Entertainment

Food Fight

Chef Terry French stuffs his squid with beans during an express challenge Food Network’s “Extreme Chef.” Inset: A Belgian waffle with whipped cream from Pop-A-Waffle on “The Next Food Truck Race.” (Jeremiah Alley)

In their infancy, food shows seemed like a pleasant way to pass the time and pick up a cool recipe. But you moved on.

With the success of Bravo’s “Top Chef” and Food Network’s “Iron Chef” series, cooks have become superstars and cooking competitions a greased skillet to celebrity.

Here are the new crop of shows for this fall:

“EXTREME CHEF”

Thursday, 10pm, Food Network

Sort of a mash-up of “Survivor” and “Chopped,” seven restaurant chefs are dropped off in some God-forsaken place — a deserts, the woods, whatever — and told to cook.

Sometimes it’s free-dried food, sometimes what they can scrounge. A test of ingenuity and bug spray.

“THE GREAT FOOD TRUCK RACE”

Sunday, 9 p.m., Food Network

Each week — the show actually started last week — the food trucks roll into a new city and compete in crazy challenges.

The last truck standing wins $50,000 and the truck. The contestants all have catchy names: Momma’s Grizzly Grub; Seoul Sausage; Pop-A-Waffle; and Under the Crust.

“TIME MACHINE CHEFS”

Thursday, 9 p.m., ABC

This series asks the question — the answer to which has to be “not really” — “Have you ever wondered what it was like to be a chef in 1416 AD?”

Just watch “The Tudors” and you get an idea of the cuisine: mutton washed down with mead.

Name chefs such as Art Smith, Chris Cosentino and Jill Davie subject themselves to extreme deprivation as they attempt to whip up haute cuisine without the benefit of electricity or any of their cooking gadgets.

“BEAT THE CHEFS”

Thursday, 9 p.m., Game Show Network

The arm-wrestling contest of cooking shows, “Beat the Chefs” pits the amateur home chef against the pros.

The judges seem as random as the idea of the Game Show Network airing a cooking show. Only guest judge Julie Powell, who famously tested Julia Child’s recipes for a blog that became a book and later a hit Hollywood movie, seems qualified.

And why is actor Eric Roberts a guest judge?

“BURGER LAND”

Starts Sept. 2, 7 p.m., Travel Channel

George Motz knows exactly where the beef is. In his book, “Hamburger America,” he chronicled the best places to bite into burgers — including the oldest in the US, Louis’ Lunch in New Haven, Conn.

“ALL MIXED UP”

Starts Sept. 7, 7:30 a.m., Lifetime

Three students at the South Florida Culinary Institute make the most of the ingredients in their mixing bowl in this reality show hosted by Ralph Pagano (“Pressure Cook”).

“CHEF RACE: UK vs. US.”

Fall, BBC America

Call this one “The Amazing Plates.” A Jamie Oliver creation, “Chef Race” sends 16 chefs — eight Brits and eight Americans — running and doing kitchen things for 3,000 miles, from NY to LA.

Just like CBS’ “The Amazing Race,” resources are minimal and ingenuity and leadership carry the day. The prize money is $100,000 which, as these shows go, is a lot of lettuce.

IN THE WORKS:

“Coffee Hunter.” Which country has the best beans? You’ll think twice as drink your morning Joe. Travel Channel

“The Taste.” Camera hogs Nigella Lawson and Anthony Bourdain do a culinary competition show. ABC