Too Many Cooks

Too Many Cooks was a cookery competition on ITV which turns the idea of cookery shows on its head – the people cook for the chefs. It's a chance for great home cooks to prove themselves to the professionals, or be put in their place if their cooking is not up to scratch – contestants often turn out to be worse cooks than they think they are! The show was presented by Jeni Barnett, and the judges were chefs Gino D'Acampo, Richard Phillips and Alex Mackay. All three of the chefs have excellent credentials and aren’t afraid to speak their minds. The problems for the kitchen wannabes – or chefettes as presenter Jeni calls them – is that they have the pressure of time to contend with, an unfamiliar environment and a professional chefs tongue for tasting – or lashing! The show started with four teams of two people and each team had to cook a starter in ten minutes, a main course in twenty minutes and a pudding in ten minutes. They were given the title of the dish and some key ingredients as well as a larder of essential basics, but they have to rely on their own cooking know-how to come up with a recipe. A couple got eliminated after each course leaving two teams to battle it out at the pudding stage.