Geoffrey Zakarian to take a “Big Restaurant Bet” for Food Network and Discovery+

Celebrity chef Geoffrey Zakarian will anchor a new culinary competition series for the Food Network and Discovery+ that will see eight professional chefs fight to win US$250,000 of seed money to help launch their own restaurants.

Big Restaurant Bet (6 x 60 min.) will see Zakarian welcome the competitors to coastal Florida, home of his restaurants Point Royal and Counter Point. There, he and his fellow judges — his wife and business partner Margaret Zakarian and hospitality consultant and executive chef Eric Haugen — will evaluate them in a series of elimination challenges that will test their culinary skills, business acumen, and grace under pressure.

The series will culminate in a head-to-head battle between the two last chefs standing as they must manage the cooking, staffing, and operational logistics of a full-scale restaurant takeover. The winner will receive a US$250,000 investment from Zakarian himself to help make their restaurant dream a reality.

“Ask any chef to name one of the greatest professionals they have ever seen in a kitchen, and Geoffrey Zakarian is on everyone’s list,” said Courtney White, president of Food Network and streaming food content for Discovery Inc., in a release. “In Big Restaurant Bet, we watch Geoffrey and his team put themselves out there like never before as they risk their own business on the future of one very talented chef.”

Big Restaurant Bet is produced by BSTV Entertainment and Corner Table Entertainment, and will premiere on the Food Network and Discovery+ on April 5 (broadcast premiere at 10 p.m.), with subsequent episodes airing and streaming weekly.