Pro at Cooking

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Pro at Cooking
Format	educational
Created by	Dave (Dawei) Lee, Davin Lengyel
Starring	Dave (Dawei) Lee
Country of origin	Canada
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	4
Production
Running time	Ca. 7 minutes
Broadcast
Original run	21 October 2007 – Present
External links
Official website

Pro at Cooking is an Internet-distributed educational series about cooking made by Dave and Davin Productions. The series is a comedic cooking show hosted by Dave Lee, also known by his Chinese name Dawei. Each episode features a female assistant, who tends to be a victim of chauvinism. The series is filmed in Toronto.

1 Overview
2 Characters
3 Episodes
4 Notes
5 See also
6 References

[edit] Overview

Pro at Cooking episodes follow a simple format. The episodes begin with Dave introducing the topic of the show, then going shopping for fresh ingredients to make it with. This segment features a theme song with lyrics referencing the "fact" that Dave is "pro" at cooking, with "pro" being used in the online sense of "professional" or "very good". To date, there has been no plan outlining releases.

To date, each episode has featured a female assistant. The assistant is the subject of minor sexual humiliation by the host, who often makes signs at the camera showing his (generally sexual) thoughts about the assistant. A popular topic on the official discussion forum^[1] is how attractive each assistant is^[2].

[edit] Characters

The characters on the show seemingly use real identities. The official website^[3] displays links to the MySpace profiles of the actors as well^[4].

Dave (aka Dawei): The host of the show, Dave is portrayed as a cooking genius. He uses the word noob quite often, especially to put down his assistants, who he feels do not share his talent. Dave often uses narcissistic comments when talking.

Donna: Donna appears in the second episode as Dave's assistant. Finding her unsuitable because she has a boyfriend, who called while filming and also because she does not enjoy stirring the pot of sauce, Dave lets her outside for a break, locking her out. Donna seems oblivious to the fact that she has been fired. Donna is a student and has a MySpace profile^[5].

Sarah: Sarah is Dave's assistant in the first episode. Dave dislikes Sarah's attitude and finds that she lacks cooking skill, chopping too slowly and with the wrong sizes. The firing of Sarah causes an argument between Dave and Sarah, who does not believe that she has really been fired and threatens to call her agent. Her MySpace profile is available here.

Casey McKinnon: Casey is the taste tester on the second episode. Dave finds that Casey's taste testing skills are insufficient and she is subsequently fired.

Elyse Mason: Elyse is the assistant from episode 3. Although combative, she is not fired by Dave by the end of the epsiode. Instead she was fired at the beginning of the fourth episode. ^[6]

Grinder Girl: Grinder Girl is introduced at the end of Episode 3. She is dressed in a school girl outfit and serves pepper by means of her oversized pepper mill.

[edit] Episodes

There are currently 4 episodes released to the public, all of which are available for free viewing and download in multiple formats on the official website.

The first episode Dave's Seafood Stir-fry was released on October 21, 2007. The short episode (ca. 7 minutes), provides a somewhat humorous view on cooking, but the meal itself is made seriously. Dave provides sound advice about cooking, mixed with chauvinistic and narcissistic comments. The episode ends with Dave eating his food and proclaiming that he is "Pro at cooking"^[7], then cutting to a scene of him on a street corner and sighing about school girls.

The second episode, Dave's Ass Kicking Alfredo Pasta was released on February 6, 2008. The episode, again ca. 7 minutes, follows the same format as the first one. Dave's assistant, Donna, enters the room and proceeds to remove her jacket. Dave enters a dream-like state where he dreams of her. In the process, he over fills his glass and pours water all over the counter. After Donna receives a call from her boyfriend, Dave is upset and she is subsequently fired due to her attitude. Dave sends her outside for a break, but orders a crew member to lock her out. At the end of the episode, Casey McKinnon is brought in as a taste tester. After giving the pasta a 7 out of 10, citing too much pepper and not enough cheese, Dave takes her food away and informs her she's fired, saying "I thought you were pro at tasting". The episode ends with Dave sitting alone, saying "This is fucking good"^[8].

The third episode, Dave's Pimpin' Pizza was released on March 13, 2008. The episode breaks from the opening of the first two, showing Dave in a suit, in a dark room, at a table with wine and cheese to introduce the theme, 3 courses of pizza. It then returns to the normal format of shopping to for food to the theme song. In this episode, Dave has new cabinets in his kitchen. He has a new female assistant, who he warns must be as cool as him, lest she be fired as easily as his previous assistants. As Dave proceeds with the cooking, he seems to be a lot more lenient towards his new assistant, Elyse Mason. They engage in a few arguments, but she remains on the show. Dave shows some disdain towards vegetarian pizza, the cause of one of the arguments. In the captions showing the ingredients, the pizzas are called "Vegetarian Pizza #1", "Vegetarian Pizza #2" and "Real Pizza". At the end of the episode, Dave eats one of his pizzas, saying "So I have three kinds of pizzas here, two vegetarian and one meat one. I'm going to eat the meat one." Deciding he needs more pepper, a new character is introduced, "Grinder Girl", who brings a very large pepper grinder and puts pepper on his pizza. This is the first time the assistant does not get fired. The episode is available here. ^[9]