Reality cooking television has been shaking things up by throwing kids into the mix, but a new Food Network show is set to challenge a different batch of non-professional cooks: celebrities. Food Network’s upcoming Star Plates will blend Hollywood celebrities with celebrity chefs for one big old celebrity stew, which can’t possibly lead to anything disastrous—right? According to a press release, each episode will feature a celebrity being “thrown into the fire, working side-by-side with the professional restaurant chef” to “help service a dining room full of hungry, paying customers.” Celebrities slated to appear include Mindy Kaling, Colin Hanks, Erin Andrews, Minka Kelly, Busy Philipps, and Alyson Hannigan. The celeb chefs include Geoffrey Zakarian, Marcus Samuelsson, Susan Feniger, Michael Voltaggio, and Vinny Dotolo.
“Star Plates allows viewers to go backstage at some of the top restaurants, as these actors and television personalities get a taste of what it is like to be a professional chef,” said Didi O’Hearn, senior vice president of programming for the Food Network and Cooking Channel. “The stars might be used to on-screen drama, but it does not compare to the reality and fast pace of a professional kitchen.”
Kaling’s episode will go down at Samuelsson’s Red Rooster in Harlem, where her new project will be to learn how to make the restaurant’s famous fried chicken. Hannigan will learn out-of-the-box cooking techniques involving liquid nitrogen and blowtorches when she steps into Voltaggio’s world in L.A.’s Ink. Philipps will try to master Weiss’s signature egg and avocado dish, and Hanks gets dropped into Dotolo’s Animal kitchen. There will be six episodes of Star Plates, and hopefully the show brings some heat and drama like O’Hearn suggests. Otherwise, it just sounds like a fluffy little show about celebrities learning about food.
Star Plates premieres on the Food Network at 11 p.m. on September 27.
[via Eater]