Here's an exclusive and longer look at Knife Fight, the new hour-long television series from Ilan Hall, Top Chef season two winner and chef/owner of The Gorbals in Los Angeles. The show premieres on the newly-created Esquire Network on April 23 at 9PM. It's described as "an underground, after-hours cooking competition where talented chefs go head to head in front of a rowdy crowd of celebrities, critics, and die-hard foodies."

Each episode has different contestants; in the first one are the LA chefs Kevin Meehan (Kali Dining), Felix G. Barron IV (KITCHN 105), Brendan Collins (Waterloo & City), and David Feau (most recently of The Royce at The Langham) face off in pairs at The Gorbals' kitchen. If you watch the video closely you might notice past Top Chef contestants as well.

The rotating cast of judges includes actors Drew Barrymore, Elijah Wood, Eric Wareheim, Jason Lee, Bijou Phillips, and Erika Christensen; also chefs Elia Aboumrad and Michael Voltaggio. Says Hall about the show's origins, "This happened really organically, it was just one chef talking smack to another... It then became a full-fledged fight that we do all the time." There's no huge cash prize for winning. Just glory and a "crappy three-dollar knife." Watch the preview:

Video: Knife Fight Preview

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