Come Dine With Me is to launch a spin-off series featuring professional chefs and restaurateurs.
Channel 4 will broadcast a new version of the amateur cookery show, in which contestants try to throw the best three-course dinner party, this time focusing on local restaurants.
Come Dine With Me: The Professionals will be a competitor to the BBC’s MasterChef: The Professionals.
Each episode will feature three local eateries, each represented by a partnership of two – such as the owner and head chef – vying for a cash prize shared among their staff and to be named the best of their town, county or city.
Compliments to the chef! Restaurants will go head-to-head in new daytime series Come Dine With Me: The Professionals – coming later this year to @Channel4 and All 4. #CDWMhttps://t.co/cPzrFbnl17 pic.twitter.com/fWXrMcGK01
— Channel 4 Press (@C4Press) January 12, 2022
They will host their rivals for a meal during normal service, so their visitors will be able to assess the atmosphere, food and quality of service.
At the end of each meal, the pairs will score the evening out of 20 in a similar manner to the original version of the show.
Narrator Dave Lamb will return to his humorous observations and scathing criticism of the contestants’ food and interior design.
Jo Street, Channel 4’s head of daytime and features, said: “Come Dine With Me continues to be one of Channel 4’s best loved programmes with many memorable dinners served all over the UK in over 2,000 episodes.
“CDWM: The Professionals promises to really raise the stakes and we’re delighted to dish up this new extension on Channel 4 in 2022 to complement existing favourites Come Dine With Me and Couples Come Dine With Me.”
Simone Haywood from production studio MultiStory Media said: “Come Dine With Me: The Professionals pays homage to one of the nation’s most-loved industries.
“We’re looking forward to heading across the country to meet some of the UK’s best restaurateurs and chefs in this new twist on our classic format.”
MultiStory Media chief executive Tim Carter said: “For 15 glorious years, we’ve been celebrating the culinary creations and epic fails that pour forth from the nation’s home kitchens.
“Now, as they recover from the battering of the last couple of years, Come Dine With Me cheers on Britain’s restaurants with its customary love note to gastronomic endeavour.”
The original format has been commissioned in 45 territories across the world, including Sweden, the United Arab Emirates and Brazil.
Come Dine With Me: The Professionals will begin on Channel 4 and All 4 later this year.