Dinner Impossible Review

Overall 3.73 of 5 view all 11 reviews

add to my favorites email to a friend

Publisher's Circle

kid-kansas
Clearwater, KS

add kid-kansas to my friends list

Arrogant Chef or a food Mastermind? You decide.

interested in cultural experiences, Likes to be entertained, a reality TV watcher, Amature Chef

Pros

Unique Challenges, Cuisine is inovative, Challenging situations

JAN

2008

I have always enjoyed cooking and trying to come up with a great meal with little ingredients to work with. When I first saw Robert Irvine's Dinner Impossible I was interested in seeing something along the lines of what I have been through.

The Show

Robert Irvine is given a challenge to prepare a meal with only certain ingredients for x number of people in a limited amount of time. He has to work with only the equipment that is at the place where the challenge takes place or find nearby equipment he can beg or borrow the use of. The big challenge is making a gourmet meal out of not so gourmet ingredients, such as stadium food.

He is given a staff to work with and sometimes they may be children or a staff that only prepares fast food. It is interesting to watch him get through some of the challenges he is presented with.

On one episode of Dinner Impossible he was to serve volunteers for the Katrina Hurricane effort. He had to cook outside on grills and also in Red Cross trailers with about 600 mouths to feed. At the same time he was also involved with building a home for one of the Katrina victims. Between people buying the wrong ingredients to equipment that doesn't work he tries to accomplish the given task at hand.

The Dinner Impossible show supplied all the materials to build a gorgeous house for the woman who lost her home to Katrina and had been living in a FEMA trailer for over a year. They gave her a wonderful gift of a new home built by the volunteers whom Irvine was to feed. He accomplished the challenge with no less than a dozen different dishes that were as good if not better than a lot of restaurant food.

On a golf course challenge he had to fix a meal for 200 celebrity golfers and had to cook on a golf course with outdoor and indoor facilities. He actually set up on a practice hole while the golfers were playing all around.

Another episode was a gigantic tailgate party at where he cooked in the parking lot with borrowed grills. One guy that loaned him a grill came back to claim it in the middle of Irvine using it. He then had to do a mad dash to find a replacement, of course he pulls it off in grand fashion and completes the challenge.

He even created a meal at The Mall of America and cooked it in the malls rotunda with shoppers all around. He has gone to a deserted Island where he could only use the food available on the island or from the ocean around him. They did fly in equipment to use for cooking however.

In Massachusetts he created a meal for 1600 construction workers with Salvation Army personnel. He resorted to using construction equipment to prepare food. He used mortar pans and wheel barrows that they had on site (they were new) that just shows how he must use what is available in order to complete a challenge

Robert Irvine can come off as arrogant and brash to most people, but he has a challenge to complete and the food served is a representation of his skills. SO he must make sure it is not only edible it must also look good. He yells and chides all the workers assigned to him, but in the end he gives credit where credit is due. If on a rare occasion he does fail he humbly apologizes and life goes on. He can be intimidating to people as he looks more like a body builder than a chef.

Some of the meals he has created during the challenges include:

Deep-fried sushi salmon balls with jalapeño jelly glaze
Duck taquitos in hoisin sauce
Lobster club sandwich of brioche/ prosciutto club sandwich
Cod brandade/ham brandade
Bananas Foster with vanilla soy ice cream

Bottom Line

He has cooked for the likes of Governors, gourmet chefs and even Priscilla Presley where he learned to make southern dishes that Elvis would have eaten. The show all though not for everyone is an entertaining alternative to a lot of violence on television today. Robert Irvine has a talent that shines through on every show be it comic relief or a little drama unfolding in the kitchen he takes ordinary ingredients and produces gourmet meals out of them.

I look forward to new episodes just to see where and what will confront him next. I also get a few recipe ideas from watching the show as well. It is perhaps a show only for those who like to cook but it is a fun show to watch.