Worst Cooks in America: The chaos of Season 22 begins

Most foodies enjoy watching shows like Top Chef and Tournament of Champions for the chance to watch some of the best chefs in the world. You get to see the best of the best make incredible food and hopefully you can pick up a tip or two while you watch. Then there is Worst Cooks in America.

Worst Cooks in America is the kind of show you watch when you have tried to make one of those elegant dishes on Top Chef. But instead of greatness, you set off the smoke alarm, made a mess of your kitchen and now want to feel better about yourself.

Yes, the cooks on Worst Cooks really are that bad. In fact, for Season 22 Food Network has brought back eight of the all-time worst for a second chance to improve their skills in the kitchen. You know, if they had any skills to begin with.

As we wrote about previously, for the new season series regular Anne Burrell, who usually mentors the Red Team, is joined by Iron Chef Michael Symon. So would Symon be tough and scary like Alton Brown? Or would be be supportive and helpful like Rachael Ray and Carla Hall? Or would he just be completely horrified like Alex Guarnaschelli?

Michael Symon may be the best Worst Cooks in America mentor yet

It turned out that Symon was a combination of all three. He watched in utter disbelief as the eight returning recruits were graded on how much of what they learned the last time they were on the show they had retained. (Spoiler alert: Not that much.)

After that fiasco, but before he and Burrell picked teams, they had the recruits make the dish that originally got them sent home last time.

Now, I’ve never actually seen what complete chaos looks like, but I can only imagine it is very similar to what ensued in Boot Camp. But to his credit Symon handled it pretty well, helping cooks were he could and shaking his head at some of the decisions others made. I mean, cream cheese mixed with pasta? Seriously?

It was once Symon had his Blue Team however that he really showed that he may be perfect for this type of series. He coached his team through a duck challenge and he never once talked down to them and helped them if they were in a pinch. Which he did an awful lot when it came to the flambé method the cooks had to utilize.

In the end, he and Burrell made the decision to not send anyone home in Episode 1, which was nice to see since all the recruits did an okay job on their duck dishes. However, they assured them that next week someone will be going home.

Worst Cooks in America. The perfect show to make you feel better when you burn dinner.

What did you think of the Worst Cooks season premiere Guilty Eaters? Do you think any of the returning cooks have any hope at all? Leave a comment below and let us know or join the conversation on our Twitter or Facebook pages.