Chefs vs. City

Did You Know?

• In 2014, Cosentino gave a talk at the MAD Symposium about regretting his participation in the series.
• Cosentino suffered third-degree alkaline burns on his stomach lining from the eating challenges, which he said took five years to recover from.

Show format

The show is set in a different major U.S. city each episode. Two teams face off: Food Network chefs Chris Sanchez and Aaron Cosentino versus two local chefs from that city. Each contestant starts with a backpack containing tools and a dossier for the first challenge. Both teams get a Ford Expedition to drive between stops. At each stop, they must finish a food-related task—like eating an extremely spicy or oversized dish, sorting products, or cooking—before getting the next dossier. After the final task, the teams race together through a finish line. In season one, they ran to the finish; in season two, they drove partway and then ran. Season two also had shorter directions on challenge signs. The first five episodes of season two matched Sanchez and Cosentino against other Food Network stars acting as the city team. Across all twenty episodes, Chris and Aaron won fourteen times and lost six.