Taste TV

The long con: Food Network's newest competition pits amateurs against pros

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Author: 
Andrew Warren / TV Media
Geoffrey Zakarian, Alessandra MacCarthy, Eric Grutka, Cindy Taffel and Michael Talalaev as seen in "Cooks vs. Cons"

Geoffrey Zakarian, Alessandra MacCarthy, Eric Grutka, Cindy Taffel and Michael Talalaev as seen in "Cooks vs. Cons"

If there's a lesson to be learned from shows like "MasterChef," it's that home cooks can be a force to be reckoned with. On the flip side, a lesson that can be taken from shows like "Restaurant: Impossible" is that restaurant chefs aren't necessarily the cream at the top of their profession.

The idea of taking skilled home cooks and having them compete against experienced chefs is far from a new one. NBC's "Food Fighters" is just one example of this culinary genre, but now Food Network has its own special ingredient to add to the recipe.

"Cooks vs. Cons" starts sizzling Thursday, March 17, on Food Network, with "The Kitchen's" Geoffrey Zakarian presiding as the show's charismatic host. It's a pretty classic culinary battle, with four contestants cooking against a tight time limit and struggling to work with a mystery ingredient that they must incorporate into their dishes.

The big twist here, though, is that not all of the contestants are chefs -- some of them are home cooks. And no one, not the judges, not the audiences watching at home, not even the contestants themselves, know who's who.

With a rotating panel of expert judges, including "MasterChef's" Graham Elliot and "The Chew's" Daphne Oz, the big question is this: do judges in culinary competitions give more leeway to amateurs while expecting more from professionals?

If the professional chefs competing think that they can let their guards down, they may be surprised by the drive to win -- and the culinary skills -- that the home cooks are bringing to the competition. There's $10,000 in the pot if one of the pros ends up outperforming the competition, but if a home cook manages to beat the odds and show the pros that "home cook" doesn't have to mean "losing cook," he or she gets to take home an even bigger $15,000 prize.

It's "Food Fighters" meets "Chopped" in a fun new mash-up with Food Network's "Cooks vs. Cons," premiering Thursday, March 17.