Taco Bell's 'Cooking Show' Actually Looks Kind Of Good

No offense to Taco Bell, but the last place we would think to look for a top-tier cooking show is a fast food restaurant. It turns out, however, that the fast food industry might be the first place we should be looking, with Taco Bell forcing us to eat our words. 

Respectfully, we know Taco Bell for its iconic Crunchy Taco, its recently revived Mexican Pizza, and its rotating Freeze flavors. The fast food chain always seems to keep its consumers on their feet with its branding efforts, as the brand is no stranger to left-field marketing campaigns. Examples include its "steal a base, steal a taco" campaign for the World Series, per Taco Bell, and its Taco Bell Hotel that Yahoo! News reports was fully booked in just two days. 

In February of 2023, Taco Bell hit us with arguably its best campaign yet that left us hoping the chain will continue to release large-level content. Taco Bell's "cooking show" is up there with some of the more eye-catching fast food campaigns, only this one really knew how to build up the suspense until the very end.

In Taco Bell's Menu Blast competition posted to Youtube, three members from Taco Bell teams across the nation were challenged to create a total of three dishes in under five minutes for the chance to win an all-expense paid trip to Golden Bell in Hawaii. Golden Bell is an annual trip for the nation's top 100 Taco Bell managers and area coaches (per Taco Bell). The judges of this competition included Taco Bell Exec Rene Pisciotti, TikTok content creator Alexis Frost, and marketing and PR director Matt Prince. The judges rated the dishes based on creativity, taste, and presentation before crowning a winner. In comparison to other food competition shows, the judges were open-minded and kind when it came to trying each dish. It was heartwarming to see each contestant's hard work being appreciated. 

Diving further into the competition, we saw the challengers create new breakfast items like the "Sweet Breakfast Crunchwrap" made with Cinnabon Delights, syrup, and cinnamon sugar all wrapped in a flour tortilla. We also got to see one contestant craft a Shredded Beef Flatbread Pizza and even a Cravings Box with a never before seen sauce. We also saw contestants create a new Freeze flavor with one challenger who added strawberry syrup and heart jellies to a watermelon berry freeze. Taco Bell really pulled out all the stops for this competition and our mouths watered at the inventive dishes the contestants were able to put together.