Series cast summary: | |||
Matt Tebbutt | ... | Self - Presenter / ... 175 episodes, 2007-2021 | |
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James Martin | ... | Self - Presenter / ... 151 episodes, 2006-2016 |
Olly Smith | ... | Self - Wine Expert / ... 149 episodes, 2007-2021 | |
Each week host chef James Martin and his two invited TV chef colleagues each cook meals for the celebrity guest and the two winners of the weekly competition. Regular features include archive footage from various other TV chef shows and the omelette challenge, where the two invited chefs must cook an omelette as fast as possible. Finally, there is the Heaven and Hell test which requires the celebrity guest to name their most and least favourite foods. Viewers then vote for one of these foods and at the end of the show, James Martin, cooks a meal for the celebrity using the winning food item! Written by Mark Smith <msmith@osi.co.uk>
Having watched Saturday KITCHEN several times over the last few months, I am still at a loss to work out precisely what the point of the show is. It doesn't really aim to provide a series of recipes for viewers; it doesn't really have any particular theme - for example, looking at different types of cuisine; nor does it really tell us much about particular chefs and their styles of cooking. Its sole purpose seems to be to provide a forum for chefs to show off their culinary skills - which most of them undoubtedly possess - while cracking a series of increasingly wearisome jokes. The atmosphere of perpetual jokiness becomes wearing in the end; one wishes they would just pipe down and get on with their cooking. Despite long experience of presenting the program, James Martin still looks embarrassed in front of the camera; he is palpably reading his lines from the autocue. No doubt the program will continue to run and run, but it definitely doesn't appear to have much point.