EndemolShine Germany’s Fabian Tobias

Last month, EndemolShine Germany and television chef, restaurateur and presenter Tim Mälzer revealed a new partnership: Potatohead Pictures. Led by EndemolShine Germany’s managing director, Fabian Tobias, and Executive Director Sven Steffensmeier, the label focuses on developing new culinary formats. Tobias talks to TV Formats about how the hunger for creation and innovation led to this new creative venture.

***Image***TV FORMATS: How did the partnership for Potatohead Pictures come about?
TOBIAS: EndemolShine Germany has been successfully working with Tim Mälzer for eight years. In that time, he has revolutionized the role of the TV chef, and EndemolShine Germany has created hit shows such as Kitchen Impossible. But our hunger for creation and innovation is still as strong as ever, and with this new joint venture, we are now setting up an entrepreneurial framework to facilitate this.

TV FORMATS: Tell us about the creative collaborations with Mälzer.
TOBIAS: From 2014, when EndemolShine Germany brought the award-winning format Kitchen Impossible to German television to the internationally adapted Chefs to Go (Mälzer and Henssler deliver!), the collaboration has been characterized by boundless creativity.

The driving force behind this success is the EndemolShine Germany team, led by Executive Director Sven Steffensmeier, and, of course, Tim. With his quick-wittedness, charm and distinctiveness, Tim brings a breath of fresh air into German kitchens. At the same time, he can rely on the experienced team at EndemolShine Germany to deliver entertaining and gripping formats.

TV FORMATS: Is there an established network of chefs and talent you can now tap into?
TOBIAS: Thanks to our many years of work in the culinary genre, we can indeed draw on a reliable network of enthusiastic and creative chefs.

TV FORMATS: How is the overall demand for culinary entertainment at the moment?
TOBIAS: Cooking, awareness of nutrition and creative cuisine are incredibly popular topics across all target groups. Coupled with celebrity chefs and emerging food trends, it is a very attractive genre for all platforms and formats. What is needed here is cross-platform cooperation and strategic brand partnerships, which we have already successfully implemented for shows, including Kitchen Impossible.

TV FORMATS: What will be the initial aim and goals for Potatohead in the first 12 to 18 months?
TOBIAS: Our motto is, No Limits! Our focus will be on creating new ideas for Tim and other talent; formats that can travel abroad. We know that creative energy needs space and time to evolve, but as Tim and Sven both have extremely implementation-oriented approaches, I’m sure we’ll be hearing news from Potatohead Pictures very soon.

TV FORMATS: Long-term, what do you hope for the new venture?
TOBIAS: We will look to capitalize on EndemolShine Germany’s existing success in carving its reputation across genres. Already, it is a go-to for competition reality after the launch of LEGO Masters, a champion of studio entertainment hits, running The Masked Singer in the region and a robust deliverer of long-running franchises, including Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? Germany.

With this new subsidiary, we want to become the one-stop shop for content with exceptional expertise within the culinary genre. A key part of this will be building out our reputation as the best home and partner for chef talent, and we hope to work with all aspects of the industry, creating food and non-food hit formats for all platforms, both nationally and internationally.