About this season
12 to 16 contestants with poor cooking skills are taken through an eight-week culinary boot camp, to earn a cash prize of $25,000. The recruits are trained on the various basic cooking techniques including: baking, knife skills, temperature, seasoning and preparation. The final challenge is to cook a restaurant quality three-course meal for three food critics.
Episodes (7)
1. Fear the Worst
Aired 3 January 2016
Chef Tyler Florence returns to the kitchen to challenge reigning champ Chef Anne Burrell to a rematch. An open casting call attracts some of the worst cooks that they've seen yet, but they choose 14 recruits to train back at culinary boot camp. These "home cooks" make their signature dishes, and after an unsavory tasting, Anne and Tyler pick their teams and attempt to teach them how to make a well-balanced dinner.
2. Getting Stuffed
Aired 10 January 2016
Chef Anne Burrell and Chef Tyler Florence test the recruits' food knowledge in a game show-style battle of "Family Food," where they go head-to-head to win steps for an incomplete recipe. After the game, they clumsily attempt to fill in the blanks in their partial recipes and cook the dish. Then, they all must stuff and prepare a delicate cut of meat.
3. 50 Shades of Flavor
Aired 17 January 2016
The recruits learn all about flavor combinations by taste-testing some unlikely pairings, then then the Skill Drill tests their creativity as they construct unique ice cream sandwiches. The flavor showdown continues when the recruits must create their own unique filling for empanadas, and two recruits fail to deliver.
4. Taking It to the Streets
Aired 24 January 2016
Chef Anne Burrell and Chef Tyler Florence give the recruits a hard lesson in kitchen multi-tasking, as they must cook four eggs, each in a different style — leaving some of them scrambling for time, and others cracking under the pressure! Then, the kitchen gets even hotter when the recruits make four different Asian street food dishes.
5. The Cod Squad
Aired 31 January 2016
The remaining recruits must use exotic proteins to grind out some unforgettable burgers. After serving their original sliders to Chef Anne Burrell and Chef Tyler Florence, the recruits learn they must each fillet a whole cod to make homemade fish and chips.
6. Blast From the Past
Aired 7 February 2016
For the last Skill Drill, Chef Anne Burrell and Chef Tyler Florence challenge the final four recruits to replicate a dish. With no help from their mentors, the recruits must rely on their taste buds and newfound skills. The trials continue when the recruits must cook a revamped version of their Day 1 signature dishes for their loved ones -- but their loved ones don't know which recruit cooked what dish and could unwittingly send their own loved one packing! (Special airtime - 10 PM ET)
7. Final Food Fight 8
Aired 14 February 2016 • 42 min
Anne and Tyler's final two recruits plan a refined three-course menu for a judges' panel of culinary experts. In the end, only the dishes can prove which recruit has gone from worst to best and will win the $25,000 prize.