LatAm Buyers Hungry for Top Chef

NEW YORK: After finding success in markets across Europe, the Middle East and Asia, the format for the hit U.S. cooking competition Top Chef has circled back to the Americas with a number of local Spanish-language adaptations.

NBCUniversal International Formats, which owns the show’s format rights, recently inked a deal with producers Cinemateli Content for a Mexican version of the unscripted series. The 13×1-hour Top Chef Mexico is slated to debut in February on Canal Sony in that country, as well as on the U.S. Hispanic channel NBC Universo.

“The show will be quintessentially Mexican,” says Barrie Kelly, the VP of international format production and development at NBCUniversal International Studios. “The producers have really thought through how to incorporate Mexican culture into the format while keeping in all of the drama, the cooking challenges and the characters, making sure that the reality aspect is always strong.”

The competition, which pits professional chefs against each other in a variety of culinary battles, has aired on U.S. cable channel Bravo since 2006. And while a Spanish-language spin-off featuring celebrities ran for two seasons on the U.S. Hispanic network Telemundo, Latin American buyers took note of the format once a highly popular version premiered in Spain, Kelly says.

“What really pushed [the format] over the edge for the Latin American market was the production of Top Chef in Spain,” Kelly notes. “The first season was an incredible success. The Spain team stamped their own authority on the show and it became a very distinctive product.”

Produced by Boomerang TV for Antena 3, the Spanish series first aired in 2013 and is currently in its third season. It features some key differences from its U.S. counterpart, including an extra challenge and a two-hour running time. “Internationally, the format itself is quite different from the American version,” Kelly adds.

Soon after Spain’s reworking of the show proved a hit with audiences, TVN in Chile picked up the format for a local adaptation. Boomerang TV also pitched in with that production, which launched last year.

“Because the Spanish producers were heavily involved, Top Chef Chile followed the Spanish template, so a lot of the Spanish principles were included in that version,” Kelly explains. “That was a lovely bridge between the shows, and it opened up the Latin American market.”

The format then traveled to Central America, where the Telecorporación Salvadoreña (TCS) media group localized it for El Salvador. That version debuted this September on TCS’s Canal 4.

“Not all Top Chef versions are exactly the same—they’re all a variation on a theme, but the principle is always the same,” Kelly says. “I call it the three Cs: it’s about cooking; it’s about challenges, which are incredibly innovative and fresh compared to most other cooking reality shows; and it’s also about character.”

Serving up dollops of local cuisine helps, too. In the Salvadoran version, for example, Kelly notes that the competitors at one point were told to whip up their own takes on pupusas, corn-tortilla treats that would have been familiar to the territory’s audience.

“These versions really are representing their countries in terms of cuisine, with time spent on both traditional dishes and more contemporary cuisine as well,” Kelly says.

That attention to local detail will also play a major role in the upcoming Mexican production, which has begun filming in a Mexico City studio, with challenges also planned in several external locations. And though Kelly states that Mexico’s version will hew more closely to the U.S. series than to Spain’s, it will nonetheless keep food as its main focus.

“Cuisine is so important to Spanish and Latin American viewers in terms of the family eating around the table together, and it kind of feels like [Top Chef has] tapped into that culture,” the executive says. “The audiences are really embracing all of these fantastic chefs and the meals that they create.”