Asian Food Channel Searches for Next Celebrity Chef

SINGAPORE: In its first-ever original reality series, the Asian Food Channel is launching a region-wide search for Asia’s next celebrity chef.

E&O Search for AFC’s Next Celebrity Chef will feature contestants from across the region, with auditions to be held in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore. The luxury lifestyle group Eastern & Oriental Berhad (E&O) is teaming up with the channel to seek out the new talent. The winning chef will be signed to an exclusive one-year contract as AFC Celebrity Chef with the Asian Food Channel. The winner will also receive a year-long employment contract with the E&O Group, taking on the role of creative director and head of research and development for the E&O Gourmet Group.

AFC and E&O have appointed AFC Celebrity Chef and star of the series Tablescapes, Chef Bruce Lim and Michael Saxon as the judges on the show. A number of international celebrity chefs will also be invited to make guest appearances in selected episodes throughout the series.

Maria Brown, co-founder and managing director of the Asian Food Channel, commented, “We are so proud and honored to be able to create our own show to discover a celebrity chef in Asia. It has been something we have been planning for a long time and as Asia’s premier Food Channel we are delighted to be able to develop talent from across the region. Asia can now begin to have its own home-grown celebrity chefs that the region can take pride in.

“As this is AFC’s first-ever fully produced and filmed reality television contest, we want the different backgrounds and personalities of the contestants and judges to add to the mix of culture and character dimensions on the series, which—as our loyal viewers will know—is what AFC has always been about!”

Continued Brown: “AFC has always supported local Asian talent, through our many other original productions featuring legendary chefs such as Chef Wan and Chef Martin Yan. We feel this series is the perfect opportunity now to give our viewers not only high-quality Asian content, but also for them to have the very real chance of a lifetime to be a Chef on our channel.”

Eric Chan, E&O Group’s deputy managing director, said, “E&O is all about luxury lifestyle experiences, and we are excited to bring this to life in a new and different way. This is Asia’s first home-grown reality show centered around talented chefs and great food, and we are proud to be working with AFC to make it happen.

“With their production expertise, and the range of challenges we can offer across our different properties and businesses, we are confident we can inspire aspiring chefs across the region to become AFC’s next celebrity chef and be a part of the E&O team.”