Two years on from the phenomenal success of Li Yuchun and the rest of the Mongolian Sour Milk Super Girls, a cookware company is trying to cash in on China's reality TV boom.

Teflon Smart Cooks features 12 finalists from across China ostensibly competing in a cookery contest.

However, the main prize of a 300,000 yuan (US$38,000) contract to promote non-stick saucepans is perhaps a hint that charisma and good looks may well out-rank culinary excellence when it comes to the final standings.

At a recent press conference, Du Pont China's marketing and sales manager Xie Xiaofan, whose company is organizing the contest, made it clear that cooking ability was only one of several aspects judges would be assessing.

"We want to select a new star not only with good cooking skills and knowledge of nutritious food but also personal charm and enthusiasm for life," he said.

The qualities sought in the winner were listed as "a vigorous and healthy bearing, enthusiastic attitude, camera feeling and willingness to work in a team."

Viewers will be able to vote for the chefs they most want to be thrown off the show by texting in, while a panel of judges, including a five-star chef, a pop star and a TV producer will select the winner of each round until only one chef remains.

At the unveiling of the dozen finalists, except for a mime one contestant gave pretending to burn scrambled eggs, there was precious little sign of any cooking ability.

Instead, time was found for the dozen seven men and five women ranging in age from 20 to 48 to show off a variety of party pieces including a capella version of Richard Marx's "Right Here Waiting," a kung fu routine, a song from Peking Opera and a poetry recital.

To be broadcast only as a webcast, Xie claimed use of the format and not television was an "innovative step", taking advantage of one of China's most far reaching media resources.

"The choice of this broadcasting format gives us a huge potential audience, and will attract people who might not watch the show if broadcast on TV," he said.

But whether the 12 contestants will capture the public imagination in quite the same way as the Super Girls is open to question. Certainly no one China Daily spoke to seemed likely to become a fan.

"I've never heard of this competition," said Zhang Peng, a third-year student at Peking University. "How are people supposed to be able to know how well these people can cook if they can't smell or taste the food? It all seems a bit silly to me."

Di Dongna, 25, who lives in Shanghai was even more skeptical.

"They're dressing it up like a show but it just sounds like one big advertisement for the company. I've never voted for anyone on one of these reality shows and this certainly won't make me start," she said.

Anyone who does want to tune in can see the show at http://bn.sina.com.cn/SMARTCOOK, with the final to be decided on October 19.

(China Daily October 10, 2006)