TX: Friday 16^th April, 9pm

In the first week of this brand new show, TV presenter Donna Air, journalist Kelvin Mackenzie and Coronation Street actress Tupele Dorgu face the ultimate cooking challenge when they step into Marco’s kitchen.  They have just 72 hours to prepare themselves before they must each cook a full service for 25 diners each. 

To begin, Marco needs to judge how well they can cook and sets them the challenge of cooking a fish main course for 12 Olympic athletes.  The contestants step into one of Marco’s restaurants and he watches their performances closely.  The outcome of this challenge will affect the rest of their time during this first round of Kitchen Burnout.

Before the task begins they are first given a ‘simple test’ by Marco – they have two and a half minutes to collect everything on a list form the Burnout Food Truck. Forgetting the essential, Halibut and the Dover Sole, leads Marco to conclude that they are easily panicked and forgetful.

Back at the challenge restaurant, Kelvin steams the halibut, Donna pan fries the cod and Tupele griddles the tuna steak.  Marco watches carefully to decide who wins the challenge.

At the Burnout Restaurant the celebrities must design their menu and practice their three main courses for Marco.  The winner of the previous challenge gets to raid the Burnout Truck first.    

During the service each celebrity will have to cook three types of main courses for their diners.  Tupele chooses salmon, chicken and steak.  Kelvin selects cod, the rest of the steak and chicken…as well as a watermelon.  Donna has liver, cod and salmon. 

After a practice run for Marco, the chef makes his comments on how well he thinks they are doing.  He believes one of them knows how to cook, another will be fine in service as long as they focus, but that one will be overwhelmed but cooking for 25 diners.

On the morning of the service, the celebrities set about preparing everything in time for feeding that evening’s diners.  The diners will be scoring the celebrities.  Whoever receives the highest score will automatically go through to the semi-final.  Marco will choose one of the remaining two to join them.  As the diners arrive, Marco reveals to the celebrities that they can call upon his time if they get into trouble.  But it will come at a cost – for every minute bought, a point will be deducted from their final score.

The highest scorer moves straight into the semi finals.  For the remaining two, they wait nervously as Marco decides their fate.