Yes, Chef: `Next Level Chef' is Fox's Super Bowl lead-out
It’s an old TV trick: if you’re at the helm of a brand-new show, you hope the premiere or sneak preview will land a cushy time-slot right after a must-see TV event. It all but guarantees a strong start, ratings-wise, so long as viewers don’t change the channel.
Gordon Ramsay’s “Next Level
Chef” isn’t new — it is entering its second season — but maybe its emphasis on competition made it a natural fit for Super Bowl Sunday. Season 2 of “Next Level Chef” is set to premiere Sunday, Feb. 12, on Fox right after Super Bowl LVII, before settling into the Thursday night time-slot freshly vacated by “Hell’s Kitchen.”
For the uninitiated, the competition features a mix of professional chefs, talented home cooks and social media influencers. They’re split into three teams, and each one is mentored by one of the judges: host Ramsay, chef/restaurateur Nyesha Arrington and “Top Chef All-Stars” alum Richard Blais.
There isn’t one kitchen but three, because the competition unfolds within a huge metal structure that is split into three different levels. The top floor is the swankiest, so to speak — a shiny space filled with state-of-the-art equipment. The middle level is a typical working kitchen, which sounds ho-hum, but it’s much better than the “basement,” which is just a big ol’ greasy mess of old appliances and tools.
A dumbwaiter delivers the ingredients for each culinary battle, but its first stop is the top floor, so those chefs get first dibs; the middle and basement levels have to work with whatever is left over. But whatever ingredient is chosen, they must use it to prepare their dish. And they’ve got just 45 minutes to prep and cook and get their plate on the ascending dumbwaiter.
The team behind the best dish will be assigned the top kitchen next time — hence the “Next Level” in the title. The other two teams battle it out in a cook-off, and the losing team is relegated to — you guessed it — the dreaded basement. A worse fate awaits the chef who’s considered the “worst of the worst” in that episode: they’re unceremoniously sent home.
Who will take things to the next level? Catch the Sunday, Feb. 12 season premiere of “Next Level Chef” on Fox, before it moves to its regular Thursday night time-slot.