This January, A+E Networks®’ Lifetime® (Astro Ch 709)
presents a new cooking competition series featuring pint-sized prodigies taking
on culinary veterans. Following its successful U.S. debut and launch in other
world markets, Man vs. Child: Chef Showdown will premiere in Asia on Tuesday, 26 January at 7pm. The show pits
some of America’s most talented young chefs against the very people they look
up to – professionally-trained adult chefs, most of whom have been cooking
longer than their challengers have been alive.
Hosted by chef and television personality Adam Gertler,
the 13-episode series follows a team of five up-and-coming child cooking
wunderkinds – Estie (8), Dylan (11), Emmalee (12), Cloyce (13) and Holden (14)
– who face off against a different executive-level chef each week for bragging
rights.
Each episode is made up of three rounds of cooking set
to test the competitors’ abilities and mastery in the kitchen, from making
sausages from scratch to preparing the perfect omelette. The kids nominate a
team-mate to face off against the expert in each challenge. In the first two
rounds, resident judges and commentators (chef-restaurateur Mike Isabella and
private chef to the stars Alia Zaine) will taste the dishes to determine which chef
has created the most delicious and inventive plate. The winner of each of the
first two events will be awarded an advantage in the next round which includes
preventing their competitor from tasting their food as they prepare it and
forcing them to take a ten-minute break during the allotted cooking time. The
final round will feature a blind taste-test by a world-renowned master chef
such as Hubert Keller and Ludo Lefebvre that will determine the ultimate winner
- the professionals or the youthful contenders.
In the series premiere, aptly titled “Don’t
Under-ESTIE-mate Her”, the youngest chef on the show, then seven-year-old Estie
Kung, whips up a Korean fried chicken dish with kimchi mayonnaise and a
gochujang gastrique. The precocious Kung, who is half-Chinese and has been
cooking since age three, has visited Asia as part of a promotional tour for the
show’s launch on Lifetime, which included press, trade, and consumer
events.
My girl and I were happy to catch the cute little Chef Estie Kung, at Sunway Pyramid last Saturday.
“Man vs. Child:
Chef Showdown is an A+E Networks® original format and we think it will
really resonate with the audiences in Asia. Child prodigies and cooking
competition shows have already proven their popularity on Lifetime and this
show has both of those ingredients (pun intended)! It’s wholesome entertainment
for the entire family in a region where people are passionate about their food.
We’re launching our ‘#JustAKid’ campaign in celebration of children on
Lifetime. Our aim is to showcase exceptional kids who prove that what young
ones lack in experience, they make up for with creativity and enthusiasm. If
given the chance, children will usually exceed expectations of grown-ups,” said
Michele Schofield, Senior Vice President, Programming & Production, A+E
Networks Asia.
Will raw talent and imagination prove to be enough to
trump years of training and decades of experience? Tune in every Tuesday at 7pm
(with a primetime repeat at 10pm) to watch these talented minors square off
with their more experienced opponents and witness a culinary revolution in the
making.
Man vs. Child: Chef Showdown follows on the heels of successful hits on Lifetime
including MasterChef Asia, Child Genius, Amazing Race Australia and
Married
at First Sight.
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