Bravo has announced that it will premiere Chef Academy -- a new docu-reality series that will chronicle French chef Jean-Christophe Novelli's attempt to launch a culinary institute in Los Angeles -- on Monday, November 16 at 11PM ET/PT.
|
ADVERTISEMENT
|
Novelli is a Michelin and 5AA Rosette award-winning chef who currently operates restaurants in London, France and South Africa and was dubbed the "World's Sexiest Chef" by The New York Times. In addition, he also runs Novelli Academy Cookery School, a British culinary school that was voted one of the "Top 25 Cookery Schools in the World" within three months of its 2005 opening.
Chef Academy will follow Novelli's attempt to expand his business to America by temporarily moving to Los Angeles to run an eight-week test program for a new culinary institute he's attempting to launch in Venice, CA.
In addition to Novelli and the nine students who will be participating in the program, Chef Academy will also feature Steve Kitchen, Novelli's executive chef and "right-hand man;" his fiancee Michelle, who accompanied Novelli stateside despite being seven months pregnant; and Joel, a Los Angeles resident hired to serve as his temporary assistant.
While Chef Academy isn't a reality competition, Novelli's program does require the students to pass weekly tests and deems three failed tests to be grounds for dismissal.
"Of course I don't want anyone to fail. I want all the students to graduate," says Novelli.
In addition to a guest judge appearance on the fifth season of Bravo's Top Chef earlier this year, Novelli has previously appeared on numerous British reality series -- including The Games, Hell's Kitchen, The X-Factor: Battle of the Stars, Family Fortunes and You're Fired!.
Bravo ordered Chef Academy in June 2008 the series is being produced by Mentorn USA -- the same production company that produced the network's Work Out docu-reality series -- with Greg Johnston, Hannah Wyatt and Dan Barraclough serving as executive producers.
The nine students who will be participating in Novelli's school are:
- Kyle Daley, a 29-year-old from Salt Lake City, UT who currently resides in San Diego, CA
- Emmanuel DelCour, a French native who currently resides in Venice, CA
- Zoe Feigenbaum, a New York, NY resident.
- Leanard Goodloe, a28-year-old from New York, NY
- Sarah Jacobsen, a 29-year-old from Chicago, IL
- Kyle Kupiszewski a Virginia Beach, VA resident
- Carissa Loughead, a 26-year-old from Charlotte, NC
- Tracie Norfleet, a 46-year-old from Honolulu, HI and Venice, CA.
- Suzanne Winn, a 47-year-old from Mission Viejo, CA
About The Author: Steven Rogers
