The cooking reality shows just keep coming. The Food Network will debut its newest elimination series, Worst Cooks in America, on January 3rd. The five-week series will put “12 of the most hopeless cooks in the country” through a boot camp led by Anne Burrell, host of Food Network's Secrets of a Restaurant Chef, and Beau MacMillan, executive chef at elements in Phoenix. The cooks (i.e. not chefs) will be divided into two teams and then put through a series of challenges. The last two cooks will prepare dishes for a group of judges and compete for the grand prize of $25,000. No Glad Wrap. But, yes, Jeffrey Steingarten is involved. No wonder the man has gotten so grumpy: the Food Network has been systematically torturing him.

According to Bob Tuschman, the Food Network's Senior Vice President of Programming and Production, “Watching the worst cooks in America struggle to become great cooks makes a show that is very funny, dramatic and moving. Ultimately, it offers hope for even the most kitchen-challenged of our viewers.” In other words, it's an inspirational reality show. Kind of like Gordon Ramsay meets Deepak Chopra. Of course it is.

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