Ten reality stars are going head-to-head in a battle of cooking skills — or lack thereof — in “Worst Cooks in America Celebrity Edition: Heroes vs. Villains.”
Hosted by Chefs Jeff Mauro and Antonia Lofaso, “Worst Cooks in America” takes people with practically zero cooking experience and ability and puts them in the kitchen to compete against each other. Mauro and Lofaso will both lead a team (Team Red and Team Blue) in challenges that aim to take these cooking disasters and turn them into cooking masters.
However, this isn’t your average group of culinary recruits; this season’s competitors are all reality stars, each with a “hero” or “villain” reputation for their respective television experiences. But they all have two things in common: they don’t have skills in the kitchen, and they all will do what it takes to be the champion.
“They are here to win. These are seasoned reality show competitors. They have been on everything from ‘Big Brother’ to ‘Survivor’ to ‘Drag Race’ to the Olympics,” said Mauro. “It’s not just home cooks wanting to get better. The celebrities want to win and they are relentless.”
“I think that there’s a level of admitting, can I do this show and become better? When you see the show, there’s so much that goes into all of the challenges, it’s so much fun and there’s so much comedy to it,” said Lofaso. “Learning something new as an adult is very scary and, I think, very intimidating.”
This season’s contestants include Sebastian Bach (singer Skid Row), Cheryl Burke (Dancing with the Stars), Frankie Grande (actor, dancer, Big Brother 16), Adam Rippon (Olympic figure skater, Stars on Mars) and Trinity the Tuck (RuPaul’s Drag Race), and reality villains are Wes Bergmann (The Challenge), Bartise Bowden (Love Is Blind, Perfect Match), Corinne Olympios (The Bachelor), Tiffany “New York” Pollard (Flavor of Love, I Love New York) and Rachel Reilly.
Over the course of the show, the stars will face off in culinary challenges that, if they perform well, will advance them in the competition. The two most-improved contestants will square off in the finale to create a three-course restaurant quality meal for judges Gino D’Acampo, Judy Joo and Kelsey Barnard Clark in a blind tasting. The winner will win $25,000 for their chosen charity and bragging rights for their team leader.
Despite the contestants’ hero or villain status or their comfortability in front of a camera, both Mauro and Lofaso agree that this competition puts them all on a level playing field.
“Once you’re in a competition in cooking, whether you’re like a novice or like a seasoned reality competitor star, you forget that there’s a camera there. I think that cooking is a very natural equalizer,” said Lofaso.
“Food is a great equalizer, or at least being able to cook is a great equalizer. They all start at the same level and you could tell that maybe some of them get there and they’re like, ‘I just want to have fun on this reality show,’” said Mauro. “By the end of episode one, you could see the fire in their eyes and they want to win.”
Lofaso and Mauro also agree that this is probably one of the most entertaining seasons of “Worst Cooks in America” to date.
“This is the most fun show I have done in probably my entire culinary career. I looked forward every single morning waking up and working with Jeff, there’s a great camaraderie between him and I,” said Lofaso. “What people should be excited to see is this evolution of disaster turned promising. The ‘Worst Cooks’ reality stars had no real concept [of cooking] and the evolution and the transition of all of them; they were so dedicated to learning.”
“There’s so many laughs, I’m not kidding. Chef Antonia and I, we were screaming at them because you know they don’t listen — you can sit there and give them a 3-hour demo twice a day and they don’t listen. So between all the yelling, it’s twofold, the laughter,” said Mauro. “There’s just so many moments that are so pure and authentic to each of these recruits that are so fitting of their huge personalities and to see them under stress; people who’ve won Olympic medals just crushing under pressure or all these people that have won these huge things, that’s why we do it. We want to see people grow.”
“Worst Cooks in America Celebrity Edition: Heroes vs. Villains” premieres on Jan. 5, 2025 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Food Network.
