Just to remind you that this blog is not just about politics, but will also contain commentary and humor from time to time. For example, did you hear the one about Hillary Clinton giving the keynote address at a conference on cyber security? Unfortunately that’s not a joke. The woman with the bathtub server containing Top Secret information that was undoubtedly hacked by Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and most likely Australia, U.K., France, Italy and any reasonably competent teenage hacker in his parents basement will be speaking on cyber security. Maybe this is a manifestation of one of my favorite sayings: No one is completely worthless, they can always serve as a bad example!

Now for the real reason for this rant — cooking competition shows. I enjoy and watch a lot of shows on the Food Network and the Cooking Channel. I particularly enjoy Iron Chef America, Beat Bobby Flay, Chopped and Guy’s Grocery Games. I learn a lot of things and pick up a lot of good tips. My problem is with the subjectivity of the judging. Frequently you will hear judges saying that something needs salt or something is too salty, while another judge will say the salt level is perfect. Similarly one judge will say something needs more heat while another says it’s too hot. (More on that in a moment.)

Also there seems to be an assumption that beef or lamb can only be medium rare to be cooked properly and anything else is considered to be improperly cooked. I personally like my steak medium rare to medium, but I know people who like to just pass it over the flames for really rare and have an ex who wanted it well done.

To get back to the spice level discussion, one of my twin sons has some interesting pepper plants. He has jalapeños and the ghost pepper, the Carolina reeper and one that is hotter than that. Just so you know, jalapeños rate between 4000 and 6000 on the Scoville heat scale. The ghost pepper comes in at 1 million on the scale. The Carolina reaper rates 2.2 million on that scale and the other one comes in at 2.3 million. The reason I am talking about this is that recently I saw an episode of Guy’ Grocery Games where the theme was spicy and they had to use the Carolina reeper. The first judge took one small bite of the dish and immediately ran over to a tub of milk with a straw and started sucking down as much as he could. The next judge thought it wasn’t too hot.

My point is that the judging is way too subjective. I understand that this dish doesn’t taste good or the dish didn’t come together, but individual preferences for salt or spice shouldn’t control. I personally think Alex Guarnascelli must have high blood pressure because almost nothing has enough salt for her.

If I was ever on one of these shows, I would go up to the judges station and put salt, pepper and hot sauce so they could adjust to their individual preference. People, there’s a reason that when you go to a restaurant that salt and pepper and maybe hot sauce or steak sauce is on the table because different people have different preferences. There’s a reason you’re asked how you would like your steak or burger cooked.