crystal asher, a second-year student at stratford chef school, approached red apple entertainment president rachel low with the idea. early in the program's development, the idea of a formal competition was ruled out, as the creators expected there would already be sufficient dramatic elements. for the first season, the producers chose 12 of 36 students in the school to follow. 1,000 hours of footage were edited down to the 13 half-hour episodes of the series' first season. of the twelve students, only nine returned for the second season. one student, danielle, did not graduate.