows. There are four chefs competing, three rounds, an elimination after each round, a cash prize, food celebrity judges, and the looming presence of Alton Brown. It’s the elements that give Cutthroat Kitchen its hook that make it one of the best of this increasingly expansive genre.

Here’s the meat of it. Each chef gets $25,000 to start with. They find out the dish they have to make in each round, and then they go shop for their ingredients. Then, the sabotages comes. Alton will unveil a sabotage, which is some sort of obstacle to be thrown in the way of the chefs. Let’s say, for example, you had to make an omelet. The sabotage may be that three of the chefs lose their eggs and have to replace them with instant eggs or quail eggs or what have you. A lot of sabotages involve losing cooking tools and, say, having to prepare your dish with gardening tools or something crazy. Cooking inside a tiny dollhouse? You bet! Having to cook while carrying an anchor? Sure, why not?

The chefs bet their money on the sabotage, and if they win it, they decide who to give it to. However, that money comes out of their $25,000. That means the winning chef walks away with the amount of money they didn’t use on sabotages.

Needless to say, it’s a lot of fun watching these chefs maneuver dealing with these sabotages. Some of them come up with some clever workarounds. Cutthroat Kitchen also likes to showcase trash talk, but usually for the sake of humor. It likes to highlight the “cutthroat” part of the title, but in the friendliest version of that.

This show was also a great fit for Brown. He relished playing the role of heartless host, taunting and teasing and joking around. Of course, it was all for the show. He was playing a role, and on occasion he would revert back to the “real” Alton Brown to give asides about what he would do with certain sabotages.

Unfortunately, Cutthroat Kitchen got cancelled. Fortunately, the episodes are still around to watch. You can catch them on the Food Network app, or on Hulu. The great thing about the show is that you can just pick and choose what you want to watch. I recommend checking out some of the special event series, like the Time Warp episodes, or the Camp Cutthroat episodes. It’s one of the more-relaxing ways I can imagine spending the weekend.