Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
‘Great (Canadian) Chocolate Showdown’
Series adds Canuck flavor to CW lineup
Is chocolate good for you? Hard to say, given all the conflicting reports about whether chocolate — specifically, dark chocolate with a high cocoa content — is a snack rich in cocoa flavonols (antioxidants) or in extra calories/fat/ sugar.
It all comes down to moderation, but at least we can agree that chocolate is a rather delicious mood booster. Still, if your New Year’s resolution is to trim down, you might opt to get your chocolate fix by watching it on TV instead.
On Saturday, Jan. 29, “Great Chocolate Showdown” premieres on CW. The eight-part dessert competition pits 10 home bakers against each other in a series of challenges that put their chocolate making, baking and sculpting skills to the test.
Renowned chocolatiers and food experts will judge the creations to determine who is eliminated each week, and the ultimate winner gets a grand prize of CA$50,000. Yes, you read that right, Canadian dollars.
Remember “Fridge Wars”? That show, which challenged chefs to create a meal from items found in a family’s refrigerator, was produced by Canada’s national public broadcaster, CBC, and was picked up by CW for its summer 2020 lineup. It isn’t the only Canadian import to have found a stateside home on CW, as there’s been “Coroner,” “Burden of Truth” and now “Great Chocolate Showdown,” which was a top-10 hit for its original broadcaster, Food Network Canada. (Two seasons have already aired up north.)
Fittingly for a show that has crossed borders, “Great Chocolate Showdown” features three judges that have some international connections.
There’s Vancouver-based pastry chef and chocolatier Steve Hodge, who attended the California School of Culinary Arts and apprenticed at Wolfgang Puck Catering before working overseas in England and eventually returning home to open a shop of his own; Cynthia Stroud, a (now multi-award-winning) self-taught baker who is now the official cake supplier to The BRIT Awards and among the top 10 wedding cake designers in the United Kingdom (per Brides Magazine); and “Canada’s baking sweetheart” Anna Olson, who was actually born in Atlanta but was raised in Toronto.
After working in the United States, Olson moved to Ontario’s Niagara Region with her husband, chef Michael Olson, and has since become a household name through shows such as “Fresh with Anna Olson” and her “Oh Yum with Anna Olson” YouTube Channel. She also boasts the bestselling cookbook “Baking Day with Anna Olson.”