NEW YORK (AP) — Padma Lakshmi is back in the kitchen with a knives-out cooking competition, and this time the stakes are higher — for the contestants and for her.
The former host of Bravo's “Top Chef” lands on network prime time hosting and judging the CBS show “America's Culinary Cup,” which boasts the largest cash prize in culinary television history — $1 million.
“This is about my love and appreciation and respect for chefs, especially after what
the restaurant industry in this country and everywhere has gone through after COVID-19,” she says.
The network has given the show the coveted spot after “Survivor” on Wednesdays. It launches Wednesday and episodes also stream on Paramount+.
Whereas “Top Chef” pitted up-and-comers against each other, the first season of “America’s Culinary Cup” has invited 16 men and women who are at the peak of their culinary powers.
The inaugural class includes six Michelin star chefs, two James Beard winners, 14 James Beard nominees, three Food + Wine best new chefs, two Bocuse d’Or medalists and multiple “Top Chef” winner Buddha Lo.
“I’m not judging them on who they are, or where they come from, or where their pedigree is,” says Lakshmi. “All of that might have been what got them in the door. I am judging them by the plate of food they put in front of me.”
Lakshmi is joined on the judge's table by three-Michelin star and fish specialist Michael Cimarusti and molecular gastronomy pioneer Wylie Dufresne.
“These guys are looking at it as professional chefs, having so many decades under their belt of doing this at a very, very high, high level,” she says. “I am the audience’s representative.”
Fittingly for a show that makes its debut after “Survivor,” there's a bit of that show's DNA in the new one, with the chefs making strategic decisions about who competes against the others and the need to make allies.
“It’s a show that I think will really appeal to people who like ‘Survivor' or ‘The Amazing Race,’” says Lakshmi. “We were definitely conscious, obviously, of who we’re going on after and also what works on CBS. I’d be a fool not to be.”
One early tip that “America’s Culinary Cup” is an upscale cooking competition show is a shot of Lakshmi sauntering out of a helicopter in an asymmetrical yellow gown. The sprawling workstations in the communal kitchen have plenty of marble and all kinds of top-notch kitchen toys are available — like wood-fired ovens and smoking guns.
The initial chefs invited hail from 10 states — California, North Carolina, Arizona, Illinois, Colorado, New York, Virginia, Texas, Wyoming and Connecticut. One postponed her wedding to compete, one is pregnant and one was formerly incarcerated.
“The accolades and the talent and the awards and everything else that all of these people walk through the door with, in a way they had to hang them up when they entered the kitchen because it was all about what they were able to do that day, in that moment, in that challenge,” says Cimarusti.
The first episode is particularly brutal, with four contestants eliminated. The 16 chefs’ first challenge is to cook their defining dish and then they go head-to-head, judged on taste, creativity, presentation and technique.
“You’re in the big leagues now,” Lakshmi tells them.
The dishes that come out include Singapore Chili Crab and Thai Curry, Sous Vide Hamachi with Scallop and Turnip, and Ras El Hanout Duck Breast with a Miso-Harissa Glazed Cabbage.
Eight who lost the first round go head-to-head making classic American dishes — fried chicken, clam chowder, shrimp and grits and beef stroganoff — to determine the four going home, prompting the weekly slogan, “You served your final dish.”
In later episodes, the contestants must prove their mastery of 10 Culinary Commandments — meat preparation, innovation, culinary science & tech, flavors, sustainability, vegetables, sauces, world cuisine, consistency and dessert.
The level of excellence in the kitchen is very high and the judges have their work cut out for them separating the better dishes. A pinch of salt or a splash of citrus makes the difference between staying and going home.
“It’s like any good competition at the very highest level, whether it’s football or professional golf or tennis or whatever, at the end of the day, it just comes down to the finest detail,” says Cimarusti.
The judges say that while they may know some of the contestants, their mentors or know the restaurants they worked in, they will not let any of that sway their decisions.
“I take my judging very seriously,” Lakshmi says. “There’s a lot of money on the line. It’s $1 million. And so, as the creator of the show, as an executive producer, there’s nothing more important to me than the fairness of this competition because my name’s on it.”
Dufresne says the judges are looking to the ultimate taste and whether the chef nailed the weekly assignment. After all, good knife skills can't camouflage a poor dish.
“We’re splitting such a fine hair that we are sometimes on either side of that hair,” he says, jokingly adding: “That, again, is a testament to the caliber of the contestants and the fact that I’m usually right and Michael’s wrong.”
