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• by:
• Cianciulli, JoAnn

The newest and most exciting addition to the reality cooking show genre, Fox’s Master Chef is being billed as the American Idol of cooking competitions. Premiering in July 2010, Master Chef pits 50 amateur cooks from across the country in a head-to-head battle for culinary supremacy. Gordon Ramsay, star of the network's other reality food shows Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares, is co-producing and hosting Master Chef.

Hell’s Kitchen is currently Fox’s second-most-popular reality series after American Idol, yet it’s more versatile than the singing competition--Fox has aired Hell’s Kitchen at various time slots and at different times of the year, and the show always performs competitively.

Each week on Master Chef, contestants will compete in various team-based and individual culinary challenges. Throughout the season, celebrity chefs (to be named) will make guest appearances. Over the course of 8 weeks, 46 contestants will be sent home. Of the final four, one will be crowned Master Chef, receive a cash prize, and a deal for his or her own cookbook.

The Master Chef Cookbook will include photos and information about the contestants and talent from the show, cooking tips and instructions based on the program content, and more than 100 recipes created on the show by the Master Chef contestants.