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.

To illustrate the importance of flavor, the Chefs provide the eight remaining recruits with a "blank canvas," jointly demonstrating a basic crepe dish. Each recruit must then flavor their own crepe, and the Chefs do a blind taste test. The Chef whose team has the best-tasting crepe gets to steal a player from other team and give up one of their own. Then as a further exploration of flavor, the Chefs demonstrate the basics of marinating and grilling. Each recruit must devise their own marinade, using ingredients from one of four international flavor profiles-France, Greece, Spain and Thailand. Each recruit must also follow a recipe for a side dish to go with their marinated grilled protein, and complete everything within the time allotted.