Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars caught my attention because of its premise, which is neither a cooking competition nor a Chef's Table clone. Instead, the Apple TV+ series follows chefs and restaurants in their pursuit of a Michelin star, the coveted symbol of excellence awarded to restaurants by a tire company.
The show, from Gordon Ramsay's production company, "follows the fates of elite chefs at some of the world's most unique and celebrated restaurants to determine whether they will earn, retain, or lose" Michelin stars.
Stars: Jesse Burgess
Immerse myself in work environments to see how a competition works in real life? Yes, please! While I recommend it, I must also point out that, like the service at a new restaurant, Knife Edge is inconsistent in what it offers.
At first, the series feels more like a cleverly filmed and edited local news segment than a documentary. We wander in and out of three New York City restaurants, meeting people, but never really getting to know them.
The editing seems to be working overtime to compensate for the lack of footage, adding plenty of voiceover and even giving us a Below Deck season 10-style montage to show a chef's anxiety.
What makes this more evident is that Knife Edge doesn't focus on the same chefs and restaurants for its entire eight-episode season. Instead, it follows a few restaurants in a city or region for about an episode and a half, and then switches gears.
Frustratingly, despite this structure, the second episode spends several minutes recapping the first, rather than simply picking up after the cliffhanger. This is streaming! What are we doing here? (New episodes premiere every Friday on Apple TV+.)
For the second batch of restaurants, it's clear that 1) the number of producers with access varied by restaurant and chef, 2) some subjects produced more material than others, or 3) both.
There's enough footage, well presented, that when chefs from that city or region gather to see if they've kept, added, gained, or lost Michelin stars, it creates real dramatic tension. I felt involved and as if I was there with them, waiting to learn their fate.
This continues when cameras capture charged moments in the kitchens.
An owner receives a call and yells at his kitchen staff that they've been invited to the Michelin event, a sign that they're still in the running. "I'm not going," the chef says. "There's too much pressure." As he continues working, he says, "I'm just a kid, I don't deserve it yet," and by that he means even being in the same room as more experienced chefs.
These are the moments that really bring the show to life. Unfortunately, with other chefs—and with most of the kitchen and dining room staff—we only get a small slice of their character development, a limited view of a part of their work.
Knife Edge also makes the most of its time in the kitchen and dining room, with the arrival of solo diners, as well as the nerves of the chefs and staff. Are those diners Michelin inspectors? Shrug emoji! We'll never know, because they don't reveal their identities.
The Michelin inspectors do speak in this series, though the show uses what I assume are discreetly recorded doubles with voiceovers to hide their identities. However, in the first three episodes I've seen, they only offer a superficial glimpse into their jobs or their process.
But of course, they're not the reason I'm here. It's for the chefs and their staff, to see how they manage their kitchens, innovate with gastronomy, and try to differentiate themselves enough to earn that star.
I'm also not here for the host, Jesse Burgess, a "food expert." He's quite enthusiastic and talks to us a lot as he tours cities and explains the basics. Later, he's in the back of the Michelin meeting and appears both joyful and/or disappointed as the results come in.
But despite all the time we spend with Burgess, including watching him taste food and comment, he remains an enigma, like some chefs, who only give us clichés.
And then comes the second batch of restaurants, in Chicago, where Knife Edge has far more access to chef Jake Potashnick than to any of the previous chefs.
Not only does he make himself vulnerable with us ("Every day is like losing money"; "Every day I screw up, and every day I learn from that screw-up"), but he also allows us to spend time with him. We're in his car as he runs to the bank; we attend staff meetings.
And this is where Knife Edge truly delivers on its promise to "follow" these chefs, from ideas to kitchens to the Michelin reception.
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