Does anybody know this Chinese cookery show?

[StChris]

There's a show I used to sometimes catch on TV when I lived in China. I want to watch it online, but I can't remember the name. Hopefully someone will recognise it from the description below.

 

Basically the premise of the show is a competition between two teams of chefs (usually one Chinese and one foreign). At the beginning they're presented with a large table of ingredients, and the teams have to choose each ingredient one at a time (Team A chooses one, then Team B, then Team A gets to choose again and so on). Since there's only one type of each ingredient (eg, salt, chicken, soy sauce), this is a tough choice, and often you'll see the opposing team try to guess what the other team is trying to make and choose an essential ingredient just to sabotage their plans. One of the rules is that the teams have to use every single ingredient that they choose, so they have to be really creative in the dishes they decide to make. Once that is all finished there follows a series of rounds where the dishes prepared by each team are sent out to the restaurant to be judged. At the end all the points are added up and the loser has to eat some kind of forfeit dish (usually something strange or disgusting like monkey's intestines).

 

While the show's nothing amazing, it does have and interesting format and makes a nice change from the usual dramas.

 

So, can anyone identify the show? 

[abcdefg]

Yes, I watch it every week or two. Recently it has had a team of Chinese chefs competing with a team of Italian chefs. Lots of fun. They have stopped the bit with the nasty forfeit dish.

 

Now, if I can only think of the actual name of the show... Let me scratch my head and see if I can come up with it.

[abcdefg]

I think it's "厨王争霸"。

 

http://v.ifeng.com/show/cwzb/#01384aa1-e7aa-42e6-a754-664a7b94913c

 

http://www.iqiyi.com/a_19rqz6dd76.html?vfm=2008_aldbd

 

Take a look and see if it's the one you remembered.

[StChris]

That's the one, thanks a lot, I knew someone on here would know!

 

It's a decent show, I'd recommend it to anyone interested in cooking shows. It's amazing what they manage to make out of the ingredients they're given.

 

What have they replaced the forfeit dish with?

[abcdefg]

What have they replaced the forfeit dish with?

 

I don't know, Chris. Seems like that ending just is no longer there.

 

The current format is to just have three rounds: an appetizer, a main course, and a desert. At the end of each round, the head chefs gets to try the other team's dish. The audience scores each round. At the end they tally the totals and one team wins overall. The winning team gets a prize, lately consisting of a 红包。

 

Another pretty good cooking show that I watch from time to time is "回家吃饭“。It's less elaborate, but still good fun. Features more "family style" cooking 家常菜 instead of restaurant fare. 

 

http://tv.cntv.cn/video/VSET100221818284/dbfefe3e582946d9b050d2abe735eef5

[StChris]

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll check it out tonight.

[StChris]

Since we're on the topic of cookery shows, if anyone else has any other recommendations, please feel free to chip in.