Big Restaurant Bet premieres with a so-so first episode

These days, Food Network is less about cooking shows that teach you how to cook and more about cooking competition shows. And nothing proves that more than the network’s newest show. Big Restaurant Bet premiered on Tuesday, April 5, 2022, and featured one of the network’s major stars, Chef Geoffrey Zakarian.

The concept of the show is pretty simple. Chef Zakarian gathers together eight chefs who are tasked with proving to him that their restaurant idea is the best. At the end of the six episodes, Chef Zakarian will invest $250,000 in the winning chef’s restaurant idea and hopefully, make it into a reality.

But they are going to have to do more than just present their idea.

In the first episode, the chefs were first tasked with making a small bite that represented what their restaurant idea is all about. They then presented their dishes to Zakarian, his wife and business partner Margaret Zakarian, and hospitality consultant and executive chef Eric Haugen.

Big Restaurant Bet is Food Network’s latest competition show

To say the judges didn’t hold back would be an understatement. They were pretty brutal, but they also gave a lot of praise to the dishes they liked. The winner of this first round was Chef Leo with a roast pork belly tostada that looked amazing! He combined Chinese and Mexican flavors to make a great first bite.

And instead of someone going home at the end of each episode, in this show, someone goes home after each challenge. At the end of this first challenge, Chef Colby was the one who had to leave. His restaurant idea was Caribbean ramen but he made barbecue katsu bao buns that the judges felt didn’t represent his idea well enough.

On to the next challenge! This time, the remaining chefs had to make a roast chicken. It sounds easy but it can be very difficult to get exactly right. Along with the chicken, the chefs also had to make a side dish that represented their restaurant idea.

Some of the chefs had a great time during this challenge while others…well, it was a bit of a disaster.

Once again, they presented their dishes to the judges, and once again, they did not hold back with their comments. For this challenge, Chef Alicia, a plant-based chef who rarely cooks animal products, won! It was so cool to see her win over all the other chefs who make chicken all the time. She even mentioned that she would be happy with being in the bottom two as long as she stayed.

But when there is a winner, there also has to be a loser. For this one, there were three people at the bottom: Chef Jesa, Chef Leo, and Chef Demetrius. And the person who went home was Chef Jesa. She had a really tough time with the oven cooking her chicken so it wasn’t exactly unexpected.

As for the show overall, while this isn’t a concept we’ve really seen before, this first episode still felt a little stale. It has the same feel as every other cooking competition show that takes itself too seriously (I’m looking at you, Top Chef).

While the chefs all seemed supportive of each other to a point, there was still an overly competitive vibe that all Food Network competition shows have. The harshness from the judges also didn’t help and felt pretty unnecessary.

They weren’t as brutal as judges on some other shows are, but there were still a few comments that didn’t need to be said.

And considering the preview next week shows one of the chefs literally saying “I’m not here to make friends,” it doesn’t look like the harsh, overly competitive vibe is going to change much.

What did you think of the Big Restaurant Bet premiere? Let us know in the comments below!