In My Kitchen is a brand new You Tube channel in which professional chefs are challenged to create a delicious two-course meal for six guests using only the ingredients in show creator Giselle Whiteaker's ordinary London apartment. The only concession: they can bring their own knives and one magic ingredient. This is a real chance for professionals to showcase their skills and individual style in an environment where they have much less control than usual,” says Giselle. “I just buy what I would normally at supermarkets and the chefs have to use their talents to create two spectacular dishes. The guests are drawn at random from friends, acquaintances and friends of friends – and that means an extra challenge to deal with individual tastes and dietary requirements. And all in under two hours.”
The first series of six shows has just been launched featuring chef Gio Renzo Fioraso. Like all the professionals in this series, he works with London-based private chef agency La Belle Assiette. Using his Italian heritage chef Gio's first course was a classic spaghetti carbonara topped with his magic ingredient - slivers of pan-fried guanciale. He then stretched across Europe for a Tarta di Santiago for dessert.
A 10-minute episode will be released every fortnight, with the next scheduled for Wednesday 13th January, 2016. In the intervening weeks, short videos of the next featured chefs will be published.
Upcoming chefs include Masterchef quarter finalist Rani Pathare as well as Tony Valentino Locke, Joe Davis (also a Masterchef quarter finalist), Francisco Pais and Emma Ackerman – all jury-validated professionals on the books of La Belle Assiette.
“It's a varied line-up with chefs specialising in Italian, Indian, Sardinian, modern British and international fusion cuisine and fine dining,” says Giselle. “They each have their own skills and influences and unlike other cooking shows, where chefs seem to use only the best and most expensive ingredients, In My Kitchen demonstrates how much a good cook can achieve just by looking in the fridge and the cupboard.”
In My Kitchen is supported by a full social media campaign on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and through its own website (details below).
The producers are already working towards the second series. They are keen to encourage future participation in the project from sponsors such as supermarkets and wine distributors, PRs wanting to promote the skills and raise the profile of chefs and from guests.