Curtis Stone is on a roll
Curtis Stone
Curtis Stone chats with Jonathon Moran about being a celebrity chef.
News Digital Media12 February 2010
HE is fast proving himself to be a mini-mogul - with a big-buck TV deal, supermarket chain contract, cookbook empire and cooking utensil line.
Now Aussie celebrity chef Curtis Stone, who was recently named the new host of US cable show Top Chef Masters, will helm an ambitious new program that he hopes will be the next big thing in reality television.
Stone is set to team up with superstar chefs Bobby Flay, Lorena Garcia and Steve Ells on America's Next Great Restaurant which puts aspiring restauraters through their paces in a series of culinary and business challenges - with the winner seeing their concept brought to life in a number of locations.
The show premiered to glowing reviews in the US on Friday night with one critic tipping the show to be a major broadcast smash.
"With a tone that is more positive than negative, America's Next Great Restaurant is one show I expect will beat the odds," glows the National Public Radio, while Variety commends the show for being "admirably low on trash-TV antics, lending it additional family-friendly appeal in the 8pm slot".
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No word yet if the show is destined for Australian screens.
The project is the latest in a string of commercial successes for Stone, fresh from signing a rumoured $20 million, four-year deal with Coles along with his hugely popular appearance on the US version of The Celebrity Apprentice 3.
Stone - 45th in Business Review Weekly's top 50 richest entertainers list of 2010 with annual earnings of $2.2 million - hosted two seasons of Take Home Chef on cable TV from 2006 to 2008. |
In case you missed it: Curtis Stone with Oprah Winfrey on Queensland's Hamilton Island in December. Source: Supplied