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Secret Recipe to TEN series

There may be new judges for Season 2, but Recipe to Riches puts more focus on the ambitions of its contestants.

2014-10-19_2342They may have switched up the judges for Recipe to Riches, but the subtle change in TEN’s second season is in giving a greater focus to the contestants.

This year there is less time spent on ‘auditions’ in order to profile the people who have big dreams for their home recipes -one of which will win a business partnership with Woolworths.

“We decided to spend less time on the Golden Ticket. When the show starts it’s straight into the action so you get to know a lot more about the characters themselves and the stories behind their recipes,” says chef Darren Robertson.

“Last time we probably spent a bit too much time on the Golden Ticket.

“It’s better this year because you get more backstory and some connection to the characters themselves. But the rest of it is pretty much the same.”

Robertson returns as a judge along with Carman’s Fine Foods founder Carolyn Creswell, TEN’s own Russel Howcroft and Jess Gill from Woolworths.

The Canadian format again sees home cooks put through the hoops in a Kitchen batch up, Marketing and Product launch challenges, with $10,000 on offer each week and winning products available in stores across the country the next day.

“There’s party food, breakfast ideas, BBQ, and the first week is Baking. I’m not allowed to give away any of the products themselves,” says Robertson.

“There are many interesting characters, some of whom can’t ‘cook’ to save their lives. But it doesn’t really matter.

“Coming into a commercial kitchen for probably the first time in their lives it’s interesting to see how they react to equipment, ingredients and delegating.

“To me that’s one of the most exciting parts. We’re not after Australia’s best cook, we’re just trying to find the best recipe. So you get all sorts of colourful characters. As long as they know their recipe inside out and what goes into it.

“I have nothing to do with the marketing or the product launch, only the batch-up and the final deliberation. The two most important stages!”

The grand finalist is determined purely by a week of product sales, winning $100,000 and a business partnership with Woolies. FremantleMedia license the product while Woolworths own the subsequent commercialised product recipe, shared in an undisclosed commercial arrangement with the winner.

Last year’s winner, Victorian Garth Midgeley won $100,000 for his Choccorn creation, which is still on supermarket shelves, albeit at $3.99 down from its original $7.99 price tag.

“The public basically determines who will win the grand final by the amount of units sold.

“Some things are more expensive to produce but I’m sure they adjust for something that costs $10 as opposed to a biscuit that costs $3.

“I’m not sure of how much, who owns. But I’m not sure how much TEN owns. Certainly I won’t own any of it!”

With 8 episodes and a yet to be filmed grand final, the finale won’t get to air until after the end of the 2014 ratings season.

“There’s a lot of infrastructure to get those products ready, and then it goes to air and the public buy the product –or not- and that’s how the winner is determined,” Robertson explains.

“It will be around December when we shoot the finale, but we have no idea who will win ourselves.”

Recipe to Riches airs 7:30pm Tuesday on TEN.

10 Responses

  1. Really integrated branding in shows now is a throw back to the past, like how the reason Soap Operas are called that is because they were the domain of soap manufacturers. Then you had the talk-shows that used to have the hosts doing adverts, most not all as hilarious as Graham Kennedy used to make them. Even in the US it used to happen, like when Humphrey Bogart sung the Lucky Strike song on the Jack Benny show.

    I remember Craig Ferguson talking on his show last year about how it is likely to come back in the US talk show circuit, so as those shows can survive. At least now we won’t get The Simpsons doing a cigarette commercial like The Flintstones did when Winston Cigarettes sponsored the show.

  2. I don’t know how this got another series considering the terrible ratings last season. One of the more intelligent reality shows though. However I don’t see it doing much better this year even though its got new judges.

  3. The current release of Chocorn is a different release to the version they had during the show and official rollout earlier this year. Rather than a box of 4 assorted flavours, its a pouch pack like you find M&Ms in and only has one flavour.
    I saw on the RtoR Facebook page the other day that the overly expensive but popular Sweet Billies has been brought back as a permanent item due to customer demand.

  4. Oh I thought Shark Tank was something completely different, but now I see it will be based on the US version of Dragon’s Den.
    Hopefully they don’t try and “jazz” up the format too much. Of course they probably won’t be able to help themselves….

  5. I hope this is a success. The show deserves it up against the crappy BB and tired Dancing. As for those complaining about how integrated the branding is in the show – it’s the future of TV, get uses to it people!

  6. Is it a shorter season this year? Last year from memory was 12 episodes. I really think they could have increased the shows to 2 per week, like they did with The Bachelor. That way they could have perhaps shown more of the start with the golden ticket process etc. I know it’s a glorified Woolies commercial, but I actually really enjoy this show.

  7. Hopefully Woolworths won’t be as greedy this time around. The Chocorn was a nice idea but putting it on shelf at $8 a box was just ridiculous. I didn’t actually know it is $4 now so I will have to check that out!

    I will definitely be tuning in to watch this. Although I just wish Ch 10 would do a full blown local version of Dragons Den.

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