Five Picks Up Cooking Series

LONDON, October 25: Five has commissioned TalkbackThames to
produce a new 35-part cookery entertainment series, Cooking The Books, featuring some of the U.K.’s leading chefs.

The daily 30-minute program, presented by Jeremy Edwards (Holby
City, Hollyoaks, Celebrity Masterchef),
will be themed around best-selling cookbooks written by some of the U.K.’s top
chefs, including Sophie Grigson, Ainsley Harriott, Simon Rimmer, John Burton
Race, Bill Granger and Jean-Christophe Novelli. Guest chefs on each show will
demonstrate their signature dishes in front of a studio audience, and will be
joined by another TV cook for a fun challenge.

Each episode will also feature a mystery celebrity, who will
be cooking incognito and attempting challenging recipes in their own kitchens.
Once their identities have been revealed, their efforts will be judged by the
studio audience and guest chef, who will then offer them an impromptu lesson.

The executive producers for Cooking The Books are John Comerford and Camilla Lewis, and the series
producer is Tania Fallon.

Five’s head of features, Alex Menzies, said: “It’s great to
see a cookery show back on Five after all this time. Cooking The Books is enormous fun and packed full of down-to-earth
advice and exciting recipes to try. Most importantly, we’ll really put
Britain’s favorite cookbooks, and their authors, through their paces.”

—By Kristin Brzoznowski