Plot Synopsis

Hosted by Ted Allen, ALL-STAR ACADEMY follows 10 successful home cooks from around America as they compete for a $50,000 grand prize while trying to survive elimination culinary challenges. With the guidance of their mentor -- Bobby Flay, Alex Guarnaschelli, Curtis Stone or Michael Symon in Season 1 -- each competitor must elevate their culinary skills and impress the special guest judges, who help determine who makes the cut in the elimination round. One-by-one, the challengers are eliminated, leaving one final contender standing with a $50,000 grand prize. Special guest judges in Season 1 include Donatella Arpaia, Elizabeth Falkner, Amanda Freitag, Robert Irvine, Chef John Li, Simon Majumdar, and Geoffrey Zakarian. Season 2 of ALL-STAR ACADEMY premiered on Sunday, February 14, 2016 at 10pm ET/PT on Food Network, with returning mentors Alex Guarnaschelli and Curtis Stone joined by newcomers Robert Irvine and Andrew Zimmern to guide the group of competitors. During the eight-episode season, each star chef leads a team of students in school-themed food lessons to elevate their cooking skills. Each week a student is eliminated, leaving only the grand-prize winner standing with a $50,000 grand prize and bragging rights for their mentor. Dishes are judged by a rotating cast of expert guest professors, including Richard Blais, Scott Conant, Haylie Duff, Duff Goldman, Carla Hall, Katie Lee, Jeff Mauro, Debi Mazar, Adam Richman, Aaron Sanchez and Geoffrey Zakarian. Season 2 competitors are: Lee Abbott (Santa Barbara, California), Natasha Clement (La Place, Louisiana), Anna Cooper (Houston, Texas), Lynn Duffy (Cold Spring, New York), Monica Folken (Las Vegas, Nevada), Zoe Kelly (Miami, Florida), Dain Lee (New York, New York), Lisa Washington (Atlanta, Georgia) and Jermaine Wright (Queens, New York).
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On Sunday, April 3, 2016 at 9pm ET/PT, Food Network premiered the Season 2 finale of ALL-STAR ACADEMY. In the season ender, "History," the eliminated mentor (Curtis Stone) returns to serve as the final guest professor, testing the cooks -- Natasha Clement, Lee Abbott and Zoe Kelly -- on their history with food. In the first round, the mentors must make an updated version of meatloaf to win an advantage for their cooks in the next round. Then, the home cooks revisit their first challenge cooking with lunch box ingredients, and in the final round, the two remaining cooks must create the best dish of their lives to win the $50,000 prize!