Tuesday 17 September, on La5, at 9 pm sees the start of a new TV show The Chef – Scelgo e Creo in cucina, created in collaboration by Mondadori and Mediaset.

A prime time challenge – for 11 weeks – featuring 14 contestants aiming for the title of “The Chef” under the guidance of chefs Davide Oldani and Filippo La Mantia, and with the help of two coaches: the food blogger Chiara Maci and the chef Alessio Algherini.

The selection of the contestants was made in June and July on the web site www.thechef.mediaset.it, that will trace the entire programme up to the final. In order to take part, the aspiring chefs submitted their candidacies with a video-recipe in which the displayed their skills in the kitchen with quality original dishes.

The production team and the two chef presenters made a selection from the contributions received of the best 50 candidates who in the pre-selection phase will be tested by the two coaches. From the first challenge they can proceed to the second episode 14 challengers, the real protagonists of
“The Chef”.

In fact they will take part in the advanced stages of the programme in teams, arriving at 6 semi-finalists and 4 in the final showdown. But only one will be pronounced the winner of the title “The Chef” and the opportunity of joining the staff of Filippo La Mantia’s new restaurant.

The coaches will have the task of training the black and white teams to enliven the theme of the challenge, more precisely, the “review” of a recipe from the monthly Sale&Pepe. The coaches will also be responsible for the shopping with a designated budget where they can use their imagination in finding new ingredients to use in the recipes.

Having analysed and commented on the shopping, the chefs will sound the starting bell for the “cooking time” and the contestants will have to prepare dishes both in the studio and outside. The tests will cover all kinds of food, from appetisers to desserts and the selection of the most appropriate wines to match the recipes.

The two presenter chefs will not only judge the results but also provide useful tips and suggestions and , each episode, will elect a winning team who will receive a prize of extra money to spend in their weekly budget. The best (who might not be in the winning team) and the two worst (one from each team) will run the risk of elimination. They will face a second challenge starting from a video-recipe sent in. the author of which will be a guest in the studio. The one who produces the worst dish will be eliminated from the programme.

The Chef is the first cooking talent show to be developed mainly on the web. Starting from the sharing of video-recipes and the selection through the site (which will be continuously updated with news and videos during the programme) each step of the competition will also be covered on social networks with dedicated fan pages on Facebook (The Chef), a Twitter profile (@The Chef_La5) and the hashtag #TheChef.