TV Binge: Million Pound Menu (Season 2, 2019)

Million Pound Menu (Season 2, 2019)

Host: Fred Sirieix

Million Pound Menu is currently in its second season. Its main concept is that various restaurants concepts or food trucks or simply developing ideas are brought in to compete for a chance to run a pop-up restaurant for a few days to test their idea and functionality to impress several investors and hopefully end up getting an offer to invest and partner with them to take the next step.

While I can’t remember season 1 really well, Season 2 is structured where the first step is to put three restaurants against each other to cook the four investors of the panel their most popular/outstanding dish and to share their vision and concept for their restaurant as well as lay out their deal. The investors have to come to a consensus on one restaurant team who progresses to the next step to get a chance at the pop-up restaurant. In that process, investors who aren’t interested can drop out. Day 1 of the pop up restaurant is a soft launch dinner service where its open to public and the investors dine together to try out the menu and service. If they are satisfied, they progress to the next morning to discuss their business plans. If they pass this part, its the final stage of Day 2 lunch service at full price where the investors come back separately to dine alone and understand how the public feels about the concept and the food. At the end of Day 2, the investors have until 7pm to return if they want to offer them an investment.

Million Pound Menu is only 8 episodes long and it works to its favor because it is about investments and the progress of the meals and such. The show is edited fairly well to capture those moments in the services where the issues occur or the highlights of the discussions between the restaurant owners and the investors regardless of which meeting it is. There’s always that part of having the reason of why an investor backs out when they do. Its a decent show to see whether its the different concepts of restaurants but also gives the mentality behind investments as well as business plans and what different investors view a different path for some of these restaurants. What’s nice here (different from say shows like product-based investment shows like Dragon’s Den/Shark Tank), the investors can offer a different deal and modify the amount they plan on investing. There’s a certain level of flexibility there.

While I think that most of the investors are pretty intriguing to watch, the host Fred Sirieux is also quite knowledgeable but has an element of being over enthusiastic. It might his accent or how its shot that makes him that way. He does balance a lot of it well as he does help out the different restaurant owners and gives them advice when he sees things going wrong. However, the hosting is sometimes a little over the top for my liking. Obviously not enough to stop watching, but its something to point out. There are some neat restaurants presented here and its always a bet on whether the investors do end up coming back or not. Its a fun show and its about restaurant investment which is pretty interesting in general.

TV Binge: The Big Family Cooking Showdown (Season 2, 2018)

You can find the TV Binge for previous season below:

Season 1

The Big Family Cooking Showdown (Season 2, 2018)

Judges: Tommy Banks & Angellica Bell

If you had been following The Big Family Cooking Showdown, you would already know that they had announced a lot of changes in Season 2 prior to its airing. I’m not quite sure if it aired before it became a Netflix Original or not, but I believe its a BBC 2 show. Either way, other than just having the judges change, the show took away its hosts and let the judges take over that job as well. The structure of the competition has also changed. It still has some of the same challenges. This season, it separates into two parts essentially. The first 5 episodes is for two group of 4 families, where they end up having 2 families going into the play-offs, then the next 5 episodes is the second two groups of 4 families to fight for the two spots to the play-offs. Then the remaining is playoffs for the 4 families with 1 family eliminated, 1 family getting fast-track to the finals and the next last two fighting for the last finals spot.

In terms of challenge, the 10 pound challenge remains as the kick-off challenge but with the added surprise element of doing the shopping on the spot and having to do their calculations and then if over, to give up whichever items. The first day wraps up with a known challenge of national dishes with a twist. After that, one family is eliminated. Day 2 has the 3 families in their next challenge where they choose one member to bake a dessert that they can choose the difficulty level which leads to a second challenge pre-known to make a two course meal (main dish and dessert). The playoffs are also structured over 2 days with the first having one spontaneous challenge called the pick ‘n mix challenge where the judges have one set ingredient and one member of each family chooses an ingredient from what is provided and they have to incorporate all the  ingredients into their dish with a minimal selection of spices, etc and wraps up the day with an indulgent treat meal (known in advance). There are following challenges of zero-waste (or as close to it as possible) meals and then the finale is essentially the same challenges as season one with a cooking spontaneous challenge followed by a 3 course meal.

After a huge description, we can go and break it down a little. Let’s start with the host/judges. Tommy Banks and Angellica Bell are really fun to watch. They work together well to create a nice dynamic. They have some puns and in general are a warmer experience and share a good knowledge of food and cooking throughout. They add in little discussions between and it makes for a nice idea of where they stand. As for the candidates, this is where the colors are. Its in the families that join who bring in the playfulness and spontaneous elements. Each of the families of 3 bring a different style and cooking mentality and its because of this and it brings in a lot of fun little moments. What works better in Season 2 is making it more focused on 4 families each time instead of doing them 2 families at a time like in the first season.

In any cooking competition, its all about the challenges and the food. Its a good idea to put each day of the challenge with two of them where one is spontaneous and one is known before. Its a good bit to see which family works well even without practice and shows off some true creativity and skill. The spontaneous challenges are the ones that bring a lot more interesting elements to the competition. Its the ones that truly have that surprise factor also and have more issues that come up and chaos. Let’s be honest that perfect shows aren’t fun to watch and instead the chaos and overcoming those obstacles in whatever way is usually an enjoyable bit to see. Nothing works like a little bit of drama, right? In that sense, I think that might be where I’ve pinpointed the bits that don’t work so well here as the show at times feels a little bland. It might have to be that some parts, go by too long and then some go too fast and then there is a balance that sometimes isn’t balanced properly to make the show completely bingeworthy. Why I say that is that some food competitions like Zumbo’s Just Desserts, I can go back and watch it over and over again knowing the results but for The Big Family Cooking Showdown, I was lukewarm with Season 1 and didn’t rewatch it and then this Season 2 although I have some families that I really liked and the elements technically all work together, something never made me want to watch more than an episode or two and stop, nor do I have that urge to go back and watch it again. There’s something missing and I can’t quite pinpoint what it is. Perhaps its the same home footages of the families that repeat itself over and over again as well. Its definitely heading in the right direction though. If Season 3 happens, I’m hoping that there are some additional changes to make it even better.

Have you seen The Big Family Cooking Showdown?

TV Binge: The Big Family Cooking Showdown (Season 1, 2017)

I love watching cooking shows. However, I don’t have actual TV so the only chance is when I visit someone else’s house and it happens to be playing. It does make it a very incomplete experience. Of course, there is the free streaming from one of the national TV channels which holds the episode for a week which is hard to remember sometimes to catch it every once in a while. When The Big Family Cooking Showdown appeared on Netflix, I went right ahead and started watching it. The premise behind it is pretty fun.

Let’s check it out!

The Big Family Cooking Showdown (Season 1, 2017)

Hosts: Zoe Ball & Nadiya Hussain

Judges: Rosemary Shrager & Giorgio Locatelli

Competitive food show celebrating the families who make ordinary food extraordinary, presented by Zoe Ball and Nadiya Hussain. – IMDB

The Big Family Cooking Showdown has a decent setup. It shows off families going head to head against each other for the title of the best family chefs. They pick their own teams of three to work together and create these dishes. In the first few episodes, it is two teams and whoever wins will head into the semi-finals. They have three rounds for this cooking event which isn’t live and loses the cooking on the spot as the rounds to get them into the semi-final has been given to them in advance so that they can prepare carefully. It leaves a touch of spontaneity there even if we don’t know what they are doing. Suffice to say, it does show the viewers which team has better time management than others and how they deal in stress as things usually don’t work out the way they would in your own kitchen. The first part when two teams go against each other is in three parts with three challenges: the 10 pound challenge, Home Visits Challenge and Impress Your Neighbors Challenge. The semi-finals have the remaining teams groups in 3 teams against each other for three rounds also:  What’s in the Fridge, Perfect Puddings and Nation’s Favorite With a Twist. And then the final features a continuous making of a three course meal.

The setup of the competition is pretty nice. The families are slightly diverse with their cultures and heritage adding a nice touch to each of these plates. The teams work out really well against each other. The first part has a nice bit of giving them time to prepare in advance and it really is up to them to have structured a plan with the time constraints and factoring in any stress or changes. At the same time, it also poses that question of losing that spontaneity that teams put on the spot would have. However, the challenges in the first rounds are pretty neat as they focus on family issues starting off with how much food can you make with a constrained budget. The Home Visit gives us a nice snippet of seeing the family in their own environment which helps minimize the accidents that could happen while the final round is impress your neighbors so its making the foods that go above and beyond but dishes that they are proud of in a three course meal. The structure here works because of these themes being more family-oriented. The spontaneity factor is fixed in the semi-final when their first and second challenge are unknown. The first tests their ability to be flexible with what is available to them and the second being how good they can work together and follow instructions while delegating the tasks that each member is better at. While the show does have a lot of pre-preparation, the segments do feel very well-done to make sure that it highlights the team and gives them time to improve on their menus and skills.

The hosts of the show are Zoe Ball and Nadiya Hussain. They are quite enthusiastic and often joke about their love for eating but their lack of knowledge on actual cooking which brings out their friendliness to be there. Where they lack the knowledge, they can build with their balance to the show’s charisma as they communicate with the families and introduce the rules of each part. The judges for this show are Giorgio Locatelli and Rosemary Schrager, who I’ve never heard of before. However, they obviously do have their knowledge of food and cooking which is undeniable. One thing that does fall apart is their criticism is slightly lacking in some parts where it becomes a little repetitive in the way they compliment or dislike certain foods. It is here that the show nearing the end seems to fall a little flat.

Overall, The Big Family Cooking Showdown is pretty enjoyable because the families’ diversity in their cooking and dishes mixed into their creativity. The hosts are very enjoyable to watch although the judges are qualified but lack the charisma in their criticism to make it seem more engaging.

TV Binge: Sherlock (Season 3)

I’m not sure 3 episodes of 80-ish minutes is called binging TV but I have no idea why I didn’t make time to watch Sherlock sooner.  I guess its because I know its going to be another 2 years before the next season comes out.

Last week, I got around to seeing Season 3 of BBC’s Sherlock.

Right when I was just thinking how awesome Season 1 and 2 was and how really, other than Sherlock coming back to life, how could they top that, they did it.

I officially declare that Benedict Cumberbatch is THE BEST Sherlock Holmes EVER! I just love him so much.  That guy can act the pants off at being Sherlock.  He adds this hilarious (and insensitive) touch to him.

Plus, they kind of trick the audience because we never really know whether to believe how he survived jumping off a building.  All the theories was so fun to watch.

And, just Martin Freeman being his partner has this amazing chemistry between the two. Its this unspoken thing.  The whole reveal that Sherlock does to “surprise” Watson is hilarious!  He’s so oblivious of just how crazy this is for everyone else. And Watson’s reactions were priceless…

Its only 3 episodes, about 80 minutes each more or less.  The first brings Sherlock back and kind of links him back into the life of John Watson.  The next episode jumps into the whole John Watson getting married and knowing this Mary Morstan character a little more.  Let me tell you, she does mesh very well because she understands both Watson and Sherlock’s character really well and compliment both of them, which is really awesome.

During this whole time, the cases revolve a big story with a final end game that kind of really takes things into perspective and the finale of Season 3 with a particular character who is manipulative and villainous Charles Augustus Magnussen who has a hold of everyone’s secrets in an underground vault and he reveals a huge secret.  This character is played by Lars Mikkelsen.  I’ve never seen this man in anything else but he was out of control and just OMG! Seriously, thats all I have to say.  When I watched this guy on screen, he made me all psyched out because he was so good at being a villain.

Aside from the villains, a lot of side characters had a lot more place and Sherlock and Mycroft’s family comes into play, making them more humanly 😉 I loved how Molly gets a little more screen time and in somewhat of a awkward way but it works for her character.

Sherlock Season 3 rocked my world.  I don’t believe that anyone can be better at being Sherlock than Benedict Cumberbatch and no one can have a better chemistry in this dream team than him with Martin Freeman’s John Watson.  I totally loved it! 🙂

Now, the wait for 2016 and Season 4!

Have you seen the BBC Sherlock? What do you think of Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock and/or Martin Freeman’s John Watson? Which secondary character do you like the most?

North & South (TV mini-series 2004)

Kicking off the first recommendation is from Ruth at Flixchatter who introduced me not only to the handsome and charming Richard Armitage.  You should click on the link for her up there because she did a fabulous post on him as a birthday tribute 😉 She also suggested for me to check out North & South.  Luckily I had already put it in on my list in Netflix and gave it a watch.  I thought it would be longer but this 4 episode TV mini series took me one evening to finish.  Lets check it out! 🙂

Cast: Daniela Denby-Ashe, Richard Armitage, Tim Pigott-Smith, Sinead Cusack, Brendan Coyle, Anna Maxwell Martin

North and South is a four part adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell’s love story of Margaret Hale, a middle class southerner who is forced to move to the northern town of Milton.- IMDB

Just to put it out there first, I’ve never read the Elizabeth Gaskell novel but its in my to-read after I saw this.  Although, I’m not exactly sure you need it to appreciate this.

North & South is easily one of the best TV mini-series I’ve watched.  The story was great and the characters was awesome.  It reminded me a bit of  Pride and Prejudice actually.  It had sweeping music and the atmosphere was fabulous.  Thats BBC, right? The scenes were done so well, starting with the cotton flying around as Margaret discovers who this Mr. Thornton is.

I always love to talk about the characters and Margaret Hale, played by Daniela Denby-Ashe threw me a bit off on the choice of her when the series first started.  She has this very simple-minded nature and very easily to form her opinions, which does change as the series goes on, especially when dealing with Mr. Thornton.  However, we always know that her intentions are always good, just sometimes when she doesn’t know the whole situation, maybe its not exactly as she thought it was. This is what makes conflict and interaction, right? She reflected her character as she should to match the other more intense characters.

This leads us to who she’s *almost* always against and uses harsh words with, Mr. Thornton, played by Richard Armitage. Okay, give me a moment to breathe, ok? I had the hardest time not giggling searching up a picture to use for this.  That man up there is just too handsome, charming, and especially brooding in North & South as Mr. Thornton. Mr. Thornton may be a bit easily frustrated but you can see in his eyes, his admiration for Margaret and most of the time, I felt like he wanted her to understand him but it was like she never did and he would get hurt and then he’d become defensive.  The chemistry  he had with Magaret Hale was just awesome.  If not, the best I’ve ever seen.  I love you, Richard Armitage 🙂

Aside from the main characters, the rest of the cast was equally great in supporting the story.  Sinead Cusack who played Mr. Thornton’s mother was so great at being the protective mother who wanted tot he best for her son and felt that no one truly deserved him in a way.  The confidence and the care but yet her strong nature towards upholding his business and trying hard to help him out was all wrapped up in her solid performance.  Another character very much worthy of mention was Brendan Coyle as the leader of the union who carries out the strike for a better tomorrow for the cotton factory workers to get more benefits.  He made a lot of the situations very intense.

Overall, North & South was just great! I totally recommend it and honestly, I wanted to just say that everything was awesome and go see it and end it there, but I figured that would be too short 😉 Its romantic, Richard Armitage is handsome, the chemistry is great and there’s some intense situations also plus it has solid performances from everyone in the cast.  Its a fantastic mini-series which only takes 4 hours of your life.

A MEGA HUGE THANK YOU to Ruth for  urging me to watch this because it was just amazing 🙂 Remember to go check out her absolutely fun blog!

Have you seen North & South? What do you think of Richard Armitage? Are there any TV mini-series that you enjoy?

Christmas, Boxing Day and Family Times!

I finally forced myself to sit down and write an actual post that can go up on the weekend on normal times.  As you already have noticed, Tranquil Dreams has been a bit off schedule.  Holidays tend to do that and I take the advantage to really rest up and recharge a bit, although work has suddenly become not so much of that as I’ll be the only one without the week off due to responsibilities.  Still, life is life and I can’t lose my job.

Aside from that, Netflix decided a week or so ago that January 1st would be the expiry day of BBC series Robin Hood so I’ve been working hard (and sleeping less) to try to finish all 3 seasons.

Of course, work or TV series doesn’t stop me from still enjoying the holidays and spending time with family. If you missed my Christmas Eve celebrations, you can find it right HERE!

Christmas was special this year because my mom invited two of her very good friends and I didn’t only get to invite my boyfriend but also his parents.  I love them to bits and they are awesome so spending Christmas with them makes me so much happier also!

Full of food!

So, what do we have here? Fruit salad, Vegetable Salad, Lamb, Shepherd’s Pie, Steamed Salmon, Spaghetti Squash (recipe HERE) and veggie stir-fry. Mega delicious, my friends!

Our dessert!

And then for dessert, my mom made her walnut cake and her friends brought homemade peanut-filled glutinous rice balls.  So yummy! 🙂

How about some of my decorations?

Ribbons and my Grade 1 Christmas decoration

 

Christmas Cactus in full bloom

My little Christmas tree and some real Christmas cards (other our from previous years)

Yeah, my mom likes to use decoy.  We used to have fake boxes to pose as presents when we had a huge Christmas tree.  Now we can’t do that so we just put Christmas cards.

Christmas group picture! 🙂

Lovely picture, I’d say! 🙂

So what happens after Christmas? Thats right! 1pm, December 26th is my date with Boxing Day! I went by myself to Walmart and some clothes shops and then my friend managed to get off work early so he joined me and we did our Future Shop, Best Buy, Adidas and Puma outlet! I did some other shopping but I’ll reveal that later on 😉 It has a bit to do with my 2014 announcements which I’ve been not telling anyone.  I did Target and Michaels the day after.  Lets check out a part of what I got! 🙂

Puma and Adidas shoes!

My casual walking shoes broke and leak when it rains so it was a matter time before I got a new pair and at 50% off for Adidas (on the right) and 60% off for Puma (on the left), these two pairs cost me $60 or something.  I also got a workout tank top at Puma and a sweater for my boyfriend that I don’t have here.

Movies!

And then, these are my movie finds! I think I need a bigger shelf but looking at this, I’m rather happy with myself because now I can catch up with 2013 movies! This is the End was a hesitating one but then Dave at ccpopculture put it on his Top 20 HERE! My review will be coming up soon! I wanted to get Side Effects but it was sold out EVERYWHERE!

Aside from shoes and movies, I managed to get some dress pants and sweaters and a new perfume called DREAMS! 😉 They just needed to add Tranquil in front..haha! And that would probably smell like nothing and be called water.

And I finally cracked open my Limited Edition Oreos in the flavor of Gingerbread!

Gingerbread Oreos

I officially declare these my FAVORITE oreos! I’m sorry Golden Oreos, you need to scoot aside because I think I’ll stock up another 2 packs and eat them “slowly”.

While I binge TV and eat oreos (and fruits), my cat was being her princess…

My cat sleeping on me and holding down one of my arms

Can you see her sleeping?

Oh yeah, I caught this at 4am the other night when I woke up because my cat somehow got between the covers and stuck her paw in my face.  The use of my nightlight at 4am when I needed to catch a picture with my phone.  LOL!

How was your Christmas? Any Boxing Day shopping? Did you go out and battle some people for amazing deals? Have you binge watched any TV series? Whats some more 2013 must-see movies?

Sickness and Catching Up with Sleep (and TV)!

Since I missed my personal post on Sunday because I was sick to death coughing and sneezing all day. I feel like the blog’s been a bit empty, maybe its a good time to share a bit about what has been going on.

For the first time in forever, I took 2 days off of work not for vacation but for sick leave.  Right in between the deadline which I technically don’t have a day to spare.  The stress level is skyrocketing but yesterday, I went on the annoying wait and hunt for the doctor at the walk-in clinic that took me 6 hours to finally get treated from lining up 2 hours in the morning to get my appointment to waiting for the appointment and then sitting at the clinic waiting for the doctor to get in after she was an hour late to arrive.  Oh the world of free healthcare in Canada or maybe its just Quebec’s problem.  Either way, the final diagnosis was that I had an ear infection.  I was sent home with ear drops and antibiotics. YAY! First step to the road of recovery, right? I was disappointed because I ended up missing the Fantasia Fest movie that I wanted to go see, but I was way too sick to go and I shouldn’t go around infecting others. *pats myself on the back*

I was expecting that I would be able to go back to work yesterday but when I woke up, dizziness was all I felt.  I was so tired from those antibiotics fighting its battle or whatever its doing in there, that I had to just sleep.  I called the office with my hoarse and almost vanishing voice and told my coworker that I wouldn’t be able to make it but that I will try to go in to pick up some work if I was feeling a bit better. I did end up eventually doing that after getting 3 more hours of sleep.

Other than getting an immense amount of sleep that both my mom and boyfriend has agreed that I need and probably deserve after the roller coaster of emotions of a weekend (that probably didn’t help my healing from this virus or cold or whatever you would like to call it). I did manage to catch up on TV series.

First up, I caught up with the 2 episodes of Whose Line Is It Anyways? I thought it was pretty good.  Then, I started watching Under the Dome and caught up with the past 4 or 5 episodes.  My mind is a blank as to which one they are at right now but its actually pretty awesome so far.  I really like it. I know a lot of the cast from various movies and TV shows and I’m really interested in seeing how it turns out.

I also started Sherlock from BBC.  I’ve been meaning to watch it for a while and haven’t found the time to.  These are crazy long episodes compared to normal so I’m still watching Season 1. Benedict Cumberbatch is pretty awesome. The guy who plays John is an actor I love as well 🙂

Its probably been one of the most tiring and crazy weekends in ages but at least, things are starting to look up.  I can’t wait to be well and able to talk again like myself again! In the meantime, its a good opportunity to reset some good sleeping habits! 🙂

I have about 400 emails to catch up with and I will tend to that tonight! 🙂 Things should get back to normal soon once I find the energy to write up reviews and figure out the photo challenge 😉

Stay healthy everyone!

What TV series  have you been watching or catching up with?