New reality format The Heat, produced by Twofour, launches today on ITV.
Hosted by Olivia Attwood, The Heat sees ten chefs travel to Barcelona, working under Michelin Star award-winning chef Jean-Christophe Novelli, who is opening a restaurant and looking for a rising star.
Here, executive producer and Twofour chief creative officer David Clews tells the story behind the show.
Building a Compelling New Reality Format that Must Deliver Every Day
When we first started talking about The Heat, it wasn’t really about food. It was about pressure.
Restaurant kitchens are naturally combustible spaces, where heat, hierarchy, ego and timing all collide in real time. We wanted to create a premium, relationship-fuelled reality competition that lives inside that world. Not a studio cook-off, not a villa dating show, but something that sits in-between.
The idea was simple: young chefs battle the heat of service under a world-class Executive Chef, and by night they live together in Barcelona, navigating friendships, rivalries and romance. It’s workplace reality colliding with relationship drama, and because both worlds are real, the stakes are too.
Engineering the Format
Formatting the show was the most complex part of the process.
When telling a complete story in just one day per episode, structure is everything. From the Development Team who shaped the idea pre-commission, to the Exec Team guiding it through production, this was about building clear format beats to make an episode a day, efficiently, within budget, without losing scale or ambition.
Very early on we decided to centre episodes around a lunchtime service, rather than dinner. That single decision unlocked the format, allowing us to film build-up and fallout outside the restaurant, following the relationship stories out in the city, while keeping the service window tight and repeatable.
Each episode follows a rhythm: morning in the apartments; briefing; prep; a high-pressure lunch service; a tough debrief; then the emotional aftershocks playing out that evening.
Packing that much in means everything has to run like clockwork. We couldn’t have done it without a Production Team who embraced the challenge and made it feel seamless.
The Competition
At the heart of the series is a clean competitive spine: one chef will be crowned Star Chef, judged on skill, leadership, teamwork and attitude. That end goal drives the narrative of the entire series.
The key mechanic is the daily Head Chef role. Each morning, chefs can step forward to lead. Promotions, demotions and eliminations all come from real consequences in the kitchen, not TV twists. By the final, when the two remaining chefs design their own menu and lead a full service, victory feels earned.
Real Food, Real Diners, Real Pressure
The food was never window dressing. Working alongside Jean-Christophe Novelli, our Series Food Producer and Home Economics Team curated layered and technically demanding menus, complex enough to truly test the chefs. Dishes needed enough moving parts for things to go wrong. Because the restaurant was real, with genuine diners every day, the pressure was real too.
Casting Ambition
Casting was integral. We wanted young chefs with proper kitchen experience – ambitious and still early in their careers. Not reality stereotypes, but people to whom impressing Jean-Christophe genuinely mattered. That pressure to perform at work, in front of someone you respect, is universal.
Shooting
Visually, we wanted the show to feel aspirational and energetic – fast, glossy and immersive without being cruel. A mix of roaming operators and fixed remote-control cameras allowed us to capture both the chaos of service and the quiet personal moments.
Line Producer Emily Wood on filming in Barcelona
We wanted the show set in a glamorous, vibrant European city and ideally somewhere with a beach, so Barcelona became our first choice. That’s when the real logistical challenge began.We needed two key locations: a restaurant and cast accommodation, close enough to support a tight daily turnaround, and both available for exclusive hire.
The restaurant had to house eight chefs working simultaneously, be large enough for camera coverage, and be a genuine lunchtime destination. After exploring existing restaurants, many unwilling to close in high season, we shifted to event venues and secured The Sea Garden in Marina Port Vell, with a spacious open-plan professional kitchen.
We searched for equally aspirational accommodation, and Archie Living, just ten minutes from the marina, proved perfect. We secured exclusive rental of an entire floor, allowing for filming inside the apartments, in corridors and communal spaces. Both sites had to work as effectively logistically as they did editorially.
Filming the lunchtime service was tough, but we got amazing coverage – directed from a gallery installed in an adjacent building. We also repurposed some additional spaces in the marina for technical and production departments. Matching MIV facilities were installed both at the restaurant and within the accommodation, alongside welfare and production offices. It was a complex operation, but one designed to feel effortless on screen.
Production company: Twofour
Length: 10 x 60min
TX: 24th February – ITV2 & ITVX
Commissioners: Paul Mortimer, Peter Tierney and Amanda Stavri, ITV
Hosts: Jean-Christophe Novelli (Executive Chef), Olivia Attwood (Host)
Line Producer: Emily Wood
Executive in Charge of Production: Alan Williams
Series Food Producer: Sarah Durdin Robertson
Series Director: James Kayler
Executive Producers: David Clews, Dan Gray, Tom Richardson and Laura Walker
Pippa Considine
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