Top Chef VIP is ready to welcome 16 celebrities into television’s most demanding kitchen starting Tuesday, August 9 at 7pm/6c on Telemundo. In preparation for this epic reality show hosted by Carmen Villalobos — alongside renowned chefs Antonio de Livier, Adria Marina Montaño and Juan Manuel Barrientos as judges — here are five fun facts about the cooking competition where only one of the competitors will win the coveted title and $100,000 in cash:
1. Telemundo’s Top Chef VIP is the only version in the United States that features celebrity contestants competing in the kitchen, including 9 renowned actors and actresses: Marlene Favela, Mauricio Islas, Gregorio Pernía, Héctor Suárez Gomís, Scarlet Ortiz, Lambda García, Horacio Pancheri, Ferdinando Valencia, and Rodrigo Vidal; 5 award-winning singers: Jennifer Peña, Graciela Beltrán, Luis Coronel, Aída Cuevas, and Cristina Eustace; a former Miss Universe titleholder, Zuleyka Rivera, and a social media star, Chiky Bombom.
2. Top Chef VIP celebrities will really sweat it out in the kitchen as they dive into the competition and must follow strict rules. As part of the competition, contestants receive basic cooking lessons on how to create sauces, desserts, balance a plate and make pasta from scratch, among others. They will use these learnings to face each demanding challenge and prove their individual culinary skills to determine who stays and who must leave the competition.
3. The Top Chef VIP kitchen includes 16 fully stocked cooking stations for the celebrity contestants. Each station has its own set of cooking utensils such as spatulas, spoons, knives, and other items needed to compete. There are over 800 kitchen essentials available to the participants, including plates, glasses, pots, strainers, blenders, and electric mixers, among others.
4. Top Chef VIP features a pantry full of all the items a chef could ever need, including more than 160 varieties of fruits and vegetables; 45 kinds of spices; 300 types of flour, sauces, and pastry products; 300 units of animal proteins, in addition to 125 types of dairy products and derivatives, among others. At the end of the competition, the products that are not used will be donated to social causes to avoid any food waste.
5. From the premiere through to the grand finale, the celebrity contestants will tackle more than 70 different cooking tests, including quickfire, team, immunity and elimination challenges, until a winner is crowned and take home the $100,000 cash prize and the coveted title of Top Chef VIP.
Featuring two-hour weekday episodes full of adrenaline, drama and surprises, Top Chef VIP presents a group of 16 celebrities who will enter the most demanding kitchen on television to test their skills and conquer the palates of the three renowned Latino chefs who will judge their performance and effort when cooking. Hosted by renowned actress Carmen Villalobos, alongside a judging panel made up of chefs Antonio de Livier, Adria Marina Montaño and Juan Manuel Barrientos, each of these celebrities will bring a mix of creativity, excitement, and a dash of drama throughout their journey in this epic family-friendly reality competition to win the coveted Top Chef VIP title and $100,000 cash prize.
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Audiences can watch Top Chef VIP live on Telemundo, or catch up on the Telemundo app (available on Google Play Store and Apple Store) and Telemundo.com. New episodes will also be available to stream next day on Peacock. Viewers can also visit Telemundo.com and the Telemundo Entretenimiento channel on YouTube to obtain exclusive content. Fans can join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter by following @Telemundo, @TelemundoRealities, #TopChefVIP and #TopChefVIPTLMD.
Top Chef VIP is a RCN production for Telemundo based on NBCUniversal Formats’ Top Chef franchise, under the executive production of Francisco “Cisco” Suarez, Executive Vice President of Programming for Realities and Primetime Specials of Telemundo, along with Luciano Cardinali and Fernando Lorente as executive producers.