“This is the moment for Spanish television,” said Daniel Cubillo, Telemundo’s VP of content development, non scripted, at a press event earlier this year announcing the new series Top Chef Estrellas, which premieres Feb. 16 at 8pm ET on Telemundo.
“This is the moment to bring to our audience the best shows, the best franchises, well‑known franchises and maybe some others that we would like to implement from scratch. This is very special for us. It’s the second time that we are using a property from NBCUniversal. We did it with The Voice, with La Voz Kids.”
La Voz Kids was indeed a hit for Telemundo, so it makes sense that they would try something similar in adapting another NBCU title for the Hispanic market, as Cubillo alluded to. Top Chef Estrellas is based off of Bravo’s hit Top Chef franchise. The premise is a bit different, however. Whereas Top Chef features chefs vying against each other in a cooking competition, Top Chef Estrellas features celebrities going at it in a cook-off — and some of them are not very experienced with cooking. Also unlike Top Chef, in this adaptation, eliminated contestants become sous chefs instead of being sent home.
“The celebrity aspect really provides a new kind of flavor and fun to the series,” said Casey Kriley of Magical Elves, the production company behind both Top Chef and Top Chef Estrellas. “It’s a fish out of water. It’s always fun to see celebrities do things they don’t know how to do and out of their element. And it allows you to get to know them more on a personal level, which, I think, is what’s great about this series and also makes it really family-friendly.”
The eight Hispanic celebrities competing on the premiere season of Top Chef Estrellas are: Dr. Nancy Álvarez, Fernando Arau, Christian Chávez, David Chocarro, Christian de la Campa, Erika De La Rosa, Lorena Herrera and Cynthia Olavarría. The stars are competing for the Top Chef crown, and $100,000 for charitable causes of their choosing. And viewers may want to be a bit charitable in critiquing the culinary skills of the celebs themselves, given how inexperienced some of them are with cooking.
“I have no background at anything,” laughed Cynthia Olavarría during the panel. “I really burn even the water. I think it was a wonderful experience just because of that. I really had a chance to learn and actually to be there. … When I received the proposal, I was a little bit nervous because obviously, I know it’s something that is out of my comfort zone. How honest can I be with you? It’s like I always diet, so why would I learn how to cook? Because then I’ll eat it. It’s like why do I need to do that? If I cook my own food, then I’ll get fat, and that’s not what I’m looking for. [laughs] So it’s something that never went through my mind, so when I received this, I was like, ‘Should I do it or not?’ Then I imagine, it’s for a good cause. So I said it’s OK.”
Of course, the celebrities will be judged on their creations. Judges include Lorena García, who participated in the fourth season of Top Chef Masters; along with James Beard Award-nominated chefs and television hosts Jaime Martin Del Campo and Ramiro Arvizu (pictured below), owners of the acclaimed Los Angeles restaurant La Casita Mexicana.
“For me,” said Lorena García, “one of the fantastic things that happened is throughout the show, you’re able to see [the celebrities’] preparation, and you can see that they’re professionals in what they do, in their craft. Because even in a reality environment in which they don’t know how to cook — and believe me, the first day when we gauged what was the level of cooking that they had, there was none — in seeing the process of how they actually took it so seriously, it was very gratifying.”
Telenovela star Aylin Mujica hosts Top Chef Estrellas, which Cubillo said will eventually be airing back-to-back with Season 2 of La Voz Kids (Cubillo told me after the panel that he believes La Voz Kids Season 2 will begin in March sometime). Following that, it sounds like there may be a regular rotation of reality series in that Sunday night block.
“During the whole year,” Cubillo said, “we are going to open that slot and bring our audience the best TV produced in the general market, but with the adaptation that we need.”
Top Chef Estrellas premieres Feb. 16 at 8pm ET on Telemundo, and airs Sundays.
Following each episode is an after-show called Suelta La Sopa Extra.
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Original Top Chef Estrellas release from Telemundo, in Spanish:
OCHO CELEBRIDADES HISPANAS LISTAS PARA COMPETIR EN “TOP CHEF ESTRELLAS” ESTE DOMINGO, 16 DE FEBRERO A LAS 8PM/7C POR TELEMUNDO
Miami – 12 de febrero del 2014 – A partir de este domingo, 16 de febrero a las 8pm/7c, los televidentes descubrirán a ocho famosos hispanos como nunca antes vistos con el gran estreno de “Top Chef Estrellas” por Telemundo. Dra. Nancy Álvarez, Fernando Arau, Christian Chávez, David Chocarro, Christian de la Campa, Erika De La Rosa, Lorena Herrera y Cynthia Olavarría demostrarán sus destrezas culinarias para lograr ganar la competencia para una causa benéfica de su preferencia. Luego de finalizar el reality, “Suelta La Sopa Extra” presenta todas las exclusivas, lo que no se ve en la pantalla y los adelantos del programa dominical.
Conducido por la estrella de telenovelas Aylin Mujica, ¨Top Chef Estrellas¨ cuenta con Lorena García, famosa conductora de televisión, autora y una de los “chefs” hispanos más importantes del país, quien además participó en la cuarta temporada de la serie “Top Chef Masters” de Bravo. Junto a ella estarán los chefs Jaime Martin Del Campo y Ramiro Arvizu, nominados al premio James Beard, conductores de televisión y propietarios del galardonado restaurante de Los Angeles, “La Casita Mexicana,” como los jueces de “Top Chef Estrellas”. Los televidentes tendrán la oportunidad de conocer a las celebridades de una manera más personal e íntima, al embarcarse en este viaje culinario para ganar la corona de Top Chef y un total de $100,000 dólares para ser entregados a sus organizaciones benéficas preferidas. Como parte de la adaptación para la audiencia hispana, una vez eliminado de la competencia, los concursantes no se van a casa, sino que se convierten en asistentes de cocina.
“Suelta La Sopa Extra” es un talk show que repasará lo acontecido en cada episodio de “Top Chef Estrellas” junto a los propios protagonistas del programa, mostrando material exclusivo nunca antes visto y avances de lo que viene. El programa se ocupará del entretenimiento y la cocina, y como valoragregado, sumará a dos invitados sorpresa quienes mostrarán sus dotes culinarios a través de un concurso, donde el perdedor deberá enfrentarse a una inesperada sorpresa.
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(l-r) Chef Lorena Garcia and contestant Cynthia Olavarria at a Top Chef Estrellas press conference in New York City: Courtesy of Telemundo
(l-r) Jaime Martin del Campo, Ramiro Arvizu: Francisco Aguila/Telemundo