Wylie Dufresne.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cThese guys are looking at it as professional chefs, having so many decades under their belt of doing this at a very, very high, high level,\u201d she says. \u201cI am the audience\u2019s representative.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fittingly for a show that makes its debut after \u201cSurvivor,\u201d there’s a bit of that show’s DNA in the new one, with the chefs making strategic decisions about who competes against the others and the need to make allies.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a show that I think will really appeal to people who like \u2018Survivor’ or \u2018The Amazing Race,\u2019\u201d says Lakshmi. \u201cWe were definitely conscious, obviously, of who we\u2019re going on after and also what works on CBS. I\u2019d be a fool not to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
High production values<\/h2>\n
One early tip that \u201cAmerica\u2019s Culinary Cup\u201d is an upscale cooking competition show is a shot of Lakshmi sauntering out of a helicopter in an asymmetrical yellow gown. The sprawling workstations in the communal kitchen have plenty of marble and all kinds of top-notch kitchen toys are available \u2014 like wood-fired ovens and smoking guns.<\/p>\n
The initial chefs invited hail from 10 states \u2014 California, North Carolina, Arizona, Illinois, Colorado, New York, Virginia, Texas, Wyoming and Connecticut. One postponed her wedding to compete, one is pregnant and one was formerly incarcerated.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe accolades and the talent and the awards and everything else that all of these people walk through the door with, in a way they had to hang them up when they entered the kitchen because it was all about what they were able to do that day, in that moment, in that challenge,\u201d says Cimarusti.<\/p>\n
The first episode is particularly brutal, with four contestants eliminated. The 16 chefs\u2019 first challenge is to cook their defining dish and then they go head-to-head, judged on taste, creativity, presentation and technique.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re in the big leagues now,\u201d Lakshmi tells them.<\/p>\n
The dishes that come out include Singapore Chili Crab and Thai Curry, Sous Vide Hamachi with Scallop and Turnip, and Ras El Hanout Duck Breast with a Miso-Harissa Glazed Cabbage.<\/p>\n
\u2018The finest detail\u2019<\/h2>\n
Eight who lost the first round go head-to-head making classic American dishes \u2014 fried chicken, clam chowder, shrimp and grits and beef stroganoff \u2014 to determine the four going home, prompting the weekly slogan, \u201cYou served your final dish.\u201d<\/p>\n
In later episodes, the contestants must prove their mastery of 10 Culinary Commandments \u2014 meat preparation, innovation, culinary science & tech, flavors, sustainability, vegetables, sauces, world cuisine, consistency and dessert.<\/p>\n
The level of excellence in the kitchen is very high and the judges have their work cut out for them separating the better dishes. A pinch of salt or a splash of citrus makes the difference between staying and going home.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like any good competition at the very highest level, whether it\u2019s football or professional golf or tennis or whatever, at the end of the day, it just comes down to the finest detail,\u201d says Cimarusti.<\/p>\n
The judges say that while they may know some of the contestants, their mentors or know the restaurants they worked in, they will not let any of that sway their decisions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI take my judging very seriously,\u201d Lakshmi says. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of money on the line. It\u2019s $1 million. And so, as the creator of the show, as an executive producer, there\u2019s nothing more important to me than the fairness of this competition because my name\u2019s on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dufresne says the judges are looking to the ultimate taste and whether the chef nailed the weekly assignment. After all, good knife skills can’t camouflage a poor dish.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re splitting such a fine hair that we are sometimes on either side of that hair,\u201d he says, jokingly adding: \u201cThat, again, is a testament to the caliber of the contestants and the fact that I\u2019m usually right and Michael\u2019s wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yakimaherald.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Padma Lakshmi is back in the kitchen with a knives-out cooking competition, and this time the stakes are higher \u2014 for the contestants and for her. The former host of Bravo’s \u201cTop Chef\u201d lands on network prime time hosting and judging the CBS show \u201cAmerica’s Culinary Cup,\u201d which boasts the largest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2310601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[21741],"class_list":["post-2310600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Padma-Lakshmi-finds-a-new-competitive-kitchen-with-CBS-Americas.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2310600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2310600"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2310600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2310602,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2310600\/revisions\/2310602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2310601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2310600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2310600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2310600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}