Neighborhood Gourmet (; literally "Neighborhood Chef") is a Hong Kong variety food reality television series produced by TVB, hosted by Kitty Yuen and King Kong Lee. Each episode Yuen and Lee tour a different neighborhood in or around Hong Kong to scope out the most unusual and best food offerings in that neighborhood. Midway through each episode, two new artistes (male and female) tag along with the show's two main hosts to sample food during the viewer recommendation segment of the show. These two new artistes will also assist the host during the end cooking competition segment. Series 1 began broadcast on May 3, 2011, TVB Jade weekdays during its 10:30 to 11:00 pm time slot with a total of 29 episodes. Series 2 began broadcast on November 18, 2012, TVB Jade Sundays during its 8:00 to 9:00 pm timeslot with a total of 18 episodes. Series 3 began broadcast on April 26, 2015, on TVB Jade Sundays suring it 7:35 to 8:30 timeslot with an expected 18 episodes total. This series will be filmed abroad focusing on each countries specialty cuisine instead of neighborhoods, but the shows format will remain the same.
In each episode, hosts Kitty Yuen and King Kong Lee explore a different neighborhood in and around the Hong Kong area, sampling unique food offerings and providing their commentary on the food and the atmosphere of the establishments. They also visit food establishments recommended by viewers through blog messages. Towards the latter half of the show, they visit a local restaurant and meet the chef and owner. During their conversations with the chef, they inquire about the uniqueness of the dishes they have sampled, then select a dish to replicate. The chef provides a brief cooking lesson, and with assistance from their side, both Yuen and Lee compete to see who can best duplicate the chef's dish. The outcome is determined by 10 randomly selected passers-bys who taste both dishes and vote on which they prefer by choosing between Yuen's or Lee's cartoon panel. The one with the most votes wins, and the loser receives a punishment decided by the chef.
Series 2, the broadcast time was expanded from 20 minutes to 45 minutes per episode. The segments remained the same as the first series with more restaurants featured and the addition of the celebrity guest segments.
Series 3, the show is filmed partially abroad in the nearby Asian countries of Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia and South Korean. Each country is featured across a number of episodes, with each episode focusing on a specialty dish from that country instead of neighborhoods. A Hong Kong celebrity tags along with the host in minimal scenes to sample food with them and also serve as the "punisher" during the PK challenge results. The series also finds restaurants of that country's cuisine available in Hong Kong. Both host's are given foreign country assistant's abroad and Hong Kong assistants when they're in Hong Kong. Each episode's final competition sometimes takes place at the country they are visiting and sometimes in Hong Kong at a food establishment that specializes in that country's cuisine.
<small>: King Kong received enough points to win so a total of 10 tasters was not needed.</small><br /> <small>: Kitty Yuen received enough points to win so a total of 10 tasters was not needed.</small><br /> <small>: Episode 24 - Felix Wong was a surprise guest during the street sweep segment since he was at one of the restaurants the crew was filming at.</small><br /> <small>: Episode 29 - Final PK. Bosco Wong and Chrissie Chau served as special guest assistant's.</small>
<small>: Sr.2 episode 4 - King Kong's former Taiwan colleagues (, , Aaron Chen, Anthony Guo, Angus Guo, , ) from the TVBS variety show (é£Âå°Âç©家) were special guest on the show since they were in Hong Kong filming their show. King Kong and Kitty Yuen was also featured on Super Taste December 18, 2012 episode.</small><br /> <small>: Sr.2 episode 18 - Evergreen Mak and Nancy Wu also served as assistants during the final PK challenge.</small>
<small>: Sr.2 episode 6 - Stephen Huynh is part owner of the celebrity recommended restaurant, A La Maison Restaurant & Bar.</small><br /> <small>: Sr.2 episode 11 - Ling Ling House (éÂÂå¼Âæ¬家) is owned by former TVB actress and entertainment news correspondent 's mother.</small>
<small>: Sr.3 episode 8 - Timmy Hung, Oscar Leung and Russell Cheung were surprised special guests since the restaurant they were dining at was being filmed by the show.<br />: Sr.3 episode 10 - King Kong's mother, younger sister, brother-in-law and nephew were special guests during the Taipei, Taiwan segment.</small>
<small>: Sr.3 episode 8 - Monga Fried Chicken (èÂÂèºéÂÂæÂÂ) is owned by Taiwanese comedian (é³宣è£Â).<br />: Sr.3 episode 8 - Alan Tam and Eric Tsang are part owners of Super Dai Chong Wah (Super大ä¸Âè¯ç«éÂÂ).</small>
Assistants are new or unknown artistes who tag along with the hosts. A male assistant teams up with Kitty Yuen while King Kong Lee has a female assistant that teams up with him. TVB uses this as a way to promote the new or unknown artistes.
In the first series the assistants accompany the two host almost throughout each entire episode.
In the second series the assistants only accompany the hosts during the viewer restaurants recommendation and final dish replica cooking competition segments.
During the third series, the series is filmed partially in an abroad country and Hong Kong. When the hosts are in the abroad country they have two new or unknown artistes that is local to that country. When they're in Hong Kong, two new Hong Kong artistes accompanies them. Final dish replica cooking completion takes place sometimes in the abroad country and sometimes in Hong Kong at a restaurant themed to that country's local cuisine.
The pairing of Kitty Yuen and King Kong Lee was well received by viewers. The comic relief and chemistry of the two host lead many to speculate that they were in a MayâÂÂDecember romance, which Lee flatly denied by telling reporters that Yuen was too old for him. While Yuen joked with reporters that the two might have a chance to be a couple. The popularity of their collaboration also lead TVB to cast both as the male and female lead of an upcoming drama called Love as a Predatory Affair (æÂÂæ é£Âç©éÂÂ), which started filming in May 2015.