All over the country people nominated their friends, family or themselves as the worst cooks and brought in samples of their terrible cooking. The top 24 worst were then chosen and brought in. Their first challenge is to make a meal that they regularly cook and present it to Chef Anne Burrell (Red Team) and Chef Beau MacMillan (Blue Team). The chefs attempt to choke down the dishes and make notes on who which they think are the worst, then it is decision time. The 24 contestants are quickly cut down to only 12 as Chef Burrell and Chef Macmillan pick 6 for each other’s team trying to make it as difficult as they can for each other. The 12 worst of the worst now begin their journey.

With the teams in place a new challenge starts. This time the contestants watch as their team leader prepares a meal, explaining every single step, giving tips, and even allowing them to taste afterwards. Then it is their turn to duplicate the meal as closely as possible (the recipe is even up on a board for them to reference). As their time begins the Red Team makes an attempt at their Tuscan Fish Stew and the Blue Team sets to work on the Poached Tiger Prawns with the chef walking around making comments. Once the time runs out and the food plated (or in some cases not completely plated) the chefs taste and make critiques. Then it is elimination time where a member from each team that displayed the least potential will be cut.

The show started off really strong, and is a very interesting concept. Instead of watching very talented people compete as so many other shows do this switches it up giving you people that are just really terrible at it and want to learn how to get better. The first challenge of them cooking a meal they typically make was amusing, disgusting, and I have to say sadly an ego booster. There is a nice range in people too, the mom that wants to learn to cook better for her daughter, the guy that wants to be able to prepare a nice meal for his partner, a girl fresh out of college that just wants to feed herself, etc.

Then comes the big challenge of the episode. This is where it sort of lost me interest wise. Here is a good chance to not only teach the competitors but the audience as well and while they do give you some tips and explanations it is the topics that bother me. We are talking about people that can’t even make a can of soup and you have them blanching bok choy and cleaning shrimp for their first challenge? This seems like something you would build up too. Plus it is hard for the audience to truly relate to just how bad these chefs are when you are preparing dishes that normal households would not be having. Why not start with something like meatloaf, mac n’ cheese, tacos, or hamburgers? Instead I get to listen to how much a small amount of saffron cost and then putting it in a dish that is not only expensive to make; but for most of the competitors probably impractical to try and feed their children or themselves. It just seems that Food Network is sooo afraid of doing too simple of food, I mean even the 30 Minute Meals are often out of hand with how much they will cost and how many different items you will buy for that meal only. Good cooking doesn’t mean that it always has to be gourmet, have a French name, or need fancy knife skills.

It honestly just seems like the Chef Anne Burrell and Chef Beau MacMillan just want to display how great they are at cooking by embarrassing others that simply want to learn basic skills and knowledge to feed their families better and are not looking for a job in a 5 star restaurant. Maybe they will dial it back down some in the upcoming episodes after this initial push to see how well the competitors can follow directions. If not then this show is wasting a great opportunity to finally reach out to those that would like someone to give them inexpensive, family friendly, easy meal that doesn’t require 7 pots, a huge collection of knives, 40+ ingredients, and a spice rack that takes up half your kitchen. If I wanted to watch stellar chefs compete I would watch reruns of “Top Chef”. (Did you see this last season? Best one so far IMO).