ANNABEL'S KITCHEN

UK | ITV1 and CiTV

RUNNING TIME: 11 minutes | NUMBER OF EPISODES: 30 | AIRDATES: from April 11, 2011

Weekday culinary show for kids Annabel’s Kitchen is based on a book by children’s food expert Annabel Karmel who, from her loft apartment, creates a series of magical dishes for kids.

One of Annabel’s helpers is Jimmy, Annabel’s often unpredictable intern from the South Pole, a calamity – prone, fish-mad penguin who’s made his home in her fridge. He’s incredibly enthusiastic about food and cooking, as well as being a bit of a madcap inventor, too.

Pearl is Annabel’s right hand penguin who organises the website and deals with everything from ordering ingredients to helping Annabel find the perfect recipe to suit every occasion. She‘s confident, organised and reliable – the very opposite of Jimmy.

Watching over everything and providing a singing commentary on kitchen activities, are Candice, Dionne and Lola – three of the most pampered, vain and ditsy princess cupcakes in the land.

Finally, there are Jimmy’s marvellous mechanical aids that he’s made for Annabel. There’s every cooks dream, the Fruit ‘n’ Vegetabilizer, which slices, dices,chops or squeezes any fruit or vegetable into whatever shape you’d like. The Cookatron is a cunning oven where food is cooked to perfection in seconds. And finally, the ultimate food critic, the Yummy Scrummy-o-meter, which sniffs food for deliciousness.

Each week, the children come and hang out with Annabel in her loft apartment and Annabel, Jimmy, Pearl and a host of hilarious guest characters help the children overcome a different food related problem in an entertaining way. For example, Jimmy tries to win a place in the Penguin Book of Records by creating the world’s smallest breakfast (a flea egg omelette) and everyone helps Jimmy win the Penguin Marathon (all of 26 metres) by making a high energy meal. The kids watch and learn as Annabel does what she loves best– inspiring children to make their favourite meals and try something new.

The show can also be seen on Saturday mornings @ 7.10am on both ITV1 and CiTV. A companion book Annabel’s Kitchen – My First Cookbook is being released by Ebury Press in April 2011 too.