Tom Allen and Emma Willis are to front a new celebrity cooking competition.
ITV has teamed up with Marks & Spencer and producers South Shore for new six part series Cooking With The Stars.
The show will feature eight celebrities, each paired with an accomplished chef who will mentor, teach and take them from passionate amateur to restaurant level chefs.
TV Presenter Emma Willis and comedian Tom Allen are set to host the series where the celebrities will be cooking up a storm week by week in a bid to outdo their rivals.
ITV explain the format: “Trained by their professional chef partner they’ll prepare and present their dishes for judgement. Their mentor chefs then become judges, rating the other celebrity cooks, with the bottom two at risk of leaving the competition.
“Should they end up in the bottom two the celebrities will be fighting for their place in the contest on their own, with no help from their teacher, as they each present a dish in the hope of saving their spot.
“This eliminator round is decided by a blind testing from the chefs – unaware of whose food they’re passing judgement over the greatest supporter could swiftly and unwittingly become the worst critic and vote for their protégé to leave the competition.”
Cooking With The Stars will start on ITV on Tuesday, 13 July at 9PM and continue weekly.
Meet the line up!
The celebrities who will be putting on their aprons and heading to the kitchen include comedian and actor Griff Rhys-Jones, Strictly’s head judge Shirley Ballas, DJ and songwriter Naughty Boy and performer and presenter Denise Van Outen.
They’re joined by actress Catherine Tyldesley, McFly’s Harry Judd, comedian and actor Johnny Vegas and TV presenter AJ Odudu.
Emma Willis said: “I absolutely love cooking so I can’t wait to see the celebrities in the kitchen showing what they have or haven’t learnt. What a brilliant opportunity to be trained by some of the best chefs in the business and I’m hoping I can pick up a few tips too.
“I know it’s going to be a lot of fun hosting with the brilliant Tom Allen so I can’t wait to get started.”
Tom Allen added: “I’m absolutely delighted to be working with Emma and an amazing team of chefs and celebrities. I have a feeling everyone’s going to be put through their paces but we’re going to have a lot of fun along the way!”
Katie Rawcliffe, Head of Entertainment Commissioning at ITV commented: “This series is set to combine all the ingredients to deliver great entertainment, cooking inspiration, a lively competition and fantastic hosts in Emma Willis and Tom Allen.
“The past year has seen the nation developing their home cooking skills more than ever and now we’ll get to see how well our celebrity line up can cook with the guiding hand of expert mentors.”
