Idea for a reality cooking show

[spinbaby]

Contestants prepare dinner using only the equipment found in a random vacation rental and ingredients from a nearby convenience store.

I’ve been doing it all week. Lots of grilled cheese and beer. Pre-made fruit cups to ward off scurvy.

[BigmanPigman]

1. Tony Bourdain did that in France during No Reservations.

He invited guests from the Provence area to have dinner at a place he was renting for the week. When he had finally bought all of the ingredients for his planned meal he couldn't figure out how to get the stove/oven to work and the knife in the kitchen wouldn't even cut through the baguette. He was so pissed off!

[spinbaby]

2. Stove works

But it’s one of those flat cooktops that heats slowly and has a baffling control system. Dishwasher only cleans on the bottom rack. Knives were apparently gnawed on by sharks. Toaster burns on one side of one slot. Pot lids belong to some other pots. Non-stick pans are old enough to have become stick pans. I love being on vacation, but I miss my kitchen.

[BigmanPigman]

4. If someone stayed at my place they would go nuts...

I have all sorts of things in my kitchen and some only work at certain things. Like my veg peelers, I have 4 of them and each has its specialty. Some things are from my grandparents and are very old and out of date but still work (if you can figure out what it is supposed to be used for). I have an old manual can opener that looks like it is used by surgeons to open a chest.

[spinbaby]

5. If it's your own, it's different

We all get used to the idiosyncrasies of our own kitchen. In a kitchen that must be used by new people every week, stuff should be standard and it should work.

[Phentex]

3. That's funny...

We don't go on vacation much anymore but we stayed in an airbnb a year ago when visiting my son out of state. That kitchen was very well stocked which surprised me. I remember old beach vacations where we wondered why there wasn't a baking sheet or a colander.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

6. My fav... horrible frying pans with Teflon peeling off.