The Sunday Mail
Takudzwa Chihambakwe
“IT feels great to be back with season three of ‘Battle of the Chefs’. But what really excites me and the team is that we are on schedule. We did not just stumble into this season, we planned it long back and we are happy to see the plan falling into place just as we had forecast,” said the brains behind Zimbabwe’s only reality cooking show, Joseph Bunga.
The third season of the show is set to start airing on ZTV on April 6 and it becomes the only local production to come back onto the screens with robust backing from the corporate world, a first for the local sector.
An elated Bunga lauded his main sponsor, TM Pick n Pay, for their belief in his product.
“TM Pick n Pay’s support is phenomenal and I don’t think we could have found a better sponsor than them.
‘‘So even before their financial input, the moment someone sees that Pick n Pay is supporting us it changes their perspective of what we are about.
“This is mostly evident when we visit different companies in search of sponsorship, the moment they see that we have a quality sponsor that gives us an advantage even before they see our exceptional work,” lauded Bunga.
“Battle of the Chefs” will run in the same format used in season two, where 16 chefs will fight for the grand prize of US$10 000, with elimination of contestants happening in each episode.
However, for Bunga and team, there is always a battle to fight before the start of any new season.
For season two to happen it took a last minute miracle in the form of a two-year sponsorship deal from Pick n Pay just as a then broke Bunga was about to dump his vision as he had wiped out all his savings in producing season one.
This time around, Bunga and crew lost their studios, which were located at a plush joint in Borrowdale. The team had to run around to get a new place to reproduce a studio similar to the one used in season two ahead of the commencement of season three.
“We lost the venue we were using in season two because the proprietor had other things he wanted to use the space for. It was really painful for us to let go of the facility as we had invested a fortune refurbishing it into a state-of-the-art studio and office space.
“We had built it with a long-term plan and it is sad that we had to leave after producing only one season,” revealed Bunga.
However, Bunga says the loss of the space and having been forced to look for a new one in a short space of time has made him realise that they can literally set up base anywhere in Africa.
“Though it is painful to have lost the space in Borrowdale, it actually made us realise that we can bootstrap anywhere in Africa.
“We had to run around and get this temporary space in Msasa industrial area and we have managed to reproduce the set we had in Borrowdale at a far cheaper cost but maintaining the high standards we had in season two,” explained Bunga.
The location of the studio is not the only thing that has changed in season three, the show also moves from its traditional Sunday slot to Thursday evening.
“The main idea for the change in dates is because all the meals that will be cooked on the show by the chefs will be sold on special offer at TM Pick n Pay from Friday through to Sunday. We have done this to show our sponsor that we can influence the buying decision of our viewers.”
Another exciting development from the “Battle of the Chefs” team is that they will be taking their brand to East Africa.
“Last year in November I was in Kenya and I met with the heads of two of the top three channels, just to scope. But to my surprise they were eager to sign deals straight away.
“So we will be back in Kenya end of this month and start the ground work for the show. If all goes according to plan, we will have Battle of the Chefs Nairobi airing in the last quarter of 2017,” revealed Bunga.
