'Next Level Chef''s Nyesha Arrington on Why She Has to Stay on Her Toes Working with Gordon Ramsay
Nyesha Arrington
Season 3 of Next Level Chef is underway. The first three weeks were auditions by groups—home cooks one week, social media chefs the next and finally professional chefs. And after watching the auditions, which were a new twist this season, where eight chefs auditioned but only five made it through to the competition, Gordon Ramsay, Nyesha Arrington and Richard Blais selected their teams.
They were supposed to take turns, but when it was Nyesha’s turn and she picked Jordan Torrey, it was a shocker—Gordon stole him.
“Oh, my goodness! Can you believe it?” Nyesha tells Parade in this interview. “When you work with Gordon, you really have to stay on your toes, there’s never a dull moment. For me, I thought, ‘Wow, I’m going to choose Jordan based off his merit in the dish that he made during the auditions. That scallop dish was incredible.’ So, I chose based off of that.”
But Gordon and Jordan had had a viral moment on social media prior to Jordan’s getting into the competition, where Jordan burnt his fingers on a frying pan, and it went viral. Gordon reacted, calling Jordan a “donut” but he also kindly sent him a new set of his HexClad pans and knives, so Jordan was predisposed to want to be on Team Gordon.
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Apparently, this isn’t the first time that Gordon’s done something like this. In season 1, he tried to steal Jonathan Harrison, but Jonathan chose to stay on Richard’s team.
“Jordan swapped, and so for me, I’m looking for chefs that want to be on Team Arrington, and if Jordan chose to be on Gordon’s team, I can’t knock him for that, respect it. I got two picks after that, so it’s all good—for now, Gordon.”
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Nyesha may not have Jordan on her team, but she still has a team to be proud of. In fact, on tonight’s episode, her team is in the top-level kitchen, having won last week’s smash burger challenge (Ryan “Von” Smith).
“I look for people who can handle the pressure,” Nyesha says. “I’m not looking for the best professional chef who has the most decorated chef’s coat, I’m looking for the chef who has the ability and who wants to take on what this competition is about, and it’s the mentorship along the way. Someone who has an impeccable ability to retain information, learn and listen along their way in their journey.”
Another important aspect of team selection for the Native by Nyesha restaurant owner is team members who are organized.
“Auditions is really one of my favorite parts of the season because I get this inside look on how these chefs move in the kitchen,” she says. “Before they even start to cook, what I’m looking for is how they organize themselves, that is imperative to me. If you’re working in a messy, chaotic station and environment, that’s telling me that’s how your brain is, right?
“If you’re working meticulously and you’re taking the five seconds that it takes to organize yourself and stop down and think about your order of operation and then execute, that’s a recipe for success. We can build and work on that.”
During our chat, Nyesha talked more about the categories of chefs and how it plays out, the biggest challenge that she sees for her team, how she can predict the winner, why two women have won so far, and more
CR: Brian Bowen Smith/FOX
The audition process was new this season, where we saw the chefs actually auditioning on camera. How do you think it went? Do you think it added something?
We did many interviews, layers of interviews off camera pre-season in previous seasons, and so it’s exciting to have the auditions [on camera] and it’s ultimately for the viewer, right? The first three episodes gave the viewership an opportunity to buy in, pick their favorites and understand these human-interest stories. We have people from all over the United States -- from Hawaii to New Jersey. It’s really incredible to see these home chefs, social media chefs and pro chefs all vying for the same opportunity.
As you mentioned, there are three categories of chefs: the professional, the home cooks, and the social media chefs. Does it really make a difference? How do they stack up against each other?
It’s interesting because you’d think anyone who potentially doesn’t know what Next Level Chef’s about, you just think, “Oh, pro chefs are always going to crush it in a culinary competition.” I think what makes it special is that we have the three tiers of kitchens, where those three kitchens, they speak to the individual differently.
Pro chefs might come in, they might have 10 years of experience, but what are they working with? They’re working with the best product, they’re working with the best ingredients, they may have, may not have mentors outside of the competition. They come in, they get tossed into a kitchen like the basement, and they’re not used to using these pans that are all pretty much home-cook material. They’re not used to this less than bare-bones kitchen environment, and that can throw some of these chefs. They’re used to being regimented and having the best and the pristineness of it all, and it’s so interesting to see how that levels people out.
And then you have home cooks that get into that top level and they’re like, “Oh my God, I never knew something like this existed.” The glitz and the glamor and the lighting alone in the elite top-level kitchen, where they have high-powered stoves, the best equipment, sharp knives, you give a home cook who’s passionate about food, who might come from a high-pressure environment, tools like that, they can soar. So those three levels of the kitchens really evens everything out.
You talked about looking for organizational skills, but to me one of the biggest challenges in the competition is when the platform drops, and you must decide in 10 seconds what you’re going to make. Once you get your protein, you still have to get the rest of the ingredients. Do you see that as the biggest challenge or are there other challenges that you think are more difficult for the chefs?
I would say it’s down to those final three minutes and how you’re spending your time. Because all of that work that you’ve done, grabbing ingredients, temperature control, how you’re cooking your vegetables, how you’re caring for your protein, how you’re bringing your vision and your creativity to life doesn’t matter if you don’t get it on the plate and have it be presentable for the judges to understand what your vision is.
So, for me the most imperative moments are those last three minutes. Not only to articulate that vision, but then have time to walk it to the platform, you know? Because you don’t want to disrupt that vision that you’ve created on that canvas. That in itself is a lot of pressure to think about, “Okay, I have to time my fish perfectly, I have to get all my ingredients ready and be impeccable to get onto the plate.”
The tall guys have an extra couple seconds because they can raise their plates up.
They really do. Man, Mada [Abdelhamid] nearly gave me a heart attack last episode. He was waiting to the very final second. The whole team, Team Arrington’s like, “Mada!” And I’m literally like, “Mada!” And he waltzes up and he just delicately puts it on top of the platform. He’s like, “I’m seven feet tall.” I’m like, “Oh my gosh, please.”
Since there can only be one winner, what do the others gain from competing on Next Level Chef?
You might not walk in the best chef, but you for damn sure are going to leave one of the best chefs. Win or lose, right? Because you have the opportunity to garner over 100 years of experience between Gordon Ramsay, Richard Blais, and myself, who have all been in that spot, various culinary competitions, well-traveled, worked for incredible mentors.
Now we get to bestow that information, that knowledge on each one of these chefs. No matter how long they’re in the competition, they’re learning along the way. And so, when chefs can understand that, that’s the beauty and the essence of Next Level Chef. That’s really what this is about and what separates it from any other competition out there. It’s really that, and money can’t buy that.
You won Season 1, how much pressure is there to you to win this season? Richard hasn’t won a season yet, how competitive are you three really?
Very! Are you kidding me? We’re so competitive. While this is a competition for the hopefuls to win that $250,000 and the one-year mentorship outside of the competition, I’d be hard pressed to say that we don’t have a natural competitiveness between the mentors because we’ve all worked very hard to get to where we are, and we all want those bragging rights for sure.
Both seasons’ winners have been women so far. Does that say something about women as better chefs than men?
Yes! I would say it’s about our ability to work calmly under pressure. On any given day, ladies, we are out here making sure we look good, we’re running households at times, we are adding finesse, we are matriarchs, and we all boss that effortlessly. So, I think a culinary competition like this is in our wheelhouse to be able to handle the calm under pressure.
Do you get attached to your team? The winners get mentorships after, but what about other members of your team? Have you stayed in touch with them?
I’m always here for all of them. I believe that they make it into the competition for a reason. And that’s not just to say one and done, you didn’t make it, you’re not the Next Level Chef, don’t ever talk to me again. I follow along and they reach out, some of them ask advice and when I can, I share.
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The mentorship is incredible. You have a solid four months, someone like Pyet [Season 1 winner Stephanie “Pyet” Despain], we worked a lot on kitchen organization. She did a lot of pop-ups, and she wasn’t sure how to price and organize something like that, so that’s what we focused on, organizing her pop-ups. Someone like Tucker [Ricchio, Season 2 winner], we’re currently in our mentorship phase now and she’s thinking about branding, marketing, how does she come up with her ethos? That’s what she really wants to work on.
These mentees want to work on different things with different mentors, and so we’ll find our Season 3 winner and that will be a different dialog. But it’s a big family, it’s a community that we’re building here.
At what point do you have an idea who’s going to win?
For me, it’s very difficult to fake the funk on a dish, right? And what I mean by that is a dish can look pretty and not make an impact on the soul. You can literally feel when a chef puts love in their dish. And what I mean by that is when they’ve cared for each component of a dish individually and allowed that ingredient to speak to them and tell what it wants you to do to it.
That is an intangible quality in a dish that separates it [from the pack]. There are moments when you taste it and I’m telling you, it just reverberates in your body and you can feel that. That’s when you know you’ve found the Next Level Chef.
When you’re not doing this, what are you working on? Do you have new projects coming up?
Well, I have a restaurant at LAX in the airport. I’m working on some fun projects I can’t say too much about in this current time. But for leisure, I’m a big weightlifter. I am very passionate about weightlifting. I lift four or five times a week, but it is a close second to my passion of cooking. And I’ve asked myself why I’ve fallen in love with the sport of weightlifting, Olympic lifting specifically, and I think this.
I think it has a very much in tandem ethos with how you approach cooking. You look at great chefs or you have great restaurants and you’re like, “Why is that so incredible?” It’s because there are lots of micro motions to get to the essence of a good dish. What oil am I using? What pan am I using? What basil? Am I using Thai basil, Italian basil? When are you adding those elements for them to be perfect?
And it’s similar to weightlifting, you have to have these little micro moments that make the lift look effortless. That’s what I think my brain really loves, those analytics and how to understand, how to distill down information into these incredible expressions. And I think as much time as I spend in the gym, it makes me better in my work life, and for me that has become a very natural access of how I spend my time. If I’m not in the gym, I’m in the kitchen cooking. Those are my worlds.
And then being in the gym allows you to eat everything that you make in your kitchen.
Added bonus. You see where I’m going with this.
Next Level Chef airs Thursday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on FOX.
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