School Of Chocolate – Season 1 [2021]

Don’t expect high stakes in School of Chocolate besides the chocolate itself.

This show is what you get when an actual master chocolatier (Amaury Guichon) gets to teach eight seasoned chefs some of his secrets behind the creation of the most amazing chocolate displays. From hanging in the air, to functional chocolate illusion, and much more.

During the season, a group of students are given a short pastry challenge where each student has four and a half hours to produce something on their own. The winners of that challenge pick teams for the 14-hour challenge the next day, which consists of a major chocolate-only project. The bottom two chefs from the pastry round do not participate in the team challenge but get individual remedial lessons from Guichon.

What I loved about the show is that it focuses on positive growth, while still encouraging competition. Yes, this doesn’t make for the most dramatic cooking show on TV, but it does set a new standard that future competitions should emulate to bring the genre forward into the new decade.

After all, we could all stand for less yelling, more teaching, fewer discouraging failures, and more chocolate pterodactyls.

Netflix’s School of Chocolate twists competition shows in a positive new direction. And who doesn’t want to learn from Amaury Guichon? or watch Dirty Dancing with him? #NoSpoilers.

Should you watch it?

The frenchiest chef of them all is teaching you (and me) the secrets behind the WOW factor in chocolate art. Yes, it’s technically a competition, but I loved the students’ aspect of it. I wish it were more prominent than just in the first two episodes.

Where can I watch it?

You can stream School of Chocolate exclusively on Netflix.