Hungry For It, BBC Three and iPlayer
IT was only while searching for live athletics coverage recently that I learned that BBC Three is again a traditional, broadcast TV channel.
Six years after it disappeared online, it was brought back in February and now offers news, current affairs, factual, drama, entertainment and comedy programming.
The target audience is those aged 16-34 who don't typically watch TV online. I fall just a tad outside this range, but I was impressed the channel at least has been carrying Diamond League track and field events, as well as the recently-concluded World Athletics Championships.
However, I'm not here to bore on about sport. Instead I thought it might be an idea to have a look at a programme that aims to help the BBC increase its reach among younger, underserved viewers - particularly those from lower-income homes.
The format for Hungry For It is pretty much tried and tested. People cooking for judges. There are two ways to look at shows like this: one is there are too many of them; another is people like them, let's make some more of them.
Ahead of its launch, the BBC promised an ambitious new format "that has all the (ho, ho) ingredients we love", where aspiring competitors are given the opportunity to show they have what it takes to make it in the business – teamwork, flexibility and understanding customers as well as amazing food.
Among its presenters is Big Zuu, who the internet tells me is a rapper, grime MC, songwriter, DJ and television personality best known for presenting Big Zuu's Big Eats for Dave. He is joined by chef to the stars Kayla Greer and Stacey Dooley.
It features 10 "rookie cooks" creating something called "level up dishes" for their "game-changing mentors" in two very different styles, restaurant and pop-up. The winner will get the chance to travel to world cooking in a host of restaurants.
The first episode I caught this week happened to be the last in the series. After eight weeks of gruelling challenges, three remaining cooks entered the `HFI hubs' as finalists, but only one of them would be leaving as the winner.
The cooks were asked to reinvent their favourite childhood foods, and they were told to deliver both a main course and dessert that took them back to their childhood.
After the `level up', the cooks were joined by their close friends and families for the tasting, a surprise which got everyone a touch emotional.
When only the top-performing finalist was given a pass through to the final service, the other two were left to battle it out in a `knives out' challenge making tricky caramel souffles with instant banana ice cream in just 30 minutes.
After a nail-biting finish, one cook was sent home, leaving two to go head-to-head.
This saw the pair tasked with creating rival menus for celebrity client Michael Dapaah, and 20 famous friends, including rapper AJ Tracey, DJ Snoochie Shy and boxing champion Lawrence Okolie – none of whom I could pick out of a line-up, but as already stated, I'm not really the target audience.
If you've seen one of these type of shows, you've seen them all, only this one had a touch more drum and bass in the soundtrack, which is no bad thing. All in all, it was grand and some of the food looked amazing and left me feeling, well, hungry.