Next Level Chef (2022– ) User Reviews

LET'S GO

[gg3333 · 6/10 · 15 March 2024]

The show is decent- good entertainment- I enjoy the cooking aspect of it and the speed in which they make excellent quality dishes...

but saying "LET'S GO" 53 times in one 40-minute episode is borderline insane and enough to make one question cancelling their subscription to any and all streaming television services as well as consider permanently getting rid of their tv entirely. Even worse when it's not being used to express the desire for actual speed but instead in the trendy language social-media TikTok Instagram Gen-Z colloquial sense with a drawn out emphasis on the "o" to celebrate a victory or accomplished feat. See given example:

Chef: "You have won this week's top dish." Contestant: "LET'S GOOOOOOO!"

Each time I hear this, my elder Millennial brain wants to Poltergeist into the tv-set and somehow back in time to the point of filming to sarcastically both inform and ask the contestant- "You already went. Why do you still feel the need to go?"

Yes, perhaps this all indicates my steadily increasing age and continuous rejection of younger pop-culture but I'll say it again: 53 times.

FIFTY. THREE.

I counted.

I thought the writer's strike was over? Apparently it's blistering fire is still raging in full force, for this is the only acceptable explanation short of the crew assembling a college-level drinking game for their audience that could possibly deem the gratuitous use of only two English words instead of LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE, acceptable.

Despite my frustrations from my initial encounter with this thesaurus-less reality based television cooking contest, I've shamefully continued watching episodes in hopes the actual cooking content would outweigh the writer's/producer's/director's lack of vocal creativity- only to be let down and exposed to even MORE careless and continual use of the two words that now make me want to GO- straight to the corporate headquarters of Fox Broadcasting Company to file a professionally written 20+ page complaint while simultaneously initiating a petition at Change.org with the shared goal of altering this egregious overuse of a casual term in an effort to save society's eardrums.

Writing this unfortunate and painstakingly detailed review has shaved just under an hour off of my life and undoubtedly made me hungry and feel the need to cook something, however as I am currently out of groceries I'll need to proceed to my nearest local store first-

Let's go.

It's THE PLATFORM as a cooking game show

[Markus_Beer · 7/10 · 4 January 2022]

A platform of ingredients is lowered over three floors, from a state-of-the-art kitchen to a standard industrial kitchen down to a nicely decorated basement hole with hardly any cooking tools. With five contestants per level, those at the bottom must cook with the leftovers left by the two teams above them. This is very reminiscent of the film "The Platform" (El Hoyo, ESP 2019, D: Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia), only without the sharp social criticism, it is after all a Gordon Ramsay game show.

Unfortunately, at least to a degree, because the style of "Hell's Kitchen" or "Masterchef USA" can also be found here: very fast cuts, plastic orchestral music from the computer, and the focus here is clearly on the drama of contestants under time pressure, all wonderfully consumed by their ambitions and egos, while the food itself, on the other hand, is not that important.

Although the pace and action is still enjoyable, I sometimes wish for the return of Ramsay's much more relaxed edited Euro productions, where the camera lingers for a while to give the viewer a chance to be absorbed by what's going on. But alright, you can't have everything. Here it's all about breathless action in the kitchen, spiced up with little details from the private lives of the candidates, whose names you won't remember anyway at this early stage.

The basic idea is interesting and you can be sure from which source the producers got their inspiration, but after the first episode the show looks like solid, albeit very familiar feeling entertainment.

The Platform (2019) meets Master Chef

[kevinyjiang · 7/10 · 20 January 2022]

Love the creation of the platform and three tiers of kitchens. Adds RNG aspects to a reality tv show.

Pros

• hype for fans of The Platform
• pokemon-like atmosphere where the judges build their own 5 person team
• 1 on 1 dual for those who make the least appetizing dish, team immunity for for the winning dish

Cons

• 30 seconds to pick ingredients as the platform drops seems quite limiting
• bias for team captains in determining winning dish + bias during final decisions for 1:1 given not a blind taste test.

Too early to tell, but...

[kemority · 10 January 2022]

I'm not sure what to make of this show so far, but the only thing I'd reevaluate is the order in which the three levels choose their ingredients. I think it would be more challenging if the basement was given first choice of food since they're cooking in the Little House on the Prairie. The top level should have last dibs since they're already cooking with the finest equipment Earth has to offer.

Love Ramsay; love Blaise (from his HK appearances as a guest judge)... but who is Nyesha Arrington?

I look forward to watching more.

Great concept-need more kindness

[amaydew-2 · 7/10 · 14 January 2022]

AWESOME concept, Gordon & Richard are great! There is no reason to be so harsh or haughty by the other judge/mentor. Temper the drama.

The experience & knowledge can support these contestants, yet growing the teams with supportive criticism needs to happen without demeaning rhetoric.

Better than I expected

[mommycoppel-688-476700 · 7/10 · 3 February 2022]

So when the show started, I wasn't sure I liked it. I actually had given the show a 5 after the first couple episodes. However, the show has gotten better and therefore I changed my rating to a 7. I've really enjoyed this sweet, caring, supportive & encouraging side of Chef Gordon! I love him so much. I watch Hell Kitchen & MasterChef. I love the craziness & tension on Hell's Kitchen. But he seems so different on this show and it's kind of refreshing.

Added Level

[narcan1-571-386324 · 10/10 · 3 January 2022]

The battle between the established chefs and the competition between the contestants makes next level fun to watch. Looking forward to the next episode.

The Platform

[olson-64848 · 7/10 · 28 March 2022]

Seriously. This is awful. The concept (obviously stolen from The Platform) could have worked, but it was very clear from the start, it was a fail.

They say it is a blind taste test, yet the judges are in there; guiding the contestants the entire time. They 'blind' taste the food, which is absurd because they just spent 90 minutes asking about their food, and guiding them to what they deliver. The judges pretend to be impartial and not know which dish belongs to which contestant during judgment. That is so insane! They were literally just asking the contestants what they were making and tasting everything!

Then when they get to the final judgment they act like because the plates are out of order they don't know which plate belongs to each contestant? "Who made the curry???" The contestant you just gave advice to on how to make curry, then watched make curry... Probably them... Yup, it was them.

For this show to work in this format they need an outside panel of judges that aren't the mentors. As it is, there is no way to be bias. They know what each person made, they know what dish belongs to each person. The judgment is nil. Whoever Gordan wants to further his brand will win. Whether they deserve it or not. I feel bad for the contestants of this failed vanity project for Ramsey.

Gordon Ramsey does it again!

[DragonFireBreather · 10/10 · 6 January 2022]

This is a really good cooking show. I love all Gordon's shows, Hells Kitchen being my favorite but this one is not far behind.

The concept is different and I like that. This cooking show has 3 different levels of cooking kitchens... the top kitchen which is stacked beyond belief, the middle kitchen which is still pretty good and the bottom kitchen that barely has its bones. What is pretty ingenious is that there is a conveyor platform that starts at the top with all the best items that the top kitchen gets to choose from first within 30 seconds, then it moves down to the middle kitchen and they get to pick what's left, then it stops last at the bottom kitchen where they get whatever is left.

The judges are all pretty good. I've never heard of Nyesha Arrington or Richard Blais but I like them, they all have seem to have good chemistry. All 3 judges pick their teams on the first show where they will be their mentors. In the first heat the teams cook see whoever has the best dish and whoever does their team is safe from the elimination round. The remaining 2 teams are then vulnerable to go head to head in an elimination round. The two losing mentor chefs then pick one person from their team who they feel is the worse cook and those two go into the elimination round.

A very intense elimination round and overall this is a great cooking show concept, I really like it. Gordon Ramsey does it again... this man is a genius!

The Platform meets Master Chef meets The Voice

[olson-64848 · 7/10 · 28 March 2022]

Terrible. Just awful. Don't watch it even out of curiosity. It's so bad it isn't even funny bad. It's just awful. They tried, but it's such a fail I almost feel bad for Ramsey. Except he is a millionaire who conceived this mess. He should stick to cooking.

The show has problems.

[youbelongtomaster · 5/10 · 7 February 2022]

I love Gordon Ramsey, from his Hell's Kitchen, Nightmare Kitchens and Mastershef where he took a back seat a little.

But this show is a fail. I thought about why and here is what I believe:

First, we the viewers have no interest in the contestants back stories, we want them to emerge as individuals during the cooking tests. The way we get attached to people as we seem them perform under pressure in Hell's Kitchen for example. Here we are given a presentation on each one with the obligatory struggles story from the get go. It's a torture to watch. We are not interest in them yet. Send home half over a half season and then tell me a story about those that remain as I, as a viewer, have now formed an attachment or distaste for those that remain.

This leads to the other problem. The people are not authentic. They are not chefs that have struggled and have come in front of the judges and cooked something that impressed them and got them chosen. No one is chosen, no competition where they sweat and we wonder if the judges will take them for the show. We have no idea why they are chosen, apparently being a 'social media cook' is a ticket...what a joke. It like a sixty year old Ramsey is traying to be hip with the times. In Mastercook it worked because people had to compete for a spot and had to cook for it and sweat for it.in front of all 3 judges. This is how it also works in The Voice, contestants come and sing and hope a judge picks them and we the public get involved int he process. Here we are told they are selected, deal with it, and listen now to their back story with over the top dramatic music that is detached from our emotions. Big mistake, you are missing the fundamentals of drama.

That's the other problem as I see it, The drama in this show is about each chef having a team and that team trying to win for their chef. But I don't care which team is the best... I don't even know those people let alone cheer for a team. The music tries to force a drama, the judges keep saying they want to win, "we have to win guys", why? One judge says, 'they are all like my babies' this in the second episode, give me a break, they are not her babies, she had barely time to get to know them and saw them cook one time. Stop with this childish drama and put those cooks under pressure and tell them they are not good enough.. You have no connection to those people, we the audience have no connection so all the drama that we are supposed to feel about which team wins does not exist.

Another major problem is that there is no connection between the plate being judged and the person. He does not step forward, is not under pressure. Just judges tasting and the cooks standing in a group no one knows who made the dish. The judges comments are: 'whom ever made this dish did a grate job...'. No pressure. We know because the camera is on the cook's face, but so what. Let them step forward, look in their eyes as a judge. Let them know that what they have cooked could embarrass them in front of America or make them shine. Taste and be brutally honest. That's what we want to see.

That leads me to the judging. All dishes are good. Maybe something is overcooked or under. Not enough salt... But all is so positive. The first guy to leave the kitchen is told" 'young man, I don't think we have seen the last of you" - give me a break. He is the first to go. He is the worst. What is this disingenuous comment. Tell him why he is not good enough. Or better yet, challenge him to come back when he improves an prove you wrong. Let him be crushed, this is not a feel good show, its about sweat, hard work, perseverance and handling pressure.

. Finally the platform is interesting. The chain that sometimes is visible needs to be edited out as it gives a car garage feeling.

Also the kitchens where they cook are chosen is done at random. Big mistake. Start all in the best kitchen. Eliminated means you drop down a kitchen. Second elimination and you are in the basement and your hanging by a tread as there is nothing below the basement but a ticket home.. But that is ok, because even in the basement you can come back if you have the skills. Maybe you were unlucky but you still get a chance to prove us wrong. SHow us your grit and personality. Let us the audience root for the guy or gall in the basement, that she makes a dish which swaps her with some one from one level above. Now that's good drama, I should be payed for ideas like this. Ramsey, don't write the show, hire a writer to come up with the ideas. You are a great chef, that does not translate to writing. If you already hired a writer and he produced the first season, fire him and get a Jewish writer for gods sake. (thats a joke, get a good writer) Also get rid of the chefs teams. This isent the Voice. Have the judges be merciless. No mentor ship, this isent mama's kitchen, just brutal honesty in their face - that contestant is native american? Why do I care?. Let me see if she is 100% focused, if she cries, because this is her passion, this is her life and this opportunity is something that comes once in her life time. Her being native american is secondary. The other contestant has Jamaican roots - I DONT CARE! Thats not important. Get me people from the street, people hungry to prove them selves. Real people, not social influencers idiots.

If anyone read this far , you deserve a cookie honestly. I love you, YOU the reader. Hope I made you smile along the way.

Great show but judges got it wrong.

[b-78509 · 10/10 · 13 May 2023]

Tucker is a bully who stole tiny's steak right out of her hands. This is an absolute no no. I could never enjoy eating anyone's food who cheats. Great job to Chris and Pilar for their honorable hard work and talent making it to the finale. Chris took the biggest risks and in my opinion received the lowest payout in return. Pilar had excellent execution on her dishes and look extremely tasty even from my living room. Tucker, in my opinion, is dishonorably discharged, plated safe with the muscles, 2nd dish was good however the third dish with pork does not go with it. Poor choice Tucker. I am absolutely appalled.

Cheer's

Mario Baguette.

Wow. Terrible. Disorienting.

[olson-64848 · 7/10 · 28 March 2022]

I love the concept, but the editing makes it so disorienting no one can follow it. It's such a cool concept (stolen from a Netflix movie), but the awful editing style makes it unwatchable. I wanted to like this, but after 3 episodes I had to give up. It gave me a headache. It's awful. Sorry, Gordan, this is a huge flop.

Tedious Retread

[jtb44 · 2/10 · 4 January 2022]

Like practically every 'cooking competition' on TV it's made by people who hate cookery for people who hate cookery. It's the same tired format, microwaved, and served up again. All comfort food (read basic home cooking), shrieking and overacting from the wannabes (who this time include social media 'stars', squeeeeee!), pointless fulminating from Ramsay, horrendous overamped music, heart-rending back stories you don't care about, utter want of jeopardy in who does or does not advance and then, at the end, amazingly world class food. Seen it a thousand times. Won't be bothering this time.

Watch a show where you see the techniques used and the way the food is cooked. Or watch this if what you really want is dire reality TV with a thin veneer of cookery.

It needs a replacement...

[DinoBunny · 6/10 · 3 April 2023]

I like the show, have always loved anything with Gordon Ramsey.

But this show I find myself putting off watching each and every week - and that's because of Nyesha. She is so rude - and treats everyone like she's in the military. It's honestly such a put off.

The episode I just watched she literally said to someone on her own team "and I'm not gonna tell you again!" And then to someone else "turn it off, turn it off, turn it off!" But in such a rude tone. Had to end up fast forwarding because it's hard to watch her talk to people like that!

Replace her, and the show would be so much better.

Love it!

[BirdzOfParadise · 10/10 · 27 February 2023]

I don't usually like cooking shows. I love to cook so everyone tells me I should watch this or that show but they always bore me. This one however has more of the competition and intensity of some of the competition reality shows and that exact element is what had me sold last season. I couldn't wait for the new season to start and this one is even better!

As for some of the other reviews, yes the mentor knows who cooked the dishes from their own teams during the main round, but the other judges do not know who cooked which dishes from the other teams. So those claiming it's fixed because the judges know who cooked what are not being entirely truthful. Also, during the elimination round, the mentor of the two chefs in the elimination round do not know which chef cooked which dish. Only the mentor whose team IS NOT in the elimination round knows who cooked what. Mentors have voted for the dish of their own teammate to be eliminated not realizing they were doing so, so again, claims the show is fixed based on this are untruthful as well.

It's a great show from a cooking perspective as well as just a great all around competition reality show even if cooking shows aren't usually your thing. I absolutely love it for that reason.

Love the show but don't like Blaze

[wxbwjfk · 6/10 · 16 February 2022]

I love this show and feel like the 2 of the mentors are fair. Chef Blaze feels very bias and I hope the replace him if there is a season 2. Maybe get someone who doesn't think they are the star of the show.

Ramsay is a marketing genius and this one doesn't disappoint

[OneAnjel · 9/10 · 9 February 2022]

Loved Kitchen Nightmares. Maybe we all started there. Ramsay has some kind of charisma and his brilliance in cooking, communicating, and inspiring are definitely next level. Unfortunately, all of that isn't necessarily on display here but I think the format is engaging. I'm surprised to see such low-level talent, tbh, making such basic mistakes. But the fact the young cooks are so confident creating those horrible dishes is a bit of comedic relief. For the judges, it's a show about how to be very diplomatic and respectful under the most trying circumstances as well as looking at the positive. I hope the show will become more of a true challenge and less of a dumb and dumber skit. But entertaining regardless. I can see the influence of shows like Chopped and Biggest Loser, highlighting the individual's over-confidence, low self-esteem, or self-importance.

I notice many reviews expect it to be a cooking show and call it 'confused.' Ramsay is taking chefs who believe themselves to be good and offering a reward for proving themselves good enough to win. You don't win cooking shows; you win... game shows! Pretty straight forward.

The other complaint I see is that Gordon & these other chefs shouldn't be presented as equals. But Shakespeare's King Henry V taught us that all good leaders know motivating those who work for you means making them feel empowered, confident. I don't think anyone's confused about who is top dog here.

Some reviews wondered if this was stolen from a film. But platforms, lifts, dumbwaiters, elevated levels - - call it what you will - - have been in literature and film since the dawn of time. Just very basic. But if Ramsay saw the film Platform and was inspired by it, I would call that motivation more than plagiarism. And it works!

If you like Ramsay, you'll like this show.

Dumb dumb dumb

[patrickharding-63013 · 1/10 · 25 February 2022]

It doesn't get any more gimmicky then this scripted excuse of a cooking show. Take a shot every time someone says "next level" and you'll be drunk in five minutes. The early Ramsay shows like Hells Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares (especially the British edition) were so much better. I think Ramsays ego won't allow him to have a truly unscripted show anymore. Everything is super edited, hyper, loud and scripted. I think this is the worst cooking reality show I've ever seen. Pathetic in every aspect.

This show is embarrassing, or should be for Ramsay and Blaise

[brian-burchell · 16 April 2023]

I'll cut to the chase. I'm reviewing this halfway through Season 2. Read through a bunch of the 1-5 star reviews on IMDB and consider my review an emphatic Ditto! It seems that the producers failed to take into account the public perception of Season 1, to wit, the opinions here, and just carried on with the same bland, un-interesting, hyped-up, utterly lacking in drama or , heaven forbid, cooking prowess. These are average cooks with maybe 1 or 2 exceptions,cooking average food and the great chef hosts are jumping up and down trying to put lipstick on a pig to try to keep what is a giant yawn interesting. It is vapid, vacuous, and virtually pointless. Save yourself a little time and go watch a re-run of IronChef, the original, in Japanese, and watch that. You may not understand a thing they say but you will be infinitely more entertained if it is a cooking competition you're after. The bottom line, this show is Ramsay trying to make something out of nothing and failing abysmally.

Good Show, Poor Mentor

[greenthumb97 · 8/10 · 9 February 2022]

The show is a cool idea and very interesting, Gordon and Richard a great and encouraging. Nyesha, on the other hand, is condescending, demeaning, arrogant, and down right rude. I don't want to ever eat at any of her restaurants no matter how good they may be.

The Platform

[cotton_blossom-219-395542 · 8/10 · 4 March 2022]

The only reason this tv show exists is because Gordon Ramsay watched the horror/thriller movie The Platform and liked it. It's where he got the concept from. It's the SAME EXACT THING!!!

I really enjoyed the show and it was fun to watch!

Next level disaster. A show with an identity crisis.

[jamesnoro · 2/10 · 1 February 2022]

Next level chef is a bizarre show with a massive identity crisis. It does not know what it wants to be. Is it a cooking competition or Is it a game show? The truth is that is that it's neither. The game is much to unfairly balanced to be an actual cooking competition like master chef and it's premise takes itself way to seriously to be a game show like cutthroat kitchen.

The show itself is just weird to watch. It tries and fails with the whole "mentor" angle as we never actually see any of the mentors actually helping their team in any way. The incredibly unfair premise of the competition is constantly undercut by the narrative of the editing, painting it as if skill can outweigh the odds placed on the chefs in the bottom kitchen when it's never the case (so far at least.)

If you want a game show cooking competition, watch cutthroat kitchen. If you want a cooking competition, watch MasterChef or top chef. Let next level chef descend into irrelevancy where is belongs.

Game show is right!

[scottwilliam-11107 · 1/10 · 24 January 2022]

So I guess our next great chefs of the world are going to be determined by how many ingredients they can grab in 30 seconds. And it's so amazing that when the people that do forget the major proteins or ingredients always end up with such fabulous dishes against All odds. At least the dinner services on Hell's kitchen can be entertaining. This show spending 30 to 40 minutes on watching people prepare dishes is like watching paint dry.

Gordon Ramsey gone woke

[michael-214-36040 · 3/10 · 8 February 2022]

Remember the Gordon who stopped at nothing to find and demand perfection? Yeah that guy is gone. Watch Gordon defer and demire to his two guest chefs. Watch unskilled home chefs be coddled and pampered. It's every kid gets a trophy but for adults. Boring. Et tu Gordon?