What You Didn't Know About The Stoves On Kitchen Crash

On January 27, Ali Khan, host of the Cooking Channel's Cheap Eats, was so wrapped in the episode of Kitchen Crash he was watching that he took to Twitter, tagging Jeff Mauro, its host, and the Food Network to ask if the grills supplied to the contestants failed to get hot enough. Jeff Mauro responded, stating that "Yeah, they are up and down depending on weather and wind. It's deinfirely [sic] a critical element in this game. Gotta trust in the heat and adapt!"

Apparently, Khan had approached a similar conclusion: "Champions adjust."

The game, as summarized on the Food Network's website, involves dragging three chefs to a neighborhood in which they'll beg houses for ingredients to cook the best dish in the middle of the street.

Without more information, it is hard to say what the exact problem is. However, we know that cooking techniques used in the summer, such as barbecuing, would prove less effective in colder temperatures. Crown Verity does offer tips for how to grill during the winter, which may indicate general problems. Two of those are to expect longer cook times, 20 minutes per pound for every degree under 45 degrees Fahrenheit, and to grill with the lid closed, lest any heat created escapes. That said, these tips are not ideal for competition conditions.

As Khan said, though, champions adjust and that is marketed as a major aesthetic pillar for the Food Network's new show. The premise, as briefly touched upon, consists of chefs going to houses to ask for food, then using the ingredients they find to win. So, there is no reliable method for pre-planning your meal.

Talking to Fansided, Jeff Mauro explained that such spur decisions are key to his enjoyment: "One of the most entertaining and special elements of Kitchen Crash is how each chef embraced the authentic, personal and home-made ingredients they found in their family's fridges or pantries. From homemade pesto to imported Indian spices to backyard-grown Jersey tomatoes. I found the most successful chefs and dishes embraced their families' cultures by imparting these authentic ingredients."

The test, as one might imagine, determines not the chef who knows the best recipe in the abstract, like in MasterChef, but the chef who can assemble a doable recipe when they might not even find the most basic ingredients at their disposal. With such a setup, the fact that the weather may drop too low for regular stove work is another wrench in the contestants' plans, but nothing out of the character of the show.