Worst Cooks in America is a reality competition show on Food Network. The show takes 12 to 16 contestants (referred to as "recruits") with very poor cooking skills through an eight-week culinary boot camp, to earn a cash prize of $25,000 and a Food Network cooking set. The recruits are trained on the various basic cooking techniques including: baking, knife skills, temperature, seasoning and preparation. The final challenge is to cook a restaurant-quality three-course meal for three food critics.
The show premiered on January 3, 2010. The show was initially hosted by chef Anne Burrell and chef Beau MacMillan in Season 1. MacMillan was replaced by chef Robert Irvine on Season 2, followed by chef Bobby Flay for Seasons 3–5. Tyler Florence was paired with chef Anne Burrell to host Season 6, which debuted on January 4, 2015.
Burrell was the winning instructor in seasons 1, 2, 3, and 6 with Flay winning in Seasons 4–5.
Season 1: 2010[]
Chefs Beau MacMillan and Anne Burrell lead an intense culinary boot camp. They have six recruits each, and every week they must eliminate one recruit from each of their teams until there is only one from each team left. The final two create a three-course meal to fool a panel of restaurant critics into believing that the meal was created by the acclaimed chefs.
Recruits[]
Twelve chefs competed in the first season of Worst Cooks in America. Hometowns and occupations are available from the Food Network website. Chef Anne's team was known as the Red Team and Chef Beau's team was known as the Blue Team.
Contestant | Age | Hometown | Occupation | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
Rachel Coleman | 23 | Brooklyn, New York | Marketing Website editor | Winner February 1 |
Jennifer "Jenny" Cross | 21 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Waitress | Runner-up February 1 |
Jennifer "Jen" Vecchio | 38 | Cumberland, Rhode Island | Dance Studio Owner | Eliminated January 31 |
Eddie Chang | 32 | Jersey City, New Jersey | IT project manager | |
Marque Hernandez | 41 | Brea, California | Director of Clinical Operations | Eliminated January 24 |
Rebecca Hooper | 43 | Sandy, Utah | Salon Owner | |
Sophia Gettys | 27 | Aurora, Colorado | Stay-at-home mother | Eliminated January 17 |
Susie Shoman | 53 | Georgetown, South Carolina | Grants administrator and entrepreneur | |
Kelly LoCascio | 31 | Scottsdale, Arizona | Corporate litigation attorney | Eliminated January 10 |
David Summey | 29 | Charlotte, North Carolina | Salesman | |
Wilhelmina Josephine | 29 | Aliso Viejo, California | Insurance claims adjuster | Eliminated January 3 |
Hamed Hamad | 24 | North Hollywood, California | Journalist and fashion consultant |
Contestant progress[]
Contestant | Episode | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |||
IN | IN | IN | IN | WIN | BTM | WIN | WINNER | |
Jenny | IN | IN | IN | WIN | IN | BTM | WIN | RUNNER-UP |
Jen | IN | IN | WIN | IN | WIN | WIN | OUT | |
Eddie | BTM | WIN | BTM | BTM | IN | WIN | OUT | |
Marque | WIN | WIN | BTM | BTM | IN | OUT | ||
Rebecca | WIN | BTM | IN | WIN | IN | OUT | ||
Sophia | IN | IN | IN | OUT | ||||
Susie | IN | BTM | IN | OUT | ||||
Kelly | IN | OUT | ||||||
David | BTM | OUT | ||||||
Wilhelmina | OUT | |||||||
Hamed | OUT |
Key[]
- (WINNER) This contestant won the competition and was crowned "Best of the Worst".
- (RUNNER-UP) The contestant was the runner-up in the finals of the competition.
- (WIN) The contestant did the best on their team in the week's Main Dish challenge and was considered the winner.
- (BTM) The contestant was selected as one of the bottom entries in the Main Dish challenge, but was not eliminated.
- (OUT) The contestant lost that week's Main Dish challenge and was out of the competition.
Episodes[]
Chef Anne and Chef Beau each assignes one another a team of six recruits. The teams are reduced by one each episode during the elimination portion of the show. Each episode typically contains two challenges; a skill drill and a main dish challenge. The skill drill challenge is aimed at showing or teaching the recruits a skill needed for cooking (e.g. knife skills) and the main dish challenge consists of re-creating a recipe shown by the instructor of the team. Both chefs then judge their teams on their performances in the main dish challenge and eliminate one recruit per team.
Season 2: 2011[]
Season 2 debuted on January 2, 2011. Robert Irvine replace Beau MacMillan for this season.
In this season the chefs had eight recruits each.
Season 3: 2012[]
Iron Chef Bobby Flay replaced chef Robert Irvine for this season.
Season 4: 2013[]
Bobby Flay returns to co-host this season with Anne Burrell.
Season 5: 2014[]
For the third year in a row, chef Bobby Flay co-hosts with Anne Burrell.
Season 6: 2015[]
Season 6 premiered on January 4, 2015.
Chef Tyler Florence joined Anne Burrell to co-host Season 6, replacing chef Bobby Flay.
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