'Mussels Mastery'

Chopped

Anybody familiar with this show? Its part of the anxiety riddled long standing American trend of having a panel of judges eliminate contestants till the winner is picked. What is up with this? This one is themed around chefs having surprise ingredients and then having to come up with a scrumptious dish in 20 or 30 minutes. Why are we so winner obsessed? Why do we so willingly participate in the sport? This one is particularly weird because the judges are sometimes harsh with criticism. There's something very retentive going on here.

Let's recall a few basic points. More and more Americans are becoming obese. Food choices are more and more limited to fast food joints because people are spending less and less time actually preparing meals of any kind let alone gourmet dishes. As more Americans stumble into compromised economic positions, food quality is diminishing for more people as well. Let's also recall that hunger in America is rising.