Newark chef Robbie Jester is back on TV and this time the pressure is really on.
Jester, a private chef and an owner of Pizzeria Mariana on East Cleveland Avenue, will dish up the drama as a contestant on the new Netflix competitive cooking series “Pressure Cooker,” which drops on Friday, Jan. 6.
The series follows 11 chefs who are living together as they participate in cooking contests. The twist in the series is that there is no panel of guest judges: The competitors judge each other and also vote on who will receive the $100,000 prize.
Jester is no stranger to TV cooking programs.
He has twice appeared on the Food Network’s “Guy’s Grocery Games” (he won on his second appearance) and battled and won a shrimp scampi cooking contest on “Beat Bobby Flay.”
Jester’s winning scampi dish that bested one made by celebrity chef Bobby Flay appeared on the menu for several years at the Stone Balloon Ale House in Newark, where he formerly was executive chef. The $19 dish, made with homemade cavatelli, tomato, lemon and garlic in a white wine butter sauce, now is on the menu at Pizzeria Mariana, Jester’s restaurant that serves wood-fired pizza, salads and pasta.
Jester said “Pressure Cooker” was a much more intense experience than when he competed against Flay.
“This is completely different,” he said of the Netflix series. “It’s every day and it’s relentless.”
Due to contract restrictions, Jester was not allowed to discuss too many details of “Pressure Cooker” before the series begins airing.
Buzz-worthy:Here are some Delaware restaurants you must try in 2023
He said he “got wind” of the show about two years ago and applied to be a competitor in fall 2021. Jester said he found out in spring 2022 he was selected to be a contestant and flew to Los Angeles where the series was filmed.
Jester stayed in California for about 3½ weeks and said having “a good team in place” helped him keep his Newark restaurant running while he was gone.
He said producers were vague on show details when he arrived other than that the program was a cooking competition where contestants would live together and “there was going to be a social component.”
“It was completely secret. We didn’t know anybody. We didn’t know we weren’t being judged by celebrity chefs. Every day is a new day and a new set of challenges. They did a really good job of keeping us separated and being secretive. It’s very high-intensity and volatile. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Jester said.
A red-faced, emotional Jester is show in a series of clips from a trailer from this seemingly cut-throat kitchen. The trailer suggests that forming alliances, impressing your peers and having a strategy is important to the game,
In one clip, Jester is shown near tears as he embraces a chef. In others, he is yelling that another contestant has served “raw food twice!” and also appears angry as he pushes a chair away from a table, stands up, and appears to confront a fellow contestant while saying, “You know what? ….”
“It’s very emotional as you can see in the trailer,” Jester said chuckling during a Tuesday afternoon phone interview.
Jester said Netflix subscribers can binge-watch the whole season of “Pressure Cooker” when it begins airing at midnight on Jan. 6.
Pies have it:Grotto Pizza brings back its popular Bake at Home pies
Jester also is hosting an open-to-the-public “Pressure Cooker” viewing party at 6 p.m. Friday, Jan. 6 at the Bellefonte Brewing Co. at 1851 Marsh Road in Brandywine Hundred’s Plaza III shopping center.
Delaware chefs have been getting plenty of national TV exposure in recent months.
SoDel Concepts’ Corporate Pastry Chef Dru Tevis won the Food Network’s “Holiday Baking Championship,”, Hari Cameron, a co-founder of grandpa (MAC) in Rehoboth Beach, is featured on Netflix’s “Snack vs. Chef” and Wilmington baker Donavon “Monty” Alderman is on the Food Network’s docu-series “Bake It ‘Til You Make It,” a seven-episode program that began Dec. 26.
Contact Patricia Talorico at ptalorico@delawareonline.com and follow her on Twitter @pattytalorico
