All the ingredients for daytime drama
CULINARY GENIUS ITV, weekdays from Monday, 3pm
FERN Britton hosts a new high-drama daytime cookery show.
Each hour-long episode will see nine amateur cooks head into a wrestling ring-style studio to do culinary battle.
A different professional chef will preside over the kitchen each week, demonstrating two of the tasks for the competitors and the audience at home.
Culinary legend Gordon Ramsay will be first to take to the floor – and the fiery foodie will be looking for speed as well as accuracy across three intense rounds.
Rosemary Shrager, Jean-Christophe Novelli and Phil Vickery will follow in later weeks, bringing their own unique style to the high-intensity kitchen.
Battle One will see the contestants face a fiveminute knife skills test. Nerves will be shredded as they are challenged to speedily chop ingredients before being judged by Gordon on quality as well as quantity.
The three weakest contestants will be immediately eliminated.
Battle Two focuses on precision and skill. This 10-minute test is all about preparation as a carefully chosen ingredient is revealed to the remaining six competitors and they race to prepare it perfectly.
Three more hopefuls will be sent home, leaving the remaining trio to face an exciting and thrilling cook-off in Battle Three.
Here the chefs must use the ingredient they just prepared and the studio’s stocked larder to create a stunning dish in 25 minutes worthy of the top cash prize – and earn the title Culinary Genius.