SALT LAKE CITY, (ABC4 News) – The heat is on in Salt Lake City firehouse kitchens.
Click to watch "
Dining with the Chief," a reality television show made in our own backyards by Salt Lake City based production company LENZ-works.
Dan J. Debenham and Tom C. Zdunich are the creators behind the show. It features two fire stations in a cooking competition for charity.
The men said they wanted to give the audience an inside look into firefighter’s lives. They chose two rival firehouses, Station 5 and Station 8.
“They know each other well,” Debenham said. “They like each other and they hate each other. They want to win and both feel they have the best chefs in their stations.”
The show is based around the premise of a cooking challenge while remaining on call for emergencies.
Each fire house gets three hours and $30 to prepare a full course meal for the Salt Lake City Fire Chief.
The men and women have to handle the pressure and stress of an emergency all while prepping the meals.
“It’s up to them to decide how they cook the food, what they cook, how they decide to prepare it and plate it and navigate their calls that may come up during the time period,” Zdunich said.
Each fire house got called out twice during their three hour time period, which forced them to put their meal preparations on the back burner.
“As soon as they got a call they were completely professional and completely focused,” Debenham said.
Each team managed to prepare full course meals for the chief before time ran out.
The winning team received $3,000 dollars to give to the charity of their choice.
The creators said competitions are popular and they wanted to give back to the community. They hope to get the show nationally syndicated.
“We’re very hopeful it will get picked up,” Zdunich added.
