Food Fighters is an American reality based cooking television series hosted by Adam Richman that pits a home chef against five professional chefs in a series of cooking competitions for a chance to win up to $100,000. The series premiered July 22, 2014 on NBC as a summer replacement series. On January 21, 2015, NBC renewed the show for a second season.[1] The second season premiered July 2, 2015[2] and concluded September 3, 2015. In season one, new episodes aired every Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET,[3] while in season two new episodes aired every Thursday at 8 p.m. ET.
Food Fighters bills itself as "one part cooking competition, one part game show."[4] In each episode, a contestant who is a home-based amateur cook comes to the show with a list of five of their best recipes to prepare on the show. The show is divided into five rounds, one round for each recipe. In each round, a mystery professional chef comes in to challenge the contestant. The chefs are represented as black silhouettes of themselves on a large video screen and on a graphic to the home viewer before being shown. Once the chef is introduced, the contestant chooses one of their recipes to cook against the professional, and they cannot prepare a recipe more than once. The contestant generally attempts to select a recipe that is not in the known style of the chef, as the chef does not know in advance what dish they will be cooking. After a set cooking time (generally varying from 15–25 minutes), the contestant's and the chef's respective recipes are judged by a group of five ordinary food-loving people known as the "Dinner Party" in a blind taste test, who discuss positive and negative aspects of each dish. A majority vote of the Dinner Party determines the winner of the round. Each round that the contestant wins earns them a cash prize. The first round is worth $5,000, the second round is worth $10,000, the third round is worth $15,000, the fourth round is worth $20,000, and the fifth round is worth double the amount of the contestant's previous winnings, making a top possible prize of $100,000. If the chef wins a round, the contestant does not win any money for that round but continues through the entire show.[5][6] If the contestant does not win any round prior to the final round, that final round will be worth $10,000.
The fifth professional chef that competes is generally a celebrity chef that has frequently appeared on other cooking shows, especially those on Food Network, including Cat Cora, Elizabeth Falkner, Duff Goldman, Lorena Garcia, Jet Tila, and Gerry Garvin.[4] The set of the show is unique from other cooking shows in that it is a two-story set, with the contestant cooking in a kitchen upstairs on an upper level while the chef cooks in a similar kitchen on the lower level.[7] The show also publishes the contestant recipes on their website.
NOTE: When the contestant lost the first four rounds, it was announced that the last match would be for $10,000. 12-year-old Danielle McNerney was given a trip to science camp from Education Unlimited and Sally Ride Science held at Stanford University,[8] and Walmart gave $20,000 to help with her mother's charity.
