Yes, Chef!'s Petrina Calls Out Katsuji & Michelle for Being "Silly & Unfair" in Series Premiere
The first competitor to go on Yes, Chef! has some things to say about not getting her redemption round.
On the very first episode of NBC’s new competition reality series Yes, Chef!, co-hosted and co-judged by Martha Stewart and José Andrés, audiences were witness to two episode villains: a very bad bowl of gazpacho and frequent culinary show competititor (and agitator) Katsuji Tanabe.
In their own ways, both helped bring down Yes, Chef!'s first knockout, Chef Petrina Peart. An Executive Chef at the Wyoming Governor’s Mansion and a chef who admits to struggling with paralyzing perfectionism, Chef Petrina was drafted into Chef Michelle Francis’ team and volunteered to make a bowl of gazpacho that Stewart and Andrés both said was “watered down” and tasteless.
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Chef Petrina and her fellow competitors were cast on the show because someone close to them confirmed they are their own worst enemies in the kitchen due to egos, hot tempers, or debilitating self-sabotage stemming from personal insecurities.
In our exclusive NBC Insider exit interview with Chef Petrina, she confirmed that her issue is more than just perfectionism.
"It's more of a fear of failure that leads into that perfectionist mindset where it's a, 'If it's not perfect, then it's wrong" kind of deal,” she clarified. "I do wish I could have been portrayed to explain that more, because it's not like, I'm saying, 'I'm perfect and everything has to be perfect.' It's more that it comes from a fear mentality than anything else."
We chatted with Chef Petrina about getting to meet her culinary hero, who she blames more for her ousting, and whether gazpacho has been permanently banned from her menus.
Chef Petrina: "I grew up watching Martha Stewart with my grandma"
While the series didn’t go the way Chef Petrina wanted, she did say that a huge plus was getting to meet co-hosts Martha and José.
"I tell people all the time, I grew up watching Martha Stewart with my grandma after school. That was '90s programming,” she explained. "She is a big part of my growing up. She's the reason I love table-scaping, so that was an incredible opportunity for me. It’s one that I cherish, and will continue to cherish."
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Chef Petrina also said she loved getting to work next to a bunch of world-class chefs.
“Because of the position I have, and just working either as a private chef or at the governor's residence, I don't have a lot of opportunities to work with a lot of chefs,” she said. "Being in a room with 12 chefs is something that doesn't happen very often. And even though I didn't get to do my best and portray my best on the episode, I still appreciated that for sure. I didn't take that lightly."
Chef Petrina's beef with Chefs Michelle and Katsuji: "Katsuji made essentially a guacamole…"
Chef Petrina said she wasn’t shy about acknowledging that her soup was the “worst dish” as soon as she put it on the table, but she doesn’t appreciate that she wasn’t given the chance to prove whether she should stay or go from the competition in the second round.
"I didn't care for how my elimination happened,” Chef Petrina said with candor. "I just thought it was a roundabout, sneaky, shady way to eliminate someone. I think going on any competition, the most you can ask for, or in life in general, is the opportunity to fight for yourself. Whether I win or lose, at least, it will be by my own merit. If I would have gone in and competed in that second round for my life to stay on the show, and I would have lost again with Michelle or against Michelle, I would have been OK with that because I had the bad dish — I went up against her, and I lost again. I can't argue that."
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Instead, Chefs Michelle and Katsuji went head-to-head. If Chef Michelle had won, Chef Katsuji would have been eliminated automatically. But when Chef Katsuji came out on top, he got to wield the elimination power at will...
"I feel like I was really denied that opportunity,” she said of being left out of the cook-off. "I stand on the things I do, good or bad.
"Failure is where we learn the most, so trust me, I'm learning,” she added, laughing. "I just felt robbed of that opportunity to say, 'Let me stand, and go out. At least I'll be disappointed, but I'll be proud that I fought for myself.' To just stand there and know that they did this weird, roundabout way of sending me home, it seemed very silly to me.
"And then the fact that Katsuji made essentially a guacamole, and he didn't cook anything,” she continued. "Of course, that bothered me even more because I'm like, ‘Really?’ I thought it was a little silly, and I thought it was a little unfair."
Is redemption gazpacho a thing? Yes, it is!
In the end, Chef Petrina said she wishes she had gotten more time to actually work on her personal issue, but that won’t stop her from tackling that issue now every day.
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"No one wants to be the first [out] and so, for me, as someone who is afraid of failure and is paralyzed by that leading to perfectionism and overthinking, that's the worst possible scenario that could have literally happened to me,” she said of her experience. "And that is exactly how it played out. Besides crying about it — which did happen — the best thing I could do, and I can do, and will continue to do, is look at it as an opportunity to work on that one thing. And that was the whole point of me going on that show, to say there's this fear, or whatever you want to call it, that I'm living with and I would like to get over that."
She’s already moving toward that by appearing with her fellow Yes, Chef! contestants Chef T, Chef Zain Ismail, Chef Christopher Morales, and Chef Peter Richardson on May 3 at the Hard Rock Casino in Bristol, Virginia.
“And yes, I'm doing a redemption gazpacho,” Chef Petrina said, laughing.
Yes, Chef! airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on NBC, following The Voice. Each episode will be available to stream on Peacock the next day.
