One of the fun things about Japanese television is they used to make the losers suffer.

Even in cooking shows.

One of the few Japanese TV shows I miss is the Dotch Cooking Show. “Dotch” is actually “Dotchi” which translates to something like “Which one?”.

The premise of the show was that two comedians would promote a dish that related somehow. For example, they’d pit tacos against spring rolls; or Japanese-style hamburger steak versus American-style hamburgers. Each comedian had a chef to prepare the food and the show spent a lot of time explaining the backgrounds of each secret ingredient.

Also taking part in the show were seven celebrities who had to vote on which dish they preferred. They voted by literally choosing sides. The comedians took turns promoting their dish and trying to persuade the celebrity guests to choose them.

The first choice happened after the dishes were announced. The second choice occurred after a tasting of one of the ingredients. Along the way the comedians would taste ingredients and describe, in dramatic terms, how it was the most delicious thing they’d ever tasted.

The final choice came after the dishes were complete. The comedians made a final pitch and the celebrities participated a secret vote.

After the votes were counted, the celebrities who voted for the winning dish got to eat the dish they chose. The losers got to watch while the winners ate but otherwise got nothing.

To see an example, English subtitle included, with rice porridge versus rice balls, click this link.

I watched this show every chance I got and was kind of sad when it abruptly disappeared.

Now my favorite food related show is a contest where the losers pay for the meal. But that’s fodder for a future post.