The World Cup may currently be dominating TV screens, but this Emmy season, America’s Culinary Cup also did its fair share of captivating audiences.
“I’m happy to say that even though it’s a first-season show, we had a 96 percent retention rate,” host and creator Padma Lakshmi tells The Hollywood Reporter.
The CBS cooking competition was guided by culinary commandments that a starting group of 16 chef contestants attempted to obey to the best of their ability each episode for the chance of winning a grand prize of $1 million. Chef and restaurateurs Wylie Dufresne and Michael Cimarusti, along with Lakshmi, were the ultimate judges of how well each participant stayed loyal to each of the core pillars of cooking being tested, from sauces and sustainability to flavors and world cuisine.
“The most exciting aspects of my job on America’s Culinary Cup were not in front of the camera at all. That was 10 percent of my job and the least interesting,” says Lakshmi. “It’s interesting to taste their food, but we’ve seen me do that a lot before, so it’s fine, I can opine. But what was most stimulating to me was to develop the challenges and say, ‘Okay, how are we going to make every episode different?’” adds the former Top Chef host. “Well, we’re going to do that with a framework of these 10 culinary principles that every world-renowned chef should master: meat, vegetables, innovation, consistency. That is the framework that gives our show structure. But beyond that, no two episodes are alike.”
