Channel 4 to celebrate local businesses in Mentorn Scotland’s Chef v Cornershop

19 November 2020

The corner shop is an institution at the heart of every local community, frequented by every tier of society. This has never been more apparent than over the past few months. In celebration of these local businesses Channel 4 has commissioned Mentorn Scotland to make Chef V Corner Shop, a new 5x30’ pilot series showcasing the humble corner shop.

Hosted by Chizzy Akudolu, the series will see some of Britain’s best-known chefs travel to different neighbourhoods where they will compete against a talented local chef to create a delicious two-course meal. The catch? The chefs will be swapping their usual artisan ingredients for whatever they can find in the corner shop.

In this ultimate test of culinary creativity, the winner will be decided by the shop owners themselves. Who has made the best use of what they have to offer at a shop serving the local community?

The pilot mini-series for Channel 4 daytime will be based in Bristol and offer viewers inspiration they need to create their own corner-shop cuisine.

The series was commissioned by Jo Street, Head of Daytime and Head of Hub, Glasgow for Channel 4 daytime. Paul Murray is Executive Producer for Mentorn Scotland.

Jo Street said: “The corner shop has always been a life-saver when you’ve run out of milk or teabags, but only now are we realising the true value and uniqueness of these independent businesses. This series will showcase how brilliantly they can tell the story of the local communities they serve, and put the professional chefs under a bit of pressure as well!”

Paul Murray added: “It’s a cheeky, fun show that subverts the rules of the traditional TV cooking competition, by getting professional chefs to cook for amateur judges. Along the way we’ll see some great food coming from the most unlikely ingredients.”

 

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For more information, please contact Kate Conway,

 

Notes to Editors

Channel 4 is a publicly-owned, commercially-funded, not-for-profit public service broadcaster and has a remit to be innovative, experimental and distinctive. Its public ownership and not-for-profit status ensure all profit generated by its commercial activity is directly reinvested back into the delivery of its public service remit. As a publisher-broadcaster, Channel 4 is also required to commission UK content from the independent production sector and currently works with around 400 creative companies across the UK every year. In addition to the main Channel 4 service, its portfolio includes: E4, More4, Film4, 4Music, 4seven, Channel4.com and digital service All 4.

Mentorn set up its Glasgow office in 2002. Since then we’ve had a continuous and substantial production and development base in Scotland devising and delivering some of our most memorable and most watched content, adding up to hundreds of hour’s original content. 

Scottish-based productions include key titles like the new Robot Wars, Question Time, Traffic Cops and The Big Questions; along with documentaries for Channel 4 and single films like Britain’s Poshest Nannies (ITV); daytime series and popular formats like Cowboy Trap (BBC) and Hotel of Mum and Dad (BBC); and primetime series like Watermen: A dirty business (BBC). Alongside these productions we have made a range of major series for BBC Scotland including How Scotland Works.