Worst Cooks in America

- Season 1

(2010)

Twenty-four of the country's worst home cooks come to New York City, in hopes of participating in a ten-day Culinary Boot Camp with Chefs Beau MacMillan and Anne Burrell.

The ten recruits take a trip to Arirang Hibachi Steakhouse, where, in their first Skill Drill, they must learn to execute five fundamental knife cuts. Then each Chef teaches their team a Teppanyaki-style dish.

To illustrate the importance of flavor, the Chefs provide the eight remaining recruits with a "blank canvas," jointly demonstrating a basic crepe dish.

To show the importance of multitasking, each Chef teaches their team how to make fresh pasta, filling and sauce.

Each Chef teaches their two recruits a complicated dessert. Then, to test their retention of the recipe, the recruits must teach the dish to someone who knows even less about cooking than they do: high school football players!

The remaining two recruits meet their Chefs at Boot Camp, where they devise and plan menus for their final challenge: to prepare a three-course meal for food critics.