All-Star Academy

Watch All-Star Academy

  • 2015
  • 2 Seasons
  • 7.2  (76)

All-Star Academy is a cooking competition show from Food Network that premiered in 2015. The show features four of the world's most famous chefs, Bobby Flay, Alexandra Guarnaschelli, Curtis Stone, and Michael Symon, as mentors who coach home cooks in a culinary boot camp-style competition. The show is hosted by none other than Ted Allen, who is an expert in food and drink and has emceed several cooking competition shows in the past.

The premise of the show is simple, yet challenging at the same time. In each episode of All-Star Academy, four home cooks from across America are paired with a celebrity chef as their mentor. The contestants are then given a challenge to prepare a dish within a limited time frame, using a secret ingredient that is revealed to them only moments before the competition begins. The contestants must then showcase their culinary skills by presenting their dishes to a panel of judges, which include the show's celebrity chefs.

The judges assess the dishes based on their taste, presentation, and creativity, and provide feedback to the contestants. The feedback is often frank and can be brutal, as the judges are strict on the contestants who don't meet their expectations. However, the judges also provide advice on how the contestants can improve their dishes and their overall cooking skills.

The contestants who perform poorly in the challenge are at risk of being eliminated from the competition. The bottom two contestants are required to cook-off against each other, presenting a dish that represents who they are as a cook. The judges then decide which contestant should be eliminated, based on the final dish presented by the two contestants.

The winner of each challenge is awarded a prize, which may include anything from extra time to cook in the next challenge to immunity from being eliminated in the next round. The grand prize for the winner of the competition is $50,000, a chance to be a Food Network Kitchen Instructor, and a one year membership to the Food Network Kitchen App.

Despite being a competition, the show is also about learning and growth. The celebrity chefs act as mentors to the contestants, providing tips and tricks on how they can improve their cooking skills. The judges' feedback is also geared towards helping the contestants develop their culinary skills over the course of the competition.

What sets All-Star Academy apart from other cooking competition shows is the caliber of the celebrity chefs. Bobby Flay, Alexandra Guarnaschelli, Curtis Stone, and Michael Symon are all renowned in the culinary world and bring their unique perspectives and culinary expertise to the competition.

Overall, All-Star Academy is a high-pressure, fast-paced cooking competition that is entertaining to watch. It's a great show for food enthusiasts who are looking to learn new cooking techniques and tips from some of the world's most famous chefs. The show is also ideal for aspiring home cooks who are looking to improve their culinary skills and potentially compete in cooking competitions themselves.

All-Star Academy is a series that ran for 2 seasons (16 episodes) between March 1, 2015 and on Food Network

All-Star Academy
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Seasons
History
8. History
April 3, 2016
The class is given a history lesson, which shows the members updating the good old-fashioned meatloaf in order to get ahead for their home cooks, who, in order to earn the $50,000 grand prize, have to impress with ingredients they put to use on the first day of school.
Literature
7. Literature
March 27, 2016
The home cooks take part in a literature-inspired "Win and You're In" competition to decide who will contest for the final prize of $50,000. Dishes are prepared that feature the genres of romance, horror, science fiction and fairy tale.
Science
6. Science
March 20, 2016
Guest professor Adam Richman joins the Academy to test the cooks on science, so first they must dissect iconic dishes and use those ingredients in a new way. Then, Adam makes the mentors switch teams to test how well they can train students. Whoever mentors the cook with the winning dish also gets to save one of their own team members, and the remaining cooks face off creating dishes featuring the four elements — earth, air, fire and water.
Snack Time
5. Snack Time
March 13, 2016
Scott Conant and Geoffrey Zakarian serve as guest professors for snack time, and they mix things up by having the mentors cook a gourmet dish featuring a popular snack food. The winning mentor gets a big prize: to bring back any cook that has been eliminated and add them to their team. After the eliminated cook returns, all five cooks try to avoid elimination as they create a gourmet dish using pretzels.
Math
4. Math
March 6, 2016
The Kitchen's Katie Lee and Jeff Mauro join the Academy as guest professors, where the subject is math and the group test is a numbers game: they'll be split in two groups of three to create an appetizer trio featuring one main ingredient! The trio sent to the elimination test must create a dish using only seven ingredients from the pantry, plus a surprise ingredient from the opposing team's mentor.
Art
3. Art
February 28, 2016
Duff Goldman serves as guest professor for a set of art-inspired challenges. First, the mentors face off in two battles featuring desserts in different colors. The teams with the least successful dishes then compete making a structural dessert that features chocolate and incorporates a circle, a square and a triangle on the plate.
Geography
2. Geography
February 21, 2016
The home cooks enter to meet their new guest professors, Debi Mazar and Aaron Sanchez. The subject is geography, and for their group test, they must compete in a tag team challenge cooking dishes that combine the styles of where they are from. The two teams with the least successful dishes then compete in an elimination test using ingredients from the most popular cuisines in the world: Thai, Italian or Mexican.
First Day Of School
1. First Day Of School
February 14, 2016
Nine home cooks enter the kitchen and meet their All-Star mentors.
Description
Where to Watch All-Star Academy
All-Star Academy is available for streaming on the Food Network website, both individual episodes and full seasons. You can also watch All-Star Academy on demand at Discovery+, Amazon Prime, Amazon, Vudu, Google Play, Apple TV and Food Network.
  • Premiere Date
    March 1, 2015
  • IMDB Rating
    7.2  (76)