For hardcore fans of The Bear, here’s your chance to delve into the reticent world of culinary machination. Backed by Gordon Ramsay as executive producer, “Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars” is an eight-part docu-series that follows restaurants across the world in their quest to earn their Michelin stars.
For the chronically online, it is hosted by food presenter Jesse Burgess, who you might know from Topjaw, where he interviews the who’s who of the gastronomy world in his hometown of London, UK.
With five out of eight episodes released, the show follows restaurants in New York (Coqodaq, The Musket Room, Nōksu), Chicago (Cariño, Esmé, Feld), the Nordics (Aure, Jordnær, Knystaforsen), the U.K. (Caractère, House, Wilsons), with Mexico, Italy, and California still to follow. With a new format for a cooking show—neither a Chef’s Table nor a MasterChef —the show conveys the frenetic, high-stakes energy that follows Michelin-starred and Michelin-aspiring restaurants.
The Michelin Guide itself, which exists only in a select few countries, is an elusive, slippery thing. As the show uncovers, the staff and chefs at these restaurants never know when a Michelin inspector is coming in, but they know what to keep an eye out for—a solo diner who takes lots of notes and pictures, asks a lot of questions, and leaves almost without a trace. The next step for the restaurants is being invited to the Michelin Guide event in their area — but an invite does not guarantee a star. From one-bite delights to 30-course tasting menus, Knife Edge explores a new side to the obscure mechanisms of this 125-year-old process. Offering never-before-seen interviews with undercover Michelin inspectors.
Watching the show had me catching my breath at the events — waiting and wanting the featured restaurants to get (and keep) their first, second, and even third stars. Some journeys ended in triumph, others in heartbreak. Through the episodes, I found myself rooting for the chefs, many of whom have been through hardships — family issues to prison sentences – and some struggle with mental health issues like anxiety and imposter syndrome. The show itself does not shy away from highlighting the nitty-gritties of restaurant life. It almost feels like a real-life rendition of fictional Chef Carmy.
Chef Dae Kim of Nōksu, for example, showed an unusual vulnerability on screen—one we are completely unused to from chefs. His self-doubt and self-reproach struck a chord, and in a high-pressure, high-stakes situation, his greatness was thrust upon him in the form of a last-minute dish featuring a singular piece of carved kohlrabi.
Head Chef and Owner Eric Vildgaard of two-Michelin-starred Jordnær is a testament to how cooking and artistry can turn one’s life around. Chef Vildgaard got his start cooking in juvenile detention after getting involved with the underworld. He compares being in the kitchen to organised crime — with the structure, hierarchy, action, and reaction being common to both spaces. The only difference, he says, is that as a chef he is making people happy, not sad.
The show exposes the price of perfection, with teams pushed to the absolute breaking point to win this highest honour of the Michelin star. It is a riveting exploration into a side of gastronomy we rarely get to see, not focusing on the ingredients or the food, but instead on the larger affairs of running a top-class restaurant, from having accomplished front-of-house staff to menu planning.
As we progress through the season, the stakes keep getting higher. At one point, a thunderous crash of a breaking dish sent shockwaves through the screen, and I actually had to pause the show and take a ten-minute breather to steady myself. The intensity only builds from there, as chefs evolve from mere cooks into true artists.
When we question if cooking is a science or an art, the Michelin Guide’s response is to say, ‘what even is art?’ Knife Edge pushes the limits of storytelling not only for the viewer, but also for its subjects, portraying a keenly sharp image of people behind the scenes. As diners in a restaurant, we never get to see chefs and teams falling apart — all we know is that the food magically appears in front of us. It is easy to forget sometimes that there is a story behind the food — one which Michelin-starred chefs are aching to tell. Straddling the line between madness and ingenuity, Knife Edge needs to be on your to-watch list — if for nothing else, then for a newly minted appreciation it gives you for the relentless art of the restaurant world.
