Twenty-four of the country's worst home cooks come to New York City, in hopes of participating in a ten-day Culinary Boot Camp with Chefs Beau MacMillan and Anne Burrell. The eager applicants must prepare a sample of their terrible cooking, and then each chef chooses a team of six for the other chef to teach. Only one "recruits" from each team will make it to the final challenge: to cook a three-course meal for a panel of food critics who think the chefs did the cooking. The winner will receive $25,000. Boot Camp begins, and for their first challenge, each chef demonstrates a dish which the recruits must replicate exactly. The least successful recruit on each team is eliminated.