17 APRIL 24-30, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | Every Second Counts BECCA GUEVARA IS OFF NEXT LEVEL CHEF, BUT THINGS ARE STILL COOKING FOR THE LOCAL SOCIAL-MEDIA STAR. BY TONI TRESCA You only have thirty seconds to grab all of your ingredients on Fox’s Next Level Chef. That’s it — half a minute to scan a platform stocked with ingredients and decide what you need to create a dish that will wow the celebrity judges. During those frantic moments, Denver’s Becca Guevara learned exactly what she’s made of. “Filming is super intense. People think cooking shows are fake or scripted, and I can tell you for sure it’s not,” she says with a laugh. “What you see on TV is what you get. We really do cook in 45 minutes. We have thirty seconds to grab ingredients, and then you cook immediately. There’s a reason why people look so chaotic. Because it is.” And yet somehow, through the sweat, the clanging pots and the perfectly imper- fect plating, Guevara made it all the way to the top eight of Season 4 of Next Level Chef, the Fox mega-hit hosted by culinary icons Gordon Ramsay, Nyesha Arrington and Richard Blais. The show brings together 24 rising cu- linary talents from across the United States, divided into three categories: Home Cooks, Professional Chefs and Social Media Chefs, and puts them through a three-level cooking challenge. The uppermost level is a state- of-the-art kitchen outfi tted with the fi nest tools and ingredients, while the bottom level challenges chefs to create gourmet meals with subpar equipment and whatever scraps they can scrounge up. Guevara competed in the Social Me- dia category, going up against contestants like Meg Sheley from Minneapolis and Jeff Kim of The CrunchBros. Other competitors included pros like Brandon Rogers of Chi- cago and home chefs like Megan Keno from Washington. All were vying for a $250,000 prize and a year-long mentorship with the three superstar chefs. Guevara brought her fl avor-forward, cam- era-ready recipes from the internet to TV kitchens in Ashford Studios in County Wick- low, Ireland — from the gleaming top-level chef’s paradise to the barely-holding-it-to- gether basement. Her time in the competition came to a bittersweet end during Episode 10’s “A Very Special O’ Cajun” — which aired Thursday, April 17 — when her New Orleans– inspired pork belly didn’t quite “hit the mark in the way I thought it would,” she recalls. “I felt like I was starting to finally get comfortable,” she continues. “Going into an elimi- nation round was something that I never wanted to do on the show. I would always tell my- self going into each challenge, ‘You’re going to cook one time today. We’re not going into elim- ination.’ So, having to do that and only having thirty minutes to cook was a nerve-wracking experience. I ultimately didn’t advance, but I’m proud of my time on the show.” After a tense cook-off against Arnav Kamulkar and Ryan Scanlon to stay in the competition, for which she prepared pan-roasted duck breast, the judges eliminated Guevara. Even in defeat, she remains grounded. “Honestly, it’s been a dream come true,” Guevara says. “Re- gardless of how far you get in the show, the fact that you can say you have cooked for or next to Gordon Ramsay, Nye- sha Arrington and Richard Blais is an ac- complishment in itself.” Born in Arizona and living in Denver for the past seven years, Guevara didn’t follow a tradi- tional culinary path. She studied at Northern Arizona University, where dreams of culinary school gave way to more practical concerns. “When I was going to college, it was that discussion of, ‘Is culinary school possible? Is that going to get you where you want in life?’ So I decided to go a different route,” she says. “Then, during the pandemic, I was furloughed from my job at Bed Bath & Beyond and was able to dive back into my love of cooking. I went from selling cooking appliances but not using them to actually using them again.” That kitchen rekindling eventually led her to create social media food content for Instagram and TikTok, where she carved out a niche teaching people how to make deli- cious, approachable meals as @biteswith- becs. Her popularity soared, especially on TikTok, where she’s amassed 289,700 fol- lowers and earned over 5.7 million likes. Then came Next Level Chef. Being se- lected to compete on a show she had admired from afar was a surreal experience. “I had been a fan of the show previously,” she says. “I remember walking into the judg- ing room, that kind of great hall area I’d seen on TV before, and all three mentors were just standing there. It was the fi rst thing that we saw. I remember thinking they were AI holograms because there was no way that these people were actually standing in front of me. Then being able to cook with them — it’s just been such a treat.” Team Nyesha was her home throughout the season, and Guevara credits the ac- claimed chef with helping her stay steady. “Watching the show previously, I was a little intimidated by Nyesha because she’s a little intense, but she really is there to help you do your best,” she says. “If you have any ques- tions, she’s there to support you. I was truly so blessed with the team that I had. We’re all still so close to this day.” The challenges came fast and hot, some- times quite literally. Guevara found herself consistently loading fi sh into her mystery baskets — “It seemed that everything that I grabbed was fi sh. What are the odds?” — and even had to make ramen noodles in under fi fteen minutes in one episode. “I was doing ramen, but at no point did I grab noodles, so I had to make a handful of noodles from scratch,” she recalls. “I pulled it off and the judges loved them. That’s defi - nitely something that sticks out in my mind.” What made Next Level Chef stand out wasn’t just the star-studded mentorship or high-stakes drama, but the sense of cama- raderie among the contestants. “The great thing about the show is each contestant is fi ghting for a spot to continue on, but we’re all rooting for each other as well,” she says. While Guevara didn’t post weekly recaps or constant behind-the-scenes footage when her episodes were airing, she did share a few posts throughout to commemorate the experience — among them, a video of her now-iconic moment making ramen noodles from scratch, a heartfelt tribute to her cast- mates (“my emotional support chefs”) and snapshots from a recent New York pop-up dinner with fellow contestants. “I learned so much from each and every one of my co- contestants,” she wrote. “Forever grateful for you bunch.” Though her role on the show has ended, the love from fans still pours in. “People were so supportive,” she says. “They’ve sent mes- sages and commented about how exciting it’s been to watch me on the show each week.” Now she’s back in Denver, putting re- newed energy into her social media work and again fi nding joy in helping people cook better at home. “It’s defi nitely changed my strategy a little bit and kind of relit that fi re for me, because before I was very passion- ate about cooking but wasn’t sure if it was something I was going to be able to do full time,” she says. “But I really do love being able to keep teaching people how to make food more accessible and delicious, because it’s not as frightening as some people think.” She’s also cooking up plans for what comes next, including a Next Level Chef reunion with her castmates. “Keep an eye out for more details about the reunion soon,” Guevara teases. Meanwhile, the competition marches on without her. With just a handful of chefs left, the remaining episodes of Next Level Chef are heating up, and Guevara is excited to cheer on her former teammates from the sidelines. And for future contestants — or anyone chasing a dream — Guevara has some advice: “I took myself a little bit too seriously in the beginning,” she admits. “I would tell people going into this to take a deep breath. You’re doing the thing that you love. You know how to do it, so just let it fl ow and have fun, because, looking back on it, it really was fun, but in the moment, it feels like absolute chaos.” Email the author at [email protected]. CAFE FIND MORE FOOD & DRINK COVERAGE AT WESTWORD.COM/RESTAURANTS Denver’s Becca Guevara cooking in an episode of FOX’s Next Level Chef. COURTESY OF FOX PUBLICIT Y
