OUR FIRST THOUGHTS: TM Pick n Pay Battle of the Chefs Season 2

We caught on late onto Zimbabwe’s first reality cooking TV show, TM Pick n Pay Battle of the Chefs.

It is four episodes deep into the second season at the moment and we have seen a steady improvement in this season.

The first 3 episodes with host Samantha ‘Zihlo’ Ndlovu were a bit underwhelming when it came to presentation. The camera work, photography, the quality of product (even on our notoriously dodgy ZTV) is simply impressive but the lack of on-screen energy was a downer.

The brainchild of Restaurant Week’s Joseph Bunga the show will see the winner at the end of the season winning $10,000 if the contestants impress judges Karl Eckard, Lincoln Myambo and Innocent Masuku. The contestants on episode 4 are Charlene Chisvo, Zandi Mubi, Tinashe Sean Murove, and Tongai Zhou.

Other than the screen work here are things we like about the show:

The judges know what they are talking about
The judges are brutal in their assessment which makes for good TV
Sound clarity shows a lot of thought has gone into this programme.
We see the process of cooking as it happens

What we think needs a bit of work:

The judges need a bit more work (we just need them to be more media friendly. They know what they are talking about but they lack the oomf.)
There is not much they can do about the contestants speaking within themselves but hopefully they will take control of that.
The audios where the increasingly impressive Zihlo comes in feel a bit rehearsed at times so they don’t feel like an instruction that happened in real time as the cooking was being done. She is growing into her role so we see this improving.
We need to feel the drama off-screen. That could be in creating more suspense between a judge’s reaction and the contestant’s presentation. No idea but there is something there.

Those are our first thoughts of what we think is the best-produced TV show we have seen come out of Zimbabwe.

Catch it on ZTV (DStv channel 280) at 7pm every Sunday or check it out on YouTube

This review is brough to you by Filimu. A Three Men On a Boat company.