What Happens To The Leftover Food On All Of Your Favorite Cooking Shows

Watching talented chefs perform awe-inspiring culinary feats on TV is a national and international pastime, with shows like "Chopped," "The Great British Baking Show," and "MasterChef" shooting up in popularity in recent years. A Harris poll even found that as many as eight in 10 Americans tune in to cooking shows online or on TV (via Marketing Charts).

But as more cooking shows are gaining acclaim, and the audience sees chefs constantly tossing food in the trash (I'm giving you the nod, Gordon Ramsay), one starts to wonder: What happens to all the food that isn't eaten?

Well, the answer is variable, and it depends widely on the show itself as well as the country in which it is filmed. As it turns out, there are tons of altruistic and creative methods for distributing leftovers on cooking shows, from feeding crew and staff to donating to food banks. Unfortunately, though, there is also a ton of waste.

Some shows have made it an ongoing tradition to donate leftover food to specific charities. On Fox's "MasterChef," you might have been dazzled by the "pantry" (kind of like quaintly calling that $2.8 million beach house the "cottage") where the contestants get to pick their ingredients. Of course, we're all curious where that veritable smorgasbord of delights ends up after filming is over.

As it turns out, the crew gets first dibs, Marketplace reported. All leftovers and unused pantry items are then donated to MEND – a support service charity based in LA. MEND (Meet Each Need with Dignity) has a longstanding practice of serving the neediest people in the Valley community of Los Angeles, collecting and distributing clothing, furniture, and food since 1971.

In the UK-based version of the show, the crew takes their leftovers very seriously, according to The Sun. The raw ingredients (think groceries, uncooked meats, etc.) are given to the younger crew who may not be earning as much, and the completed dishes are divvied up amongst the filming crew. Nothing is wasted!

TLC's "Cake Boss" is one show that had a bit of notoriety surrounding their treatment of leftovers. In 2014, according to the LA Times, a charity event supporting Wrigley Field's 100th anniversary featured a monstrous 400-pound cake made by the Cake Boss bakery depicting the famous baseball stadium. Since it had been on display several hours earlier that day at a Cubs game, then transported to the event, the organizers erred on the side of caution and opted to trash the cake (because food poisoning at a charity event is probably bad optics). Not a disagreeable plan on the whole, unless you count the guy who documented the entire dismantling-by-forklift on Reddit.

Trashing leftover food is unfortunately quite common. Most cooking shows can take 12 to 14 hours of filming in a day, which means a lot of food is left out longer than is feasibly safe to eat.

In baking shows, the protocol for leftovers can widely vary. BBC Good Food interviewed chief home economist Faenia Moore of "The Great British Bake Off," who said, "It's important for the bakers to eat what they've slaved over." Each challenger receives a "baker's basket" filled with their delectable creations, and the remainder of the leftovers are gifted to the crew.

In a different vein, on "Cupcake Wars" (which ran from 2009 to 2018), with the towering cupcake creations assembled, more waste was created due to extended periods of time at room temperature. Occasionally, when the cupcakes were made for special events and charity offerings, they would be allowed to keep the elaborate and painstakingly detailed fondant creations. Unfortunately, though, the cake part would need to be remade (again, bacteria and stale edibles are typically frowned upon) and the original confections were dumped. To be fair, however, some of these masterpieces could be defined as art more than pastry, so all is forgiven.

Food Network itself shines a spotlight on the astonishing amount of food excess in America with "The Big Waste." The same stars that host "Chopped," "Iron Chef," and "Worst Cooks in America" put on center stage the sheer, horrifying numbers (note: 37 TONS) of edibles wasted in America each year. They document their discoveries of perfectly edible scavengings from stores and restaurants, and band together to compete amongst themselves with ingredients that would otherwise have been tossed.

This show is a great observation that illuminates how much people and companies throw out. The results from America's food waste are palpable, but seeing the resulting conversation on social media brings some hope to the future of the situation. A lot of people are paying more and more attention to how much they are cooking, with special attention to preservation, using leftovers in new dishes, and using what they already have on hand.