Arts Review
Review - Chef: Come Dine With Us
Forget MasterChef, My Kitchen Rules, Hells Kitchen, Iron Chef, and whatever other cooking shows you might have been trawling through for amusement. Without even realising it, all of them have subconsciously been aiming for the kind of entertainment value that Chef: Come Dine With US! has. It uses the same competitive cooking plotline – but it’s done in a way of K-Pop meets Gameshow.
A commentator has said that “contemporary Korean pop culture is built on … transnational flows … taking place across, beyond, and outside national and institutional boundaries” (Eun-Young Jung 2009).
That’s what Chef: Come Dine With Us! brings to the stage – a fantastic show that is accessible to absolutely anyone in the audience, transcending language, culture, and age. In the same way you could put Mr. Bean up on an a screen in an airplane full of people from across the world, and they’d all be able to enjoy it – take anyone with you to see this.
It has everything. Well, you know – a LOT of the things. The set that transported me into the type of basement cooking schools I’ve seen footage of in France, and the majority of it was actively moved around the stage for various scenes. The whole cast was ‘all singing & all dancing’, but some of them also beat boxed and break danced like you wouldn’t believe. Their slapstick comedy is all perfectly timed, the hand puppetry under a UV lightshow comes completely out of left field and delightfully surprises, and the majority of the audience is engaged in what is, essentially, one huge pillow fight.
Right from the start, you can tell this is a show the audience is going to have to engage with, whether they like it or not. But like it, they do! Some shows aim specifically for the audience member trying to avoid eye contact, and then throw them on the altar of the entertainment-at-any-cost Gods. But these guys seem to have a knack for picking the right person out of a crowd; they are all given positions of utmost respect once they’re on the stage, and each receives a gift before they leave it. This complete appreciation for the plight of people unexpectedly thrust in the spotlight pays them back in spades, with increasingly hammy volunteers. I don’t remember laughing so much at a show in a long time – and looking around at a full auditorium of laughing faces on a Saturday night is a wonderful thing.
Finally, If you can, try and sit in front of a row of kids in the audience. Their bursts of sheer joy and amusement will add to your own throughout the whole 75 minutes. When you hear kids laughing like that, it gives you even more warm fuzzies, and you’re so grateful to the people who caused it – because you feel hopeful and optimistic that they’ve set the next generation on a path that will embrace the Arts.
By Tanya Green