In a cooking competition series, the quality of the food is paramount. If you don’t plate the food by the end of the countdown clock and impress the judges with your creation, you’re likely out of the kitchen.
However, in NBC’s culinary competition series Yes, Chef!, co-hosted and judged by Martha Stewart and José Andrés, there’s added pressure on the chefs outside of their cooking prowess. All 12 chefs invited to compete in Season 1 are professionals in the industry, but they also have personal issues, whether that’s self-doubt, short fuses they take out on their peers, or problems with teamwork.
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Aware that these issues aren’t rare in restaurant kitchens around the globe, the creators of Yes, Chef! wanted to create a series that addressed those barriers to personal excellence and create a series that platforms mentorship and personal change as being just as important as the food.
With several episodes aired, NBC Insider caught up with executive producer Kevin Lee (EP of Deal or No Deal Island, The Big D, and more) to ask about how José and Martha have been instructed to judge every competition and how the chefs’ demeanors in the kitchen impact the judges’ ultimate decisions.
Kevin Lee on creating challenges that test the chefs’ personalities
Asked how they approached creating their challenges for Yes, Chef!, executive producer Kevin Lee said told NBC Insider they balanced the psychology with the culinary.
“This was a unique cooking show in the sense that the challenges had to work as culinary challenges. Obviously, it’s about the food. But the show is about chefs that are working to overcome some of their personality issues,” Lee explained. “And so we wanted to do something very unique, which is have a culinary challenge that has a strategic element that tests a personality issue that we know our group of chefs have.”
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Using the example of micromanaging (featured in Episode 1), Kevin explained that during the culinary challenge, they specifically came up with a strategic sub challenge in which each team’s captain could take control of the menu away from their team members.
“We knew that micromanaging team captains would be very tempted to do that,” Lee said. “When they made that choice, they revealed to themselves, to José and Martha, and to the other chefs whether or not they were micromanagers.”
During that challenge, only Chef Katsuji Tanabe reverted to his own menu creation and showed his micromanaging colors.
“Ultimately, these behavioral issue and strategic decision points in the challenges were designed to teach a lesson to the chefs that needed to learn that lesson,” Lee explained. “So it was a unique combination of culinary competition and personality issue testing, all designed to teach them lessons about themselves so they can grow and transform.”
José and Martha’s Yes, Chef! Judging Guidelines
When it comes down to José and Martha having to make the tough decisions every episode about the competing chefs’ fates, do the psychological issues take precedence or the quality of the bite?
“José and Martha were judging on the food, but they were watching the behavior closely,” Lee explained. “The behavior that was displayed was not counted against the chef in terms of winning or losing. But with that said, these sorts of behavior, like leadership problems that a chef might have, obviously manifest themselves in the quality of the food that they’re making. So, it’s all kind of baked into the cake, so to speak.”
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Expounding on how that works, he added, “If a chef is a micromanager and takes control over his team and doesn’t utilize his team skills properly, then the food will suffer. So, even though the challenges were judged based on food, part of the judging was how their behavior affected the food. It’s kind of a complicated answer, but I think part of the recipe there is the behavior manifested itself in the final product of the food.”
New episodes of Yes, Chef! premiere on Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. Each episode will be available to stream on Peacock the next day.
