NBC greenlights new series where food is prepared for entertainment purposes, rather than sustenance

By Sean O'Neal | March 12, 2013 | 7:47pm

Aux Features TV

Proposing the notion that preparing food can be done for things besides feeding the hungry, NBC has picked up a new reality series in which cooking is performed for the purposes of entertainment, briefly tasted, then thrown right in the garbage. It’s a concept that’s only been tested several dozen times on as many networks, likely right now and again an hour later, but almost never on NBC that you can remember. But soon NBC will have its own cooking competition in Food Fighters, a show where America’s amateur cooks face off against pro chefs, then they fling mashed potatoes at each other until they feel something.

Or, in another, more accurate way, they’ll bring their “signature dish”—“the peach cobbler, the lasagna, that appetizer that friends beg you to bring to parties,” NBC’s Paul Telegdy explains, helpfully naming examples of foods and the imaginary situations in which you might cook them—then square off against the pros to see who prepares the better version. Their competition will be judged in a blind taste test by a panel of culinary experts, then overseen by Man Vs. Food host Adam Richman as he patiently stands off to the side, waiting to shove as many of the vying dishes as he can into his face. Everything else goes right in the garbage.