Written by Laney Jessell

Have you ever wanted to be on a cooking show even though you have never gone to culinary school? Well, you are in luck. Gordon Ramsay has created a show where home cooks and social media cooks are able to compete. In “Next Level Chef,” home cooks are given the opportunity to live out their dreams.

Chef Ramsay now has 8 cooking shows to shamelessly binge watch such as “Hell’s Kitchen,” “MasterChef,” and “Kitchen Nightmares” just to name a few. Gordon is known for being a bit loud and…enthusiastic when cooking, using insults like “idiot sandwich” or “donut.”  

This year, Ramsay came out with a new show called “Next Level Chef” starring Nyesha Arrington and Richard Blais. Arrington competed on the cooking show, “Top Chef,” where you can see her natural leader instinct and talent in the kitchen. Blais also appeared on “Top Chef,” has his own restaurant, and hosts his own television shows such as Blais Off and “Man Vs. Master: Chef Battle.”

The competition itself is uniquely entertaining. These three mentors picked chefs from across the country, but not just any chefs, home cooks, social media influencers, and trained chefs.

In the first episode, the chefs had a chance to prove themselves and show the mentors why they should be picked. Each mentor has the opportunity to pick which contestant they would want on their team and from there, the real competition starts.

There are three levels of kitchens. First, the top kitchen which has the fanciest equipment you could dream of, the middle kitchen has your necessities of a decent kitchen, and then the basement which has equipment that barely works properly and nothing high-end.  

During each round, a platform drops to each kitchen with ingredients. The top kitchen will be able to choose their ingredients first, for 30 seconds. The platform then drops to the middle kitchen, then to the basement, leaving the basement to have the last pick of ingredients. Making a top-level dish in the basement is a way to prove your talents to the chefs.

At the end of each round, the mentor tastes all the dishes and picks who has the best dish. If you have the best dish, you grant immunity for your team. The other teams will have to pick two people to go into elimination where they hold a cookoff. Each round the teams are selected randomly. For each level and with each dish, you never know what ingredients you are cooking with.  

“Next Level Chef” is different from Ramsay’s other shows because this environment is more open for teaching and mentoring. The prize for winning the competition is a chef’s dream comprised of $250,000 plus an entire year of mentorship from these three extraordinary mentors, Ramsay, Arrington, and Blais.

As this season continues, I am excited to find out who will be the last chef standing. The contestants are incredibly talented, and you never know who it might be.