‘Rat in the Kitchen’ Is a Cooking Competition With an Unusual Twist – CNET

This story is part of I’m So Obsessed (subscribe here), our podcast featuring interviews with actors, artists, celebrities and creative types about their work, career and current obsessions.

In the wide abyss of TV cooking shows, Rat in the Kitchen on TBS found a unique way to stand out. Many cooking competitions keep things lively by having contestants deal with unexpected challenges or obstacles. For example, who doesn’t love the mystery baskets on Chopped?

Rat in the Kitchen takes everything to the next level by including a saboteur (aka rat) as one of the six competitors who are made up of home cooks and professional chefs. If the rat successfully gets away with sabotaging dishes and doesn’t get caught, they get to keep the prize money all for themselves. Even better, the other contestants and the hosts, Chef Ludo Lefebvre and actor/comic Natasha Leggero, don’t know who the rat is.

Leggero was on CNET’s I’m So Obsessed podcast to discuss the show. Leggero, who has been a guest on several cooking shows like Fast Foodies, found herself on the receiving end of sabotaged food dishes from the rat.

“Let’s just say I’ve never eaten raw lobster before,” Leggero said with a laugh. “There are many different ways to do it [sabotage food] and I don’t want to give away people’s secrets.”

She shared that there were times that Ludo and her were caught completely off guard. They were in the same kitchen with the contestants and rat and didn’t know one from the other. Luckily, hidden cameras capture the rat’s sneaky creativity.

During our conversation, Leggero discussed her favorite meal at Ludo’s restaurant and The Endless Honeymoon podcast she co-hosts with her husband and fellow comic Moshe Kasher. One of the many entertaining aspects of her podcast is that people can share their deepest secrets to a phone hotline and have them played on the podcast.

“We have so many secrets that we had to do an additional podcast a week of just everybody’s secrets. And I’m like, ‘why do people have so many secrets?'” Leggero said. “Then I realized that just the act of telling a hotline something that you’ve never told anyone before is therapy.”

New episodes of Rat in the Kitchen air Thursdays on TBS. You can listen to my entire conversation with Leggero in the podcast player above. Subscribe to I’m So Obsessed on your favorite podcast app. In each episode, Connie Guglielmo and I catch up with an artist, actor or creator to learn about their work, career and current obsessions.