Supermarket Superstar

Handling

Supermarket Superstar is an American reality competition cooking television series that debuted on July 22, 2013, on Lifetime. Produced by Eli Holzman, Rhett Bachner, Michael Chiarello and brothers Bob and Harvey Weinstein, and hosted by Stacy Keibler. Each show three aspiring food entrepreneurs compete against each other for a chance to win $10,000 in cash as well as $100,000 worth of product development from DINE Marketing and Mattson. The season finale will pit three previous winners against each other competing for a chance to have their products launched and marketed through The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company family of supermarkets. The panel of judges the contestants must face are Debbi Fields of Mrs. Fields Bakeries, Chris Cornyn of DINE, and Chiarello himself.

The three contestants each present their product to the mentors in what is called the Product Pitch segment. After getting criticism and advice from the mentors they go into the test kitchen to modify their product taking into consideration price, taste, nutrition and shelf life. They are said to have 90 minutes to make their changes. While in the kitchen, they receive more advice and criticism from Chiarello and Andrew Hunter, one of the country's top research and development experts. The finished product is then given to a small focus group who eat and discuss it with Fields, after which they fill out a survey form. After the comments of the focus group are reviewed, Chirarello announces which dish was rated the highest by the focus group and which contestant is eliminated. The remaining two contestants then work on the marketing details of their product - logo and packaging - with graphic designers from 99designs and mentoring from Cornyn. Then they present their product and design to Tom Dahlen, who is titled an Operating Partner, A&P Supermarkets in a graphic, but otherwise referred to as "the supermarket buyer". Dahlen is joined in his office by the mentors and Keibler who give him a brief opinion and then the contestants return and he announces which contestant he has chosen as the winner. For the finale, Dahlen is joined by A&P President and CEO Sam Martin to pick the winner.