There's no bluffing here – the Food Network game show Wildcard cuisine is an ace up your sleeve.
In Season 2, which premiered on January 7th, Top chef Finalist and series host Eric Adjepong hands out cards to his chef friends for three rounds after work in the station's underground kitchen, which they call “culinary poker.” Players must prepare delicious dishes (some good, some downright devilish) based on the cards they are dealt, which determine everything from the dish to the tools used and how much time they need to prepare. In addition, the chefs bet their own personal money on who serves the best plate. Each chef brings at least $5,000 to the table – sometimes up to $10,000. Talk about turning up the heat!
The January 21 episode, titled “James Beard Brawl,” features what Adjepong calls an “epic showdown” between some of the previous winners of the prestigious award: Iron Chef Stephanie “The Goat” Izard (who won 9,000 during her Season 1 visit took home US dollars), Tournament of Champions' Jonathon Sawyer and “Boston's Pasta Queen” Karen Akunowicz. “The food in this episode is incredible and the trash talk is even better,” teases Adjepong, who is looking forward to an even bigger second season. “Wildcard cuisine is the only show on the network that features chefs in a lighter, yet competitive mode, and I think it's the perfect late-night model.”
The best for Adjepong, who specializes in West African cuisine and will publish his debut cookbook Ghana to the world In March, many chefs want to be selected for future rounds of the show. “What surprised me most is how many more chefs have heard about my poker game [since the first season premiered] and now we want to go in,” he says. “I get messages from chefs all over the country who want a little action.”
At the moment, Season 2 is packed with more cool culinary artists. Other celebrity foodies in attendance include: Alex Guarnaschelli, Rocco DiSpirito, Andrew Zimmern, Michael Symon, Esther Choi, Marcel Vigneron, Molly Yeh and a secret trio Placeholder The winners return to raise the stakes.
Wildcard cuisineTuesdays, 9/8c, Food Network
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