Worst Cooks in America

- Season 14

(2018)

Fourteen of the worst cooks in America enter culinary boot camp with dreams of putting their kitchen nightmares behind them. Chefs Anne Burrell and Robert Irvine want to see what they're dealing with, so they ask the recruits to make their signature dishes, with truly disastrous results. After being sorted into teams, the recruits dive right into the deep end of the kitchen by learning to make a surf and turf dish. The recruits with the worst dishes on each team are sent home.

The recruits enter boot camp and find it has been transformed into everyone's favorite game show, Family Food! The teams go head to head in trivia rounds and culinary tasks testing their knowledge of the kitchen. The recruits watch a Teppanyaki chef perform dazzling tricks over a grill, and then chefs Anne Burrell and Robert Irvine teach them how to make a hibachi-style meal for the main dish challenge. The recruits who light up the kitchen will continue on, but those who stumble will go home in a blaze.

Chefs Anne Burrell and Robert Irvine decide that it's time for the recruits to spread their wings. For the skill drill, they must work in teams to identify the ingredients of five mother sauces and then create their own chicken with pan sauce dishes for their chef. The main dish challenge finds the chefs teaching their recruits to make fried chicken and cornbread, and the recruits who struggle are forced to fly the coop.

The kitchen can be a scary place, but the recruits must learn to face their fears in boot camp. First, they're forced to expand their palates with some unusual ingredients in a Cake Walk-inspired game that proves to be anything but a cakewalk. Then, the recruits get up close and personal with some creatures of the sea, harvesting ink to make fresh squid ink pasta under the watchful eyes of chefs Anne Burrell and Robert Irvine. The brave recruits who conquer their fears will continue on in boot camp, but those who struggle are doomed to head home.

The recruits work in teams to recreate a dish by taste alone, and then they have to bake a tiered cake to suit two special guest judges, Gesine Prado and Jason Smith.

The final four recruits start thinking about life after boot camp and learn to navigate a grocery store. Chefs Anne Burrell and Robert Irvine teach their ducklings how to make impressive duck two ways.

The remaining recruits use everything they've learned to recreate their baseline dishes, and then they make a three-course meal. Judges David Burtka, Daphne Oz and Melba Wilson determine the winner of the $25,000 prize.

Four much-improved former Boot Camp recruits team up to make a Thanksgiving feast for a chance to win $5,000 worth of kitchen equipment and a shot at culinary redemption.