Food Network to Premiere EXTREME CHEF Season 2, 8/16

Food Network takes seven of America's most fearless chefs out of their kitchens and drops them into some of the most extreme locations in the second season of EXTREME CHEF, premiering Thursday, August 16th at 10pm ET/PT. Over the course of five episodes, from the scorching deserts of California to the exotic jungles of Thailand, the chefs test their physical prowess, mental toughness and culinary skills as they compete in grueling and seemingly impossible culinary challenges including pulling out needles from a cactus pad to create a tasty dish, and creating a meal in 60 minutes on a floating dock, while the chefs rescue their ingredients from a capsized fishing boat in the ocean. Hosted by TV veteran and seasoned world traveler Marsh Mokhtari, each episode features the chefs competing in challenges judged by a rotating panel of notable guest judges, with the bottom two chefs facing off in a final showdown challenge to determine which chef goes home. In the end, one chef is able to consider themselves the most Extreme while taking home a $50,000 grand prize. Special guest judges this season include Simon Majumdar (Next Iron Chef judge, food journalist), Ben Sargent (host of Cooking Channel's Hook, Line & Dinner), and TRoy Johnson (host of Crave, food critic and journalist).

Episodes include:

"Doomsday Survival" - Premieres Thursday, August 16th at 10:00pm ET/PT
Seven chefs begin their culinary adventure of a lifetime when a helicopter drops them into Salton City, California, an abandoned post-apocalyptic wasteland, where they're left to scavenge for ingredients and tools. The chefs have only 60 minutes to raid a deserted tent village for non-perishable ingredients, build their own cooking stations, and use items like steel wool, batteries and tumbleweed to start a fire. After a tough round of judging, two chefs are sent into the Final Showdown, where they must create the perfect bite - only one will survive the apocalypse and advance to the next location.
Competitors: Scott Brandolini (Mass.), Susanne Dillingham (N.C.), Terry French (N.J.), Lance Knowling (N.J.), Viet Pham (Utah), Isadora Sarto (Vt.), Tiffany Ward (Hawaii)
Judges: Simon Majumdar, Mykel Hawke (survival expert)

"Coast Guard Cook-Off" - Premieres Thursday, August 23rd at 10:00pm ET/PT
The remaining six chefs head to Los Angeles to join the U.S. Coast Guard for a cooking adventure in the Pacific Ocean. In the first challenge, they create a dish using military MREs (Meal, Ready to Eat) and a seafood protein that they pull up from traps in the water. Then, for the first time ever, the winner gets to assign teams for the second challenge, where the chefs have 60 minutes to not only rescue their ingredients from a capsized fishing boat in the frigid ocean, but also cook two cohesive dishes on a floating dock. After the tasting and judging, two chefs will cook for their lives in the Final Showdown, enduring rocky waves as they cook one perfect bite in the crampEd Galley of a Coast Guard Cutter.
Judges: Ben Sargent, Brandon Langdon (head chef of the Coast Guard "Cutter Halibut")

"Desert Survival"- Premieres Thursday, August 30th at 10:00pm ET/PT
The remaining five chefs go back in time to cook like the Native American Indians. For their first challenge, the chefs hack off spiny cactus pads from the desert, pull out all the needles and create a tasty dish for judge Graywolf of the Yoeme Indian Tribe. In the second challenge, the chefs gather local ingredients and tools from a Native American village to create a gourmet meal, all while building their own fires and constructing knives using nothing but an obsidian rock. Two chefs are then sent into the Final Showdown, where they cook indigenous desert ingredients on hot rocks to create the perfect bite to stay in the competition.
Judges: TRoy Johnson, Graywolf (Curator of the Chumash Indian Museum)