Have you heard that the Today Show are looking for exceptional TV home cooks, but don’t know where to start with your application? Have no fear – Trisha Lewis, your “guardian chef angel”, is here.

Having pivoted from working as an executive chef in bustling kitchens, to a home cook with a phone camer and a dream during the pandemic, Trisha Lewis knows all there is to know about not only perfecting a classic homemade dish, but presenting it to a TV audience. That’s why the Corkwoman has come on board as the mentor for the Today Show’s home cook applicants.

“I think people might think that I mightn’t understand the fear, but I totally get it”, she says. “Yes, it’s nerve-wracking, but it’s exhilarating at the same time as well.”

The Today Show is on the hunt for passionate home cooks from across Ireland to take part in a brand new cooking competition. With chef Trisha Lewis as mentor, contestants will step from the home kitchen into the TV kitchen — cooking, sharing their recipes, and showcasing their personality to a national audience.

Home cooking, Trisha says, is less about fancy techniques and impressive-sounding names from old school cookbooks. It’s about sticking to delicious, often simple, dishes that people love to eat again and again.

“I think we could put pressure on ourselves and think that it needs to be like a restaurant, but I think home cooking is when everybody is fed, everybody is happy, and that the person that is cooking enjoys it.

“People might find it a chore, but we are very lucky with the produce that we have available in this country that it actually, if you look at it the right way, it’s a luxury that we can cook whatever we really want.”

The ideal applicant for this competition is “anybody who’s a home cook that has always dreamed of stepping foot into a TV kitchen”, Trisha says. “Who are passionate about food and who also would have a nice little personality that, you know, that they can chat on screen.”

So what advice does Trisha have for someone looking to step in front of a TV camera for the first time? It’s all about being yourself, she says.

“Sometimes you can get into your head and be like, oh gosh, like, do I need to be a little censored, posher or less country? But that just stops you from being your true self.”

And anyway, the confident presenters will be on hand to guide the cooks, and even if you have a moment of feeling unsure, “as a mentor, I’m going to figure out a way around it”, Trisha says.

Successful applicants will come to the studio and do a “live” demo, that won’t be live at all but recorded for a later date so there’s even less pressure on you.

“I’ll have a chat with them, figure out what they love cooking, get them to put forward a recipe to me. I might read it, and I’ll say, look, this could be gorgeous, but if we change XYZ, it’ll be a little bit more TV friendly. And then when they arrive on set, I’ll be there with them. I’ll get them to pick out the plates, you know, make sure they’re organised with their hair and makeup.”

“Then when it goes live, I will guide them through it. I will mentor it. I will give them kind of time cues. I will show them where the cameras are”, she adds, stating that it’ll feel like having a “duplicate of themselves” beside them.

“I’ve been in their shoes and I know that moment when you’re like, oh my God, where do I get the spoons? And you don’t want to disturb everybody because it is still an operating TV studio. But I’ll be there to be like, come with me, I will get you the spoon, and we will smile.”

As for the recipes, don’t worry about coming up with something only Gordon Ramsay would be impressed by – classic, delicious and foolproof home cooking is what this is about.

“It does not need to be really fancy foams and beure blancs and baked alaskas. This can be a simple simple chicken pie and apple tart, you know, sometimes the simpler the better. So if anyone feels, oh, my, my old stuff is all plain, that’s what the audience wants. The audience are people like us.”

The competition is open to non-professional cooks with a love of food and a flair for sharing it — whether you’re cooking for family, friends or your community. For more information and to apply, click here.

And as Trisha said: “I’m a mentor from this moment, so my DMs are open for anyone who’s worried.”