More Celebrities Coming To Food Network With Series 'Star Plates'

Photo - Multivu

A new series called Star Plates is scheduled to begin on Food Network on Tuesday, September 27th at 11pm.  In the series, celebrities will be "stepping into their favorite restaurant kitchens for a culinary crash course - cooking on the line with their favorite chef"  They will work side-by-side with the chef and have to serve a dining room of paying customers.

This continues the trend of Food Network using celebrities (and kids) on their programming, but what is interesting about Star Plates is that it was supposed to be on Cooking Channel.  It actually had a pilot in 2015 with Judy Greer working with Chef Antonia Lofaso, and even last month there was a press release about Star Plates which said it would premiere on Cooking Channel in August.  Perhaps this is the reason Star Plates is in a 11pm timeslot because Food Network doesn't usually have new shows airing at 11pm.

The celebrity/chef pairings and air dates are below and the celebrities seem like a step up from the normal ones that appear on Food Network:

• September 27th - Actress Mindy Kaling and Chef Marcus Samuelsson
• October 4th -  Actress Alyson Hannigan and Chef Michael Voltaggio
• October 11th - Actress Busy Philipps and Chef Dakota Weiss
• October 18th - Actor Colin Hanks and Chef Vinny Dotola
• October 25th - Sportscaster and television personality Erin Andrews and Chef Susan Feniger
• November 1st - Actress Minka Kelly and Chef Geoffrey Zakarian

The press release for the Food Network is below courtesy of Multivu:

Restaurant: Impossible Has Been Canceled

It looks like Food Network has decided not to renew Restaurant: Impossible and the show has been canceled according to a tweet by Robert Irvine.  He tweeted, "Guys after 13 seasons and 170 episodes of Restaurant Impossible,network has decided not to renew it.awesome time and thanks for watching"

Guys after 13 seasons and 170 episodes of Restaurant Impossible,network has decided not to renew it.awesome time and thanks for watching

— Robert Irvine (@RobertIrvine) August 7, 2016

Restaurant: Impossible was on Food Network for 13 seasons over a span of six years and Robert Irvine and his team were responsible for making over 140 failing restaurants.  Of those 140 restaurants, only about 50 of them remain open as of today's date.  Robert Irvine has always claimed a much higher success rate than reality and even yesterday claimed 70% of the restaurants survived, but his definition of success may be different than open vs. closed.

Robert Irvine is currently filming his new talk show that will be on CW in September, but that was not the reason for Restaurant: Impossible ending.

Robert also followed up with another tweet that said, "Hopefully we will have more @FoodNetwork shows in the future . I will keep you informed .. Love to you all."  So, you will probably still be seeing Robert Irvine on Food Network.


Even though Restaurant: Impossible has been canceled, I will still keep the Restaurant Impossible Updates page up-to-date and mark restaurants "Closed" as they close.  Restaurant: Impossible brought a lot of traffic to this site so I don't want to see it go, but a lot of the readers here thought it was time for the show to end.

Food Network's August 2016 Programming Highlights

A little late with this, but here are some of the highlights of the Food Network programming scheduled to air on the channel in August:

Photo - Food Network

• The Chopped Grill Masters Napa finale which already aired and Sophina Uong won $50,000.
• The series premiere of Food Network Star Kids on Monday, August 22nd at 8pm.
• A Chopped Teen Tournament starting on Tuesday, August 23rd at 10pm with the grand prize being $25,000.
• Cutthroat Kitchen - Camp Cutthroat 2: Alton's revenge begins on Wednesday, August 24th at 10pm.  The episode descriptions do not have the competitors, but there are three Food Network Star alums on this - Rue Rusike, Aaron Crumbaugh, and Emilia Cirker. (Link)
• A family edition of The Great Food Truck Race that begins on Sunday, August 28th at 9pm.
• The premiere of Guy's Superstar Grocery Games on Sunday, August 28th at 8pm.  Eight celebrity chefs will compete until there are four chefs remaining.  The final four will compete for $40,000 for their charity.
• The series premiere of daytime show Smollett Eats Saturday, August 20th at 12:30pm. 
• New primetime episodes of Beat Bobby Flay, Cake Wars, Chopped, Chopped After Hours, Chopped Junior, Cooks vs. Cons, Cupcake Wars, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and Guy’s Grocery Games
• New daytime episodes of Brunch @ Bobby's, Giada in Italy, The Kitchen, Patricia Heaton Parties, The Pioneer Woman, Trisha’s Southern Kitchen and Valerie’s Home Cooking. 

A press release with episode descriptions and air dates is below: