Cynthia L. Herzog 
Netflix’s wide variety of streamable content that doesn’t rely on a loyal audience to catch new episodes every week allows for creative flexibility that regular TV doesn’t always have. When it comes to niche competition shows, Netflix boasts its wide range of cooking and baking competitions, but also provides a platform for other talented performers to compete and show off their skills.
Glassblowing, baking, sculpting, forging, and even engineering have their chance to shine in these ten excellent competitions, most a well-crafted single season of eight to ten episodes, perfect for a lazy afternoon or when it’s too hard to choose something to watch.
‘Soufflé’
Soufflé is a season-long glassblowing contest for anyone who has ever wondered about the artistry and skill required to mold molten glass into gravity-defying shapes. In it, artists compete in a series of challenges for technical skill, thematic presence, artistic voice, and utility for the chance to showcase their work to the masses in the world’s largest hot shop, built just for show.
Plagued by broken glass and expectations, Soufflé shows every bit of blood, sweat and tears that makes everything from tableware to room-sized sculpture installations. Netflix renewed it for a single holiday special with familiar faces sent back to the competition.
“Pastry Impossible”
Pay homage to the Food Network Challenge In many ways, Cooking not possible The season-long competition pits teams of “bakers,” bakers, and confectioners against decorated engineers to create edible, functional works of art. From cake boats to bridges to miniature skyscrapers, Cooking not possible brings unique challenges to the busy arena of cake competitions. Bakers must consider the physics of their creations and engineers must build with the brittle, doughy nature of edible materials.
Cooking not possible is equally entertaining and educational. Members of each team bring wildly different skills to the table, and along the way, new food creations combine to craft edible epoxy and ramen chipboard.
‘Is this piece of cake?’
On the surface, It’s a piece of cake ? also looks little different from the myriad of other cooking contests with an intense emphasis on the artistic skill of the baker to be incredibly detail-oriented in decoration. The show asks bakers and pastry chefs to replicate everyday objects like suitcases, purses and shoes, as well as other foods like tacos and steaks with meticulous icing and coloring.
It’s a piece of cake ? also takes the unique approach of not eliminating competitors and having them compete in later rounds. Even watching the creations come together, it’s hard to tell which creation is, in fact, a cake. It’s a testament to the skill of every baker involved in the show’s single season.
‘Nailed it!’
Whether It’s a piece of cake ? surrounds himself with experts in their field to test their attention to detail, Nailed it! brings together average, everyday newbies to recreate the track of the day, more often than not with hilarious results. Nailed it! is a rare boon for Netflix, with six seasons and spinoffs filled with spectacular failures.
Nailed it! celebrates the mess of the kitchen and the imperfections when creating art, making the best of a sticky situation and remembering to have fun. Where most cable contest shows are high-stress, high drama, and often heavily criticized, this cooking contest takes a refreshingly different approach.
“Chocolate School”
Chocolate School condenses the great diversity of a confectionery competition with the many creative and surprising uses of chocolate. An incredibly versatile ingredient, chocolate can be as simple as a cake flavor or the fundamental structure of sculptures with a multitude of textures and flavor variations. All are explored in Chocolate School.
More than a contest Chocolate School seeks to educate artists who are already masters of their craft, asking them to think outside the conventional mold of chocolate and beyond. With a professional chocolatier at the helm, the show pushes one of the most popular baking ingredients to its limits.
“Crazy Delicious”
The premise is simple: take an average food item and recreate it from the most random ingredients contestants can think of, like a smoked ham that’s actually a watermelon. Crazy Delicious stands out for its Wonka-esque scene and cuisine, pushing the chefs’ creativity to the limit to use the most extravagant ingredients beyond the standard cake competition.
Best of all, each piece isn’t terribly difficult to try at home while enjoying the show, unlike towering cakes and perfectly textured mice and pastries. The show also introduces new contestants each episode instead of whittling down a standard set of twelve or more.
‘Glow up’
Glow up pushes the versatility and creativity behind makeup design and artistry to its limits, leading aspiring makeup artists to compete with artistry on the medium of human skin. With the prize more than bragging rights and money, artists have the opportunity to toss their hats into the ring of some of the biggest brands and names in fashion.
Each trick varies greatly from more traditional professional makeup to tricks that really let creativity shine with twists requiring unorthodox makeup materials, specific eras to emulate and pay homage to, and a dazzling spectacle. The show has three seasons.
Putting seven welders and metal sculptors against each other, metal workshop masters is a competition aimed at developing the skills of each artist by cutting, molding and welding sheets of metal into functional works of art and sculptures. The first round already sees competitors start off on a rough foundation, having to disassemble and discard previously constructed parts and start over, a unique challenge for competition shows.
metal workshop masters brings another art not often seen on TV to Netflix’s massive platform. With just seven contestants and six episodes, the competition delves into the labor intensive and thoughtful that comes with working with steel and other metals as a medium.
“The Great Flower Fight”
How to make a flower contest? By recruiting 20 florists, sculptors, artists and landscapers to build and plant massive garden pieces: they are essentially living sculptures. The great flower fight gives a platform for the surprising stress and planning that comes with creating towering floral art, having to manage incredibly delicate support and keep it all alive.
The first challenge takes fifteen hours to plant, build, draw, and pack dirt, moss, and flowers into chicken wire frames. Portable arrangements, edible thrones, and huge creatures are just a few steps away, and it only gets better from there.
“The great family culinary confrontation”
Network television and streaming services are no strangers to cooking competitions, usually pitting lone chefs against each other or split between two teams. by Netflix The great family culinary confrontation takes a different approach, bringing together sixteen families to prepare home-cooked meals with their traditions and culinary quirks.
The aim of the competition is above all to have fun and to cook with soul, not the hectic craze of professional restaurant kitchens. Cooperative, multi-generational teams come together on the show’s set and in their own homes, doing their best for the grand prize.
