r/foodnetwork 3d ago

Pitmasters

Hands down, the best new show to debut on TFN. I loved every team that's competed, and truly hated to see any of them get eliminated. The skills, talents, comradery, judging - all of it has been just great!

149 Upvotes

39 comments sorted by

55

u/Routine_Onion628 ICAG 🔪 3d ago

I have loved watching it! The food looked delicious, I got great ideas to try on my own. The ONLY thing I didn’t like was them not sleeping because it scared me (no sleep, open flame, sharp tools, mental decline, etc). I hope they can figure out something with that next season.

31

u/wetsando 3d ago

I’m glad someone else was getting stressed about the sleep. I kept telling my husband that they shouldn’t be around open flames so tired! I wonder if they got some time to sleep that was not shown. Overall amazing new show, great judges, great challenges, super skilled competitors. One of my favorite cooking shows in a while.

9

u/PuppiesAndTravel 2d ago

This! I can understand 1 night of no sleep because that’s common in bbq competitions but more than that just seems dangerous and unnecessary. It worried me too

21

u/randomlikeme 2d ago

I agree with you. Every team seemed kind towards one another.

21

u/Open_Outcome6325 2d ago

My wife and I were talking about this last episode. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a long competition series where there wasn’t at least one person or team that we disliked. All the teams are so likable.

16

u/EntireInitial272 2d ago

Matt was my GYM teacher … my god, like 15 years ago. He started selling his bbq through a trailer/food truck after I graduated. He’s a really good dude, loves his students and his family. He’s head of the culinary department for the high school now and I’m sure all his students still love him

43

u/LadyBug_0570 2d ago

I love it too. Unlike BBQ Brawl, these folks are doing real barbeque, not just grilling. And it takes hours.

11

u/Big_Mastodon_6761 2d ago

Speaking of BBQ Brawl, that’s the reason why I haven’t been watching. I enjoy BBQ Brawl; but when I heard about Pitmasters, I was like, “Didn’t they just do this?“ But apparently the show is different, so I’ll try to catch up with it on Discovery+.

13

u/LadyBug_0570 2d ago

Oh you should watch. It's not like BBQ Brawl at all (also no Bobby Flay... I like him but he is everywhere and it's nice to see new faces).

1

u/DazzlingSkin4431 14h ago

Plus his girlfriend Brooke was a judge! Bs!!!!

3

u/LadyBug_0570 14h ago

But Maneet won that season, right? Brooke was a competitor in the last season.

BUT since you brought them up (and thank you for that!) those 2 are kind of getting nauseating now. We get it, you're dating. Do you need to shove it down our throats? Just saw a BBF last night with Brooke as a judge and they're dating kept coming up. Damaris, the other judge, said she felt like a third wheel.

Funny enough, Bobby lost that one. Must've been too distracted by Brooke or something.

1

u/DazzlingSkin4431 14h ago

Right! I stopped watching when heard they were dating as she was very biased on season he was competing! Can’t watch either of them anymore!

2

u/LadyBug_0570 14h ago

Don't worry... as soon as another thin young blonde chef or actress comes along, he'll dump her or cheat on her (not hoping for it but the man has a pattern). And then we'll see a different kind of drama from them.

5

u/Curious_kitten129 1d ago

It’s a MILLION times better than BBQ brawl.

1

u/avarier 2d ago

Same!! I think it was weird to air these shows back to back. They should have spaced them out. 

14

u/Simmyphila 2d ago

First time watching it. And was impressed. The dynamics of all the teams (even towards competitors) were awesome,

28

u/ChaoticEvilRaccoon Guy's Grocery Games 🛒 3d ago

yeah in todays TV-world it's incredibly rare to have all team members be down to earth and genuinly nice. usually they always throw in some really abrasive people to manufacture drama

8

u/Flicka_263 1d ago

Completely and totally agree!!! The level of knowledge of the judges has been so amazing that it doesn't matter that it is not blind judging. They all seem to be completely fair and the comments all clearly reflect why they make the decisions on the teams. And who has eaten more food (and things I wouldn't even consider as food) around the world than AZ? The contestants are not backstabbing each other but rather supporting each other since they know the level of difficulty of what they are doing. The only thing that surprised me about this show was the lack of people commenting here - I guess I associate that directly with the popularity of the show or how many are watching. I would put this show on the level of a TOC or 24 in 24 in terms of the best competition shows on FNC. Those who are not watching don't know what they are missing !!!

14

u/billleachmsw 3d ago

It has been great to watch. All the folks have been so talented and the hosts have been great.

7

u/KingBird999 1d ago

and the hosts have been great.

I'm a huge Andrew Zimmern fan and will watch anything he does. I'd still watch this show without him, it's good, but it's a great added bonus he's on it.

6

u/Lulubella903 2d ago

I wasn't a fan of barbecue brawl that's why I was hesitant to watch this but I love this show I'm sorry it's coming to an end with this week's episode I truly enjoyed it

7

u/Curious_kitten129 1d ago

Best new show since 24 in 24. I hope they bring it back.

1

u/FormicaDinette33 50m ago

Agree. Good call.

5

u/KorryBoston 1d ago

Totally agree. The Food Truck one is a very close second

9

u/Lotton 2d ago

I loved the cooking and the teams but the lack of sleep in the beginning was hard to watch

5

u/Global_Walrus1672 2d ago

I got so inspired watching this show decided I am definitely building that fire pit with an area for cooking. I grew up camping with family, scouting, and on my own as a young adult. We always cooked anything we wanted, found a way to do it and did not realize how much I missed it until I watched this show.

7

u/keytone8 Spring Baking Championship 🌼 2d ago

The food has been really unique! I loved all the different styles of bbq that were represented.

3

u/cossa68 7h ago

I’m literally blown away by this show.

2

u/throwmeawayamack 1d ago

Loved it !!!

2

u/bely_medved13 3h ago

I enjoyed the show but disliked the no sleep thing. It seemed unnecessary, especially coupled with the altitude and dry climate. Glad they backed off at the end and hope they do away with that next season.

The other major issue I had was with the judging (and/or perhaps the way the judging was edited). There was lots of sarcasm/negativity at the judging table, which often went far past constructive criticism to simply mean-spiritedness. The comment one of the judges made about Susie's cake being "the dessert from the aunt that nobody likes" was unnecessarily harsh. Other times, new rules seemed to appear out of nowhere (deciding sides needed to taste more grilled when that wasn't outlined in the original challenge, for instance). Jess in particular seemed to ding people for things because "that's not the way I do it" rather than for flavor or technique. Again, I wouldn't be surprised if this was partially the edit, but it took away from the fun of watching the show to me. The winners got a clear winner's edit from the beginning too.

I'd prefer a show with a bit more positivity in the editing. Constructive criticism is way more fun to watch than put-downs.

1

u/FormicaDinette33 50m ago

Sooooo good!!!

1

u/FormicaDinette33 49m ago

I love how well the women did. In case anybody didn’t know that women can kick ass at all facets of barbecue, they do now!!

1

u/FormicaDinette33 48m ago

I also loved how many nuances of barbecue there were. Each team wove in their heritage and clearly all were in fact masters of the pit!!

-1

u/Curious_Wallaby_683 8h ago

This is not a new show, it’s been on for years on another channel

4

u/Natural-Promise-78 7h ago

Are you referring to "BBQ Pitmasters"?

-9

u/Competitive_Goat4250 2d ago

Zimmern just feels like a knock-off Guy as host, but the rest of the show was pretty good. Not the hugest fan of the no-sleep aspect of the show either, but I’d watch another season for sure.

7

u/MondaysForNothing 2d ago

I'm the opposite. I can't stand Guy (way oversaturated with him at this point) but like Zimmern as host.

Like you, I hope there is a 2nd season, and I hope they address the sleep thing.

1

u/Competitive_Goat4250 2d ago

Yeah the teams were top notch and the food was good. Love that I’m getting downvoted for not liking Zimmern 😂

3

u/MondaysForNothing 2d ago

Wasn't me lol - everyone is entitled to their opinion. That's good ol' reddit for you.

Sometimes it was hard for me to watch - the food looked too good, and there is a distinct lack of good BBQ around me.