America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Generationis a cooking competition in which 11 home cooks are vying for a chance not only to win a $100,000 grand prize, but to become the next on-air chef on the PBS series America’s test kitchenwhich has been on the air since 2001. jenny Hosted by Mai Jenkins, each episode is joined by two judges from a rotating lineup of confidants ATK Veterans: Julia Collin Davison, Elle Simone Scott, Dan Souza and Jack Bishop.
opening shot: Shots of a professional chef competition kitchen. Host Jeannie Mai Jenkins walks in and says, “America’s test kitchen has been an American institution for over 20 years.”
The essentials: Each episode will have a “trial” challenge and a “quest” challenge. The winner of the task challenge receives a benefit in the test challenge. The winner of the test challenge receives a prize – for example, in the first episode, their recipe is presented on the ATK website – and the “most unsuccessful” cook is sent home.
We start with 11 home cooks; They all do something different for a living, but they all have a passion for cooking. The first tasks relate to the chefs and their story: in the test challenge, the chefs are allowed to prepare a dish that shows who they are, and in the task challenge, they prepare a signature dish. Future challenges will not only be cooking tasks but also challenges where the chefs present their dishes in front of the camera.
What shows will it remind you of? Take America’s test kitchen and combine it with top chef and The next food network starand you get America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Generation.
Our opinion: We were fans of ATK more or less since the show aired 21 years ago, both during the long time that Christopher Kimball was the host and in the younger years after Kimball. Since Kimball left, the brand has expanded beyond the sometimes shaky series and Cook’s Illustrated Magazine to something that feels smoother and more entertainment oriented. But the show’s basics are still there: home cooks show how to make simple meals better.
We don’t see much of that ATK: The next generation, at least in the first episode. Aside from the presence of Davison and Souza as this episode’s judges, the show feels like pretty much every cook-off show we’ve ever seen. Chefs running around for ingredients and equipment, talking-head interviews of contestants, “spontaneous” moments when chefs ask each other what they are cooking, a visit from the host to each chef, people who fail under pressure etc.
As these are home cooks vying for a show specifically aimed at home cooks it would have been nice to focus a little more on the technique and that can happen when the number of participants is reduced. But in the chaos of the first episode we only see a lot of hectic cooking and then each contestant gets their dish tasted and critiqued by the judges.
We’ll also likely feel better when the TV elements come into play; After all, if the best home cook is a star in front of the camera, that doesn’t help him win and appear in the Mothership series.
Don’t get us wrong: as a pure cooking competition ATK: The next generation is just good. Given the expertise of the judges and the personalities and skills of the contestants, the show would be entertaining without them ATK branding But because it is so strongly tied to it ATKIncorporating elements of this series into the mix will elevate the show beyond a generic cook-off.
gender and skin: food porn recordings; that’s all.
farewell shot: Contestants exit the kitchen after a scoring result that was entirely predictable if a spectator was paying close attention.
sleeping star: We’re going to give it to Garrett because he has a mop of hair that would make Sammy Hagar jealous. And his dumplings in the test challenge looked ridiculously good.
Most pilot line: Mae Jenkins sneaks up on one of the cooks and appears to have less than ten minutes left for the challenge. This feels like BS to us because this is the period when participants should finish things, strive to get things on the plate and make sure everything is done. Who has time to talk to the host during this time?
Our appeal: Stream it. Because of the association with the parent show, we’re confident America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Generation will go beyond a generic cook-off and add elements of ATK that will distinguish it.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and technology, but he doesn’t fool himself: He’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.comFast Company and elsewhere.