Gordon Ramsay’s New Cooking Competition Series NEXT LEVEL CHEF is Ready to Rise and Shine

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede It has been 12 years since celebrity chef and TV personality Gordon Ramsay invented a new cooking competition show. So it’s no shock that his latest effort, NEXT LEVEL CHEF, has big plans, big dreams, and big prizes. But what might come as a surprise to viewers is just how big NEXT LEVEL CHEF is in a literal, physical sense. Debuting Sunday, Jan. 2 at 8 p.m. ET on CTV, CTV.ca, and the CTV app (and making its time-period premiere with another new episode on Wednesday, Jan. 5 at 10 p.m. ET), NEXT LEVEL CHEF features three very different kitchens, one on top of the other, stacked like a skyscraper. The top kitchen is every chef’s dream, filled with state-of-the-art equipment and utensils; the middle kitchen is adequate, but not elaborate; and the basement kitchen is, well, barely basic at best. As Ramsay says in the first episode, “If Martha Stewart saw these kitchens, she would (bleep) herself.” “We’ve got these three incredible kitchens, three stories high, 85,000 tons of steel, erecting some of the most sought-after, competitive kitchens on the planet,” Ramsay said in a virtual interview. He designed the show around the notion that producing exquisite dishes can be difficult even in optimum conditions, but just about every famous chef has had to overcome subpar surroundings at some point in their lives. Who can shine when the lights are lowest? Borrowing philosophically from CTV’s THE VOICE, NEXT LEVEL CHEF sees Ramsay and two other elite chefs – Nyesha Arrington and Richard Blais – not only as judges, but also as mentors and competitors. The three of them pick teams in the first episode, choosing from an ambitious collection of 15 professionals, home cooks, and social media stars. The winner gets $250,000 US, and continued mentorship from Ramsay, Arrington, and Blais. “Let’s be clear, I am as competitive as you know, and it’s the first time in many years that I have put myself out there, and I am getting incredibly competitive alongside Richard Blais and Nyesha Arrington, who are incredibly fierce,” Ramsay said. “And if you think they come across all sweet, if you look at Richard and he looks like he just came off the cover of a GQ magazine shoot, with that amazing hair, and sweet, gorgeous Nyesha, butter would never melt in her mouth, trust me, think again, because those two are feisty, and they want to kick my (bleep).” One of the most fun elements of NEXT LEVEL CHEF – well, fun for the viewers, if not necessarily the competitors – is the ingredients platform, which physically moves from floor to floor. It starts at the top, and the cooks up there have 30 seconds to grab what they need for the challenge ahead, before the platform descends to the middle level, and finally to the basement. By the time it gets to the bottom, there isn’t much left to choose from, unless someone on one of the upper levels has accidentally dropped something. “Nyesha’s team was so aggressive, they grabbed food from that platform, I mean, knocked it off, and so it fell down to the (bleeping) basement,” Ramsay said with glee. “I was so happy when the skies were literally raining with filet mignons and hanger steaks and ribeyes.” Looking at the bigger picture, Ramsay said that while the food industry has been decimated by the pandemic, democratization has also occurred, to the benefit of NEXT LEVEL CHEF. “I want to reiterate something that’s really important to us, because of what has happened in this industry over the last two years, which has never seen such a drastic downturn – but what has it done? It has gotten so much more creative,” Ramsay said. “It has actually cooked up a storm, because this is the first time we’ve ever put social media chefs, amateur chefs, and professional chefs into the same arena. After our first big challenge, one of the professional chefs, a phenomenal young cook out of New York, turned around and said, ‘I have a newfound respect for social media chefs.’ Gone are the days that you think they are just creating pictures that no one is tasting. It was a big eye-opener for everybody in that competition.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv