King of Culinary
| King of Culinary | |
|---|---|
| 三把刀 Raja Kulinari ராஜா கைய வச்சா | |
| Presented by | Lee Teng (season 1) Cavin Soh (season 2-present; Chinese) Farhana M Noor (season 3; Malay) Udaya Soundari (season 3; Tamil) Hossan Leong (season 3; finale) |
| Starring | Eric Neo Eric Teo Pung Lu Tin Shahrizal Salleh Iskander Latiff Khaled Shrafodden Anand Kumar S.R. Bala Thanabalan |
| Country of origin | Singapore |
| Original language | Chinese |
| No. of seasons | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 100[a] |
| Production | |
| Production location | Mediacorp TV Studio |
| Running time | 60 minutes (including commercials) |
| Production company | Mediacorp |
| Original release | |
| Network | Mediacorp Channel 8 MeWATCH Channel 5 (season 3 finale) Suria (season 3-present) Vasantham (season 3-present) |
| Release | 3 July 2019 – present |
King of Culinary (Chinese: 三把刀; pinyin: Sānbǎdāo; lit. 'Three Knives', Malay: Raja Kulinari; Tamil: ராஜா கைய வச்சா; Raja Kaiya Vecha) is a Singaporean culinary game show broadcast on Mediacorp Channel 5, Channel 8, Suria, Vasantham and simulcast on MeWATCH and YouTube. Each episode feature home cooks pitting against veteran top chefs for a cash prize and a set of kitchen knives.[1][2]
The series premiered on 3 July 2019 and hosted by Lee Teng, before replacing with Cavin Soh, who previously served as a judge in season 1, as the host since season two, which premiered on 18 November 2020.[3][4]
A third season was announced on 15 February 2022 and has been expanded to Malay and Tamil audiences, which premiered on 20 August 2022. A one-off four-part finale, dubbed The Final Showdown, aired on 12 November and ended on 3 December.[5][6] A fourth season premiered on 6 September 2024 with Soh and three chefs reprising their roles along with a new chef, James Tay,[7] along with their second Suria and Vasantham seasons, which premiered on 24 September and 12 October 2024 respectively and its respective chefs from the previous season reprising their roles. A fifth season of the show, subtitled "the comeback" (Chinese: 再战擂台; pinyin: Zàizhànlèitái) premiered on 25 March 2026, with the four original cooks, the mentees and Soh all reprising their respective roles, while the Malay and Tamil versions did not renew for a third season.[8][9]
Gameplay
[edit]Each contestant will pit against one of three veteran chefs head-to-head, whom each hold one signature culinary knife placed under a shelf, and sitting chefs are backed as judges. At the start of each match, the contestant choose one of the chef and a designated ingredient required for cooking, but was not allowed to duplicate a cooking method. The contestant have up to 40 minutes to cook their dish, with the first 10 minutes set as a handicap for the veteran chef (one hour with a 15-minute handicap in season one), to prepare a dish and present it to a panel of three judges for testing and evaluation. The judges then make a decision to decide the winner for the match. Since season two, contestants have to defeat a mentee chef first before they could challenge against the three chefs, meaning that the contestant was now required to win four matches (one disciple and three chefs) to acquire all three knives. "Help cards" are also added, allowing the contestant to change the course of a match.[4]
When the contestant wins a knife, they are given an option to either keep their winnings or risk them to challenge another chef, but each contestant could only challenge a chef once. The payout structure for each win were $2,000, $3,000 and $4,000 ($1,000, $2,000 and $5,000 in season one). However, if the contestant loses to a chef at any point, the game ends and any cash winnings won are forfeited, but was allowed to keep any knives won for victorious matches up to that point. Season four exclusively added an option to directly challenge a guest chef, skipping the other two chefs for $4,000 and any remaining knives if they win.
Season three also added a season finale, dubbed The Final Showdown to determine the overall champion with a prize of up to $16,000.[10][11] In season four, with the exception of the Tamil version, any contestants who won at least one knife in either the Chinese or Malay versions would be invited to the season finale where the winning chef would win a $5,000 cash bonus and $2,000 SharkNinja vouchers; there is no "final showdown" special.
Season five, as the title suggests, "the comeback" features past contestants competing for a second time to either win more money and/or knives, under the same rules following the season two format[9] and show will ends with 10 wins (or knifes) from the contestants.
Season overview
[edit]| S. | Duration | Ep. | Chinese | Malay | Tamil | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Premiere | Finale | Premiere | Finale | Winner | Premiere | Finale | Winner | Premiere | Finale | Winner | ||
| 1 | 3 July 2019 | 2 October 2019 | 13 | 3 July 2019 | 2 October 2019 | Royce Tan[b] | Not held | |||||
| 2 | 18 November 2020 | 17 February 2021 | 13 | 18 November 2020 | 17 February 2021 | Multiple chefs[c] | Not held | |||||
| 3 | 20 August 2022 | 3 December 2022 | 34[d] | 24 August 2022 | 2 November 2022 | Hue Tran Thi Ngoc Anh[e][f] | 23 August 2022 | 1 November 2022 | Zakiyah Jaleel | 20 August 2022 | 28 October 2022 | Gopica "Rasathi" Rasiah |
| 4 | 6 September 2024 | 15 December 2024 | 30[g] | 6 September 2024 | 15 November 2024 | Amanda Chia | 24 September 2024 | 3 December 2024 | Nabawi Mohktar | 12 October 2024 | 15 December 2024 | Ilayaraja |
| 5 | 25 March 2026 | 27 May 2026 | 10 | 25 March 2026 | 27 May 2026 | Hue Tran Thi Ngoc Anh (3-time)[h] | Not held | |||||
At the end of season 1, 10 out of 26 chefs had won at least one set of knife for winning a match (Teo won 8 out of 12 matches, Pung won 7 out of 11 matches, and Neo won 8 out of 11 matches);[12] one of the winning contestant, Royce Lee (with two episodes airing 18 and 25 September) won two knives and $2,000 though not deciding to risk the prize money to contest Neo for the third knife.[13]
At the end of season 2, Teo won 3 out of 5 matches, Pung won 3 out of 5 matches (with one draw), and Neo won 4 out of 6 matches. A few chefs also won two knives but did not risk it for a third knife. The season finale feature a fight between the disciples and the chefs, with the latter winning.[14]
At the end of season 3, one chef named Zakiyah Jaleel become the first contestant to win all three knives; she competed against Vietnam-Chinese home cook Hue Tran Thi Ngoc Anh and Indian cook Gopica "Rasathi" Rasiah in the final showdown.[15] Hue won the showdown.[16]
At the end of season 4, chefs who secured at least one knife were invited to the finale in episode 10 in the respective divisions. In the Chinese version, four chefs won at least one knife: The winner was Amanda Chia, who also previously competed in the fourth season of MasterChef Singapore, Bernice Tan was the runner-up, while Jason Ang and Tee Leong Choon both finished as semi-finalists.[17] In the Malay version, two chefs won at least one knife: Nabawi Mohktar was the winner while Hidayat was the runner-up.[18] In the Tamil version, Ilayaraja was the winner.[19]
At the end of season 5, the two contestants who won the most knives in Season 3 of the Chinese version, Lim Kuang Haw and Hue Tran Thi Ngoc Anh, who also won The Final Showdown in season 3, became the second and third contestants respectively to win all three knives, making Hue the first two-time champion.[20]
Notes
[edit]- ↑ Breakdown of total episodes:
- Chinese version: 56 episodes
- Malay version: 20 episodes
- Tamil version: 20 episodes
- The Final Showdown: 4 episodes
- ↑ The season winner is defined based on the contestant winning the most knives at the end of the season. At the end of season one, Royce Tan is the only chef to win two out of three knives.
- ↑ The season winner is defined based on the contestant winning the most knives at the end of the season. Multiple chefs won two knives at the end of the season.
- ↑ Consist of 10 episodes for each of the three versions of Chinese, Malay and Tamil, plus four episodes for "The Final Showdown", which aired from 12 November thru 3 December 2022.
- ↑ Overall winner of "The Final Showdown".
- ↑ Hue had also beaten Lim Kuang Haw during the tiebreaker in Season 3 of the Chinese version to become that season's overall champion and both Zakiyah and Rasathi during The Final Showdown to become the overall champion of The Final Showdown, thus making her the only multi-time champion (two-time if one only considers the Chinese Version).
- ↑ Consist of 10 episodes for each of the three versions of Chinese, Malay and Tamil.
- ↑ Hue had also beaten Lim Kuang Haw during the tiebreaker in Season 3 of the Chinese version to become that season's overall champion and both Zakiyah and Rasathi during The Final Showdown to become the overall champion of The Final Showdown, thus making her the only multi-time champion (two-time if one only considers the Chinese Version).
References
[edit]- ↑ "King of Culinary 三把刀 Show Info". tv.mewatch.sg. MediaCorp. Archived from the original on 15 November 2020. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
- ↑ "三把刀 8World". 8world. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
- ↑ "King Of Culinary 2《三把刀 2》Trailer". Facebook. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
- 1 2 "KING OF CULINARY S2 三把刀 S2 Show Info". meWatch.[dead link]
- ↑ "The search for Mediacorp's ultimate King of Culinary starts today!". Mediacorp.
- ↑ "King of Culinary". Mediacorp.
- ↑ "Ep 1 - mewatch". Retrieved 13 September 2024.
- ↑ "King of Culinary S1 - mewatch". Retrieved 1 April 2026.
- 1 2 "前4系列民间高手回归，《三把刀：再战擂台》战局更激烈！". vibes by 8world. 4 January 2026. Retrieved 1 April 2026.
- ↑ "Competition Format". Mediacorp.
- ↑ "Cooking Competition King of Culinary Returns In Multilingual Format; Winner Stands To Win Up To S$20,000 In Cash". 8days. Retrieved 3 April 2026.
- ↑ "King of Culinary 三把刀 - EP13". MeWatch. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
- ↑ "最后一集的《三把刀》，第一位成功拿下两把刀的参赛者！恭喜Royce!". Facebook. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
- ↑ "Ep 13 - mewatch". Retrieved 3 April 2026.
- ↑ "Winners of Mediacorp's first multi-language cooking competition to vie for ultimate championship in King of Culinary – The Final Showdown!". Mediacorp. Retrieved 15 October 2024.
- ↑ "King of Culinary". Mediacorp. Retrieved 13 September 2024.
- ↑ "厨艺过人，谢雪琦夺《三把刀4》总冠军！". vibes by 8world. 4 January 2026.
- ↑ "Penasihat kewangan dinobat juara 'Raja Kulinari 2024' , Berita Gaya Hidup - Beritaharian.sg". BeritaHarian (in Malay). 27 November 2024. Retrieved 1 April 2026.
- ↑ "'ராஜா கைய வச்சா 2' சமையல் போட்டியின் வெற்றியாளர் இளையராஜா". Seithi Mediacorp. Retrieved 1 April 2026.
- ↑ King of Culinary (Chinese Version) - mewatch. Retrieved 28 May 2026 – via Mediacorp Singapore.
You can watch Season 3's tiebreaker between Lim Kuang Haw and Hue in the last episode of Season 3 and the moment both of them won three knives in Season 5, all using the same link. (Only available within Singapore)