Guy's Grocery Games (often nicknamed Triple G) is an American reality-based cooking television game show hosted by Guy Fieri on Food Network. Each episode features four chefs competing in a three-round elimination contest, cooking food with ingredients found in a supermarket grocery store ("Flavortown Market") as Fieri poses unusual challenges to them. The winning chef can collect up to $20,000 in a shopping spree bonus round. The show is a sequel to Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.
Video Guy's Grocery Games
Format
In each round, Guy assigns a dish and issues a challenge to the chefs. Then they have 30 minutes to shop for ingredients from the market, prepare, and plate their dishes. The chefs must cook their dishes and complete four platings (three for the judges and one "beauty plate") before time runs out. At the end of each round, the judges will taste and evaluate the dishes and select one chef to be "checked out" - eliminated from the game with no winnings. The judges are introduced by Guy during the first round. There are two judging tables for the judges, one when the chefs are shopping and cooking and one during judgings and eliminations.
The winning chef advances to the bonus round, "Guy's Shopping Spree," in which he/she has two minutes to find one specific item in each of the market's 10 aisles and put it in his/her cart. The chef may pass on an item and return to that aisle later if time allows. Each item found is worth $2,000, for a potential top prize of $20,000. Chefs must be 18 years or older to appear on the show.
Maps Guy's Grocery Games
Challenges
A wide variety of challenges and games are used in the show with new games added as the series progresses (and some games tweaked or changed a little). The more common examples include:
ABC Game: A letter is picked out of a jar and all ingredients used in a dish must begin with that letter.
Aisle Down: Not announced until the contestants begin shopping; the aisle containing one or more key ingredients for their dish is blocked off by police tape so the chefs must quickly find an alternative.
Budget Battle: The contestants are given a set amount of money to shop for ingredients. There's often specials or coupons around the store to help them out.
Cart/Station Swap: Used mainly in final rounds with two chefs; after shopping the two contestants must swap carts or stations, so they're forced to cook with the each other's ingredients.
Can Can: Contestants are only allowed to use canned food items in their dish.
Closing Time: Mid-shopping, an announcement is made that the store is closing, limiting the time the chefs can spend in the aisles.
Express Lane: A minimum number of ingredients are imposed on the contestants (ranging from 5 ingredients to 12 ingredients or less).
Flip This Dish: A list of ingredients are given for a specific food (usually a dessert). The contestants are then asked to use the ingredients to make something completely different (usually something savory).
Food Pyramid: Like the game "plinko", a ball is dropped down a peg-covered pyramid to determine what ingredients, on three levels, must be featured in a dish.
Food Wheel: This often involves two wheels that are spun; there are several variations of this game where the wheels list: mandatory ingredients, the amount of money they can use, the aisle they can shop in, and/or what overall color the dish must be. The most popular variation of this game is the High/Low Food Wheel where one wheel has luxurious, expensive ingredients and the other one has low-end ingredients (and the contestants have to use both food items in their dish).
Frozen Food Feud: The chefs are only allowed to use frozen items in their dishes.
Grocery Bowl Using re-labeled soda bottles as pins and melons as balls, contestants must knock down "pins" representing a desirable ingredient or aisle they want to use (some variations of this game have pins left standing representing ingredients they must use in their dish).
Grocery List: Each chef is given a list of items that must be incorporated into that round's dish (a mix of specific food items and more generic suggestions like "something from aisle 6" or "something under $1.99). A variation of this game is Emoji List where the ingredients are represented by emojis.
Keep It Sample: The chefs must incorporate at least 2 ingredients from 4 different sample tables located throughout the store in their dish.
Kiddie Carts: The chefs must use child-size shopping carts to collect their ingredients in one trip through the market.
Let It Roll: The chefs roll a set of dice (sometimes it's 4 different dice) to determine the constraints for the assigned dish (e.g. required ingredients and equipment, budget, shopping time, etc.)
Meals From The Middle: Contestants can only use groceries from the middle aisles, composed of everything except for fresh produce and frozen food.
Musical Carts: A song plays during the shopping phase but when it stops, the contestants must abandon their cart and find another one (usually their fellow contestant's cart). Variations on this game include switching to abandoned carts with some undesirable ingredients.
No Carts Allowed: Contestants can only make 1 trip to shop for whatever they can carry in their hands (they can get creative and use vessels they find in the store to help carry their groceries).
Odd or Even: Based on a coin toss, the chefs may only shop in either the odd or even-numbered aisles.
One Ingredient Per Aisle: Contestants must use one ingredient from each of the store's 10 aisles beginning with Aisle 10 and ending with Aisle 1.
Red Light Special: During the round, one item in the store is marked with a sign and a flashing red light, and the chefs must get that item and incorporate it into their dish. The item is typically not associated with the assigned dish, such as beef jerky for a dessert.
Single Aisle Showdown: The chefs are only allowed to shop in one aisle for the whole round.
Spreeball: A version of the arcade game skeeball where contestants must roll an orange into a target to determine what food they'll have to incorporate into their dish (the hard-to-reach higher target has a more desirable ingredient while the bottom target has a less desirable ingredient).
Think Small: The chefs may use only the ingredients they can fit in a small shopping bag during one trip through the market.
Time-Out: Used mid-round when pairs of chefs are competing. One chef in each pair must leave the station and write instructions for the other on a chalkboard, without speaking.
Un-gredient List: After being given their dish theme, the chefs get a list of 4 typical ingredients used in the dish and are then forbidden to use them, forcing them to find substitutes.
Watch Your Weight: The contestants are given a weight limit on the amount of food they can get for an assigned dish/theme (they have to weigh their items on a produce scale and make sure they don't go over).
Special challenges and episodes
In "Holly, Jolly Meals", a special box could be picked up in the bonus round for an additional $5,000, bringing the top prize to $25,000.
"Moms Know Best" was a Mother's Day challenge in which four mothers competed and Fieri's wife made a guest appearance.
"Grocery Grillin'" was a special episode (dubbed Guy's Grocery Grilling Games or Quadruple G) for Food Network's Grilling Week where the contestants had to make grilled dishes.
In "Food Network Stars Take Over Flavortown", former Food Network Star winners Jeff Mauro, Aaron McCargo Jr., Melissa d'Arabian, and Justin Warner competed for charities of their choice. Aaron won with $20,000 and the runners-up' charities each got $3,500.
"Food Network All-Stars Take to the Aisles" has Chopped judges Marc Murphy and Alex Guarnaschelli, Iron Chef Cat Cora, and TV Host Marcel Vigneron competing. The winner was Alex with $18,000 and the runners-up each got $5,000 for their charities.
In "Grandma's Grocery Games", Guy's mother appeared on the show alongside the four Grandmas. The winner Celinda was able to take home $18,000 to her grandkids. Food Network employee and former Nickelodeon host Marc Summers served as a guest judge in this episode.
From November 30 to December 27, 2015, a 5-part "Tournament Of Champions" took place featuring 16 returning champions. Like most tournaments on Chopped and Cutthroat Kitchen, the 16 chefs compete 4 at a time in 4 heats. The winner of each heat won a $20,000 Shopping Spree and returned for the finals for a chance to win a trophy and another $20,000 Shopping Spree for a total grand prize of up to $40,000.
Starting January 3, 2016, and continuing for 4 more episodes is a "Diners, Drive-Ins And Dives Tournament" featuring 16 chefs who have appeared with Guy Fieri on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Like the Tournament Of Champions, 4 chefs played over 4 heats, with the winner of each heat earning a $20,000 Shopping Spree and returning for the finals for a chance at a trophy and another $20,000 Shopping Spree for a grand prize of up to $40,000.
Beginning April 3, 2016, and continuing for 4 more episodes is a "Redemption Tournament" featuring 16 former losing chefs seeking redemption and competing to win both a trophy and a grand prize of up to $40,000. Round 1 of heat 2 marked the 1st instance on the show where a chef's food was inadmissible from blood. To compensate, Guy gave the other 3 chefs the option to either eliminate the affected chef, or allow all 4 chefs to advance, resulting in a double-elimination for round 2. The chefs chose the 2nd option.
Notable Contestants
Lenny McNab, the winner of Season 10 of Food Network Star was in the Episode "The Ol' Switcheroo. Bill Travers was on MasterChef (U.S. season 7), but was eliminated in episode 1 and was on "Guilty Pleasures"
Set
Season 1 was shot inside of an actual grocery store, Field's Market in West Hills, California.[1] For Season 2, the market was built in a 15,500 square foot warehouse in Santa Rosa, CA. It was built over two weeks and stocked with over $700,000 of food. After each episode, the perishable items were donated to local food banks and local farmers; non-perishable items are being kept in the event Food Network ordered another season beyond Season 3.[2]
Episodes
References
External links
- Official website
Source of article : Wikipedia
0 Comments