Twenty-four of the country's worst home cooks come to New York City, in hopes of participating in a ten-day Culinary Boot Camp with Chefs Beau MacMillan and Anne Burrell. The eager applicants must prepare a sample of their terrible cooking, and then each chef chooses a team of six for the other chef to teach. Only one "recruits" from each team will make it to the final challenge: to cook a three-course meal for a panel of food critics who think the chefs did the cooking. The winner will receive $25,000. Boot Camp begins, and for their first challenge, each chef demonstrates a dish which the recruits must replicate exactly. The least successful recruit on each team is eliminated.
Join Chef Michelle McKenzie as she takes us to the people, places and processes behind her dishes. From her hub in San Francisco, she'll visit the farms, markets and locally-owned shops that make food special, with plenty of fresh food adventures along the way. Michelle surrounds her life with food, and her life always travels Beyond The Plate.
Andrew travels to Seattle, a city with a spirit of invention when it comes to dining out. He visits the International District for a bite at Seattle's oldest sushi restaurant, then he ends the trip with the essential clams and chowder meal.
A delicious piece of blue cheese has Ted Allen wondering -- what makes moldy cheese okay to eat? And when you burn your tongue, does it cause any permanent damage? Finally, the Food Detectives team hits the street to find out if so-called "dirty water hot dogs" are as dirty as you think.
Alton Brown tells everything you need to know to get dates into your culinary life, including three recipes for the 1960s classic "Devils on Horseback" and a very "scrummy" Sticky Toffee Pudding.
Andrew Zimmern visits Seattle, where the food scene is a contrast of high-tech sophistication and rugged simplicity, like complicated gadgets that give classic foods like coffee an all-new taste. Andrew is even introduced to some foods and flavors that he's never experienced before!
Casey Webb lands in Worcester, MA, where he slurps down some radical ramen, indulges in peanut butter cup French toast and takes on a rack of deep-fried ribs with the heat of a million Scoville units.
It's nothing but hot, hot heat for Noah Cappe, who makes stops in some of the country's most sweltering states. First, Noah checks out the Florida State Fair's Temperamental Hog -- a spicy and savory funnel cake-- plus Philly Pizza Curls that dress ribbon fries with a mashup of pepperoni pizza and Philly cheesesteak. In the deserts of Tucson, Arizona, at the Pima County Fair, Noah makes a pitstop for the Truck Stop Burger piled high with roasted peanuts, bacon jam and a pink snowball cake, served with the Strawberry Shake-Up -- a sweet strawberry boba milkshake with a toaster pastry surprise. Things really heat up when Noah comes face-to-face with the Loco Elote Ramen and its spicy cheese puff dust atop grilled corn ramen. Then, there's more to munch on at Rodeo Austin with the Cajun flavors of the seafood-stuffed Swamp P'Boy and The Sunday Special that packs all the comforts of a roast dinner stuffed into a turkey leg.
With host Padma Lakshmi as your guide, embark upon an adventure across Southern Spain sampling Tapas, Sherry, Fishing Villages, Saffron, Festivals, Bull Fights, Paella, Cathedrals of Ham & the World's Oldest Restaurant in Madrid.