Stream It Or Skip It?

Next Gen Chef, hosted by Oliva Culpo, is a cooking competition that takes place in the kitchens and halls of the famed Culinary Institute of America, which more than once during the first episode is called the “Harvard of culinary schools.” Culpo is joined by two judges: Master sommelier Carlton McCoy and chef Kelsey Barnard Clark, both CIA alumni. Various instructors from the institute serve as proctors for the chefs to help guide them during their tasks. The winner of the competition gets $500,000.

Opening Shot: A flyover shot of the Culinary Institute of America campus in Hyde Park, New York.

The Gist: The twenty-one chefs that start the competition are all young — under 30, for the most part, some in their early 20s — and have accomplished a lot during their young careers. They’re given their first challenge, called the “Entrance Exam,” which will eliminate 9 chefs, leaving the competition with 12.

The group is split into three teams of seven, and they have to determine who the team leader will be. Each team will make a seven-course meal inspired by a famous CIA alumnus: Anthony Bourdain, Julia Child and Paul Bocuse. Guest judges for this round are three other CIA alumni: Francis Lam, Cat Cora and Paul Carmichael. The faculty proctors also give Cuplo, McCoy and Clark input on how the chefs conducted themselves while going through the challenge.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Next Gen Chef is more or less the same exact format as Top Chef.

Our Take: Two things distinguish Next Gen Chef from its obvious inspiration, at least in its latest seasons: Next Gen Chef is essentially about chefs making meals, in a real restaurant kitchen, with very little in the way of gimmickry. The other thing that distinguishes Next Gen Chef from Top Chef is the fact that not only are all of the chefs young, but they’re pretty much all accomplished in their field.

There are a few contestants, like 25-year-old Peter McTiernan, who are already executive chefs. One of the other team leaders, Andre Sargent, is a sous chef at Per Se. Some of the chefs are already CIA alumni. So, while there are a few people who are self-taught in the mix, they are all much farther in their careers — at a young age! — than many Top Chef contestants have been, especially during the show’s early years.

With 21 contestants to start, presenting the first challenge in the 50-minute first episode proved to be a bit cumbersome, with the presentation of the 21 meals taking 3/4 of the episode’s runtime. We were introduced to key contestants — and we should have realized that ones we didn’t see much of would likely be eliminated — and got some brief biographical sketches of the CIA instructors that served as proctors. It was a lot. But with the group cut down to 12 for the second episode, things should flow better as the season progresses.

Sex and Skin: Sexy food shots, but that’s about it.

Parting Shot: Netflix continues its infuriating practice of making each episode into a cliffhanger by not revealing the last saved contestant before cutting to the credits.

Sleeper Star: All three of the team leaders, including 23-year-old Juaquin Cariaso, exhibited amazing leadership skills that belied their ages, redirecting chefs who were having issues and jumping in when needed to help a dish get done.

Most Pilot-y Line: Hopefully, we’ll stop hearing that CIA is the “Harvard of culinary schools” after the first episode.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Next Gen Chef isn’t reinventing the cooking competition, but it does a solid job because its contestants are so well-accomplished and the setting at the Culinary Institute is so unique.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.