9:46AM, Oct 30, 2009
Well, Gordon Ramsay certainly knows when to step out of a boiling kitchen.
The recession has brought the carving knife down on the show he helped establish, leaving Marco Pierre White out in the cold.
Hell's Kitchen has been branded 'too expensive' and ITV1 bosses have decided to scrap the concept, but craftily reboot it in a budget-friendly, differently named incarnation.
Moody head chef Marco Pierre White, who's been in residence for the last two series, will still reside/shout over proceedings as a new group of C-list celebs fight to be crowned winner on the newly titled 'Marco's Kitchen Burnout'.
But the show will now be filmed in a real life London restaurant (who's betting one of White's own will grab some publicity-friendly face time?), and diners will now have to fork out their own cash for the meals (which regularly turn up late, undercooked and cold).
The format has also been subject to a shake-up, and while twelve chefs will compete against each other, they'll be split into three a night and compete over the space of four weeks, before a semi-final and grand finale eventually decides the winner.
The prospective chefs will also not be forced to live together, which will inevitably reduce bills.
So from the looks of it, we'll be seeing Celebrity Masterchef by way of a more shouty authoritarian. We're intrigued...
