Fern Britton hosts ITV’s new high-drama daytime cookery show Culinary Genius. 

Each hour-long episode will see nine amateur cooks head into a wrestling ring-style studio to do culinary battle. 

A different professional chef will preside over the kitchen each week, demonstrating two of the tasks for the competitors as well as the audience at home. 

Culinary legend Gordon Ramsay will be first to take to the floor in Week 1 and the fiery foodie will be looking for speed as well as accuracy across three intense rounds. 

Rosemary Shrager, Jean-Christophe Novelli and Phil Vickery will follow in later weeks, bringing their own unique style to the high-intensity kitchen. 

Battle One will see the contestants face a five-minute knife skills test. Nerves will be shredded as they are challenged to speedily chop ingredients before being judged by the professional chef on quality as well as quantity. The three weakest contestants will be immediately eliminated. 

Battle Two focuses on precision and skill. This ten-minute test is all about preparation as a carefully chosen ingredient is revealed to the remaining six competitors and they race to prepare it perfectly. 

Three more hopefuls will be sent home, leaving the remaining trio to face an exciting and thrilling cook-off in Battle Three. Here the chefs must use the ingredient they just prepped - and the studio’s stocked larder - to create a stunning dish in twenty five minutes worthy of the top cash prize and earn the title ‘Culinary Genius’.  

Starts Monday 17 April at 3pm - 4pm on ITV Continues Monday to Friday (weekdays) at 3pm on ITV 

Press contact: emma.daly@itv.com