Beefs, professional and otherwise, are settled on ‘Superchef Grudge Match’
Chefs with a score to settle do just that in a competition series coming to Food Network and discovery+.
In “Superchef Grudge Match,” premiering Tuesday, Feb. 7, personal and professional feuds play out in a oneround, one-dish winner-take-all battle that ends with the winner getting a $10,000 prize and the loser’s knife and, hopefully, the hatchet being buried.
So in the hourlong episodes, the scenarios can range from food competition rivalries and business partner beefs to a mentor vs. protege grudge and a social media dispute. Darnell Ferguson (“Worst Cooks in America”) stages the face-offs, which he explains are mostly friendly.
“Sometimes it’s not so much personal as it is professional,” he says. “For me personally, I like when they both intertwine with each other ... how each chef is able to bring a challenge for the other chef. Like no matter if it’s professional or not, you’re going to personally bring something that you think will be able to (distract) the other chef and throw them off.”
“It’s just playful, joyful but it’s a lot of back and forth,” he continues. “And I’ve seen people focus a lot more on the competition with the chef sometimes than they did focus on their dish.”
In Tuesday’s opener, a “Tournament of Champions” rematch plays out between Season 2 combatants Jet Tila and Antonia Lofaso. Ferguson, who hosted that series in 2021, says both come in with something to prove.
“This is the opportunity not only for Antonia, who lost on that big stage, to get her revenge,” he says, “but this time, it’s an opportunity for Jet to show like, ‘Hey, that wasn’t a fluke, just so everyone knows that.’ And Antonia, I think she kind of thought it may have been a little bit.
“I know she had to think she won,” he continues. “No one cooks a dish and doesn’t think they won. So it’s a good match-up between two friends. Like in the NBA, Lebron James and Dwyane Wade may be friends but if you lose that championship, you want that back again. So this is that opportunity for them.”
Also in that inaugural episode is a battle of business partners when restaurateur Brian Malarkey and chef Carlos Anthony go at it. And in later episodes, there are clashes between commentators Simon Majumdar and Justin Warner, “Iron Chef Gauntlet” adversaries Stephanie Izard and Shota Nakajima and San Diego chefs Drew Bent and Claudia Sandoval, among others.