Australian chefs in Netflix’s new ‘gladiatorial’ cooking show The Final Table
Australian chefs Shane Osborn and Mark Best have put their reputations on the line in Netflix's $20 million new show The Final Table.
Osborn is currently the owner of one Michelin-starred Arcane in Hong Kong, while Best is well-known for his breakthrough award on the San Pellegrino World's Best 50 for his former fine diner, Marque.
The duo are competing in the most expensive non-scripted series ever made, with each of the 10 episodes focusing on a different country and its cuisine with 12 teams of two cooking the national dishes of Mexico, Spain, England, Brazil, France, Japan, USA, India and Italy at the same time in a giant kitchen.
Osborn and Best will be judged by celebrity ambassadors, food critics and an acclaimed chef from that country. In the final episode, the members of the two remaining teams compete individually for the prize, a seat at the elite Final Table alongside nine revered chefs including Clare Smyth (Britain), Helena Rizzo (Brazil), Grant Achatz (US) and Carlo Cracco (Italy).
The ambitious show was filmed in a studio the size of a football field with 200 crew and cameras and will be broadcast in 190 countries to more than 130 million subscribers.
"I'm 48 years old and I've achieved everything I've wanted to in my career – the stars, owning restaurants," Osborn said.
"It was hard and a total roller-coaster ride with highs and lows and frustrations but those things are all part being a chef. I loved it.
"I wasn't worried about getting judged, I'm judged twice a day by customers when cooking in an open kitchen, it's part and parcel of the job."
Best says it was the purest test of cooking he'd ever experienced.
"It had a certain gladiatorial element," said Best. "It was chef on chef, man on man (or woman), no PR, no marketing team, it was just down to pure skill, stripped back to basics.
"Creatively, I had to use every resource in my arsenal. I had to second-guess what the judges were looking for and then achieve an extraordinary amount in one hour. How do I make a complete stock and sauce in one hour, or incredibly complex dish that usually takes seven hours?
"When you're known for your reputation and you put that on the line, it's an entirely different proposition. It was more of a personal challenge for me, to prove that could I do it, and it felt amazing."
Sheridan Randall, 22nd November 2018
