I am a sucker for food shows. From the high-brow stylings of Netflix‘s Chef’s Table to Food Network reruns of Chopped and pretty much everything from Anthony Bourdain‘s TV repertoire (even ABC’s underrated competition series The Taste), it’s a sure-fire bet that if programs like these are on, I’ll stop everything to watch.
I’ll admit, though, food shows — for the most part — can be mind-numbingly formulaic. On one side of the spectrum, you’ll find a host who travels to exotic places to explore a country’s culture and cuisine. On the other side, amateur cooks compete for a prize while a table of judges waits to decide their fate.
I am always on the lookout for something that disrupts the status quo and takes big swings. Hoo golly, have I discovered a cooking show that ticks all those boxes, and then some?
Just a Dash began in 2019 as a YouTube cooking show hosted by Matty Matheson. Before he was known as an Emmy-winning producer of The Bear, in which he also stars as lovable underdog Neil Fak, he was making a name for himself as a gonzo chef on the internet.
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Matty Matheson and crew, in the kitchen, behind the scenes on Just a Dash on Netflix.
Matheson’s unique cooking series operated on a simple premise in its first two seasons: Matty stood in his tiny kitchen behind a small, but mighty kitchen island and made food in a “dump everything into a pot and see what happens” style. Mind you, the man has experience to back up this instinctive method. He was the executive chef at Toronto’s Parks & Labor restaurant before bringing his own restaurants, Matty’s Patty’s Burger Club and Prime Seafood Palace, to life.
When The Bear took off, Just a Dash entered an extended hiatus. Now, the show is back with a bigger budget, and in season 3, it’s evolved into a chaotic cooking roadshow. It is a deliciously bizarre culinary program that feels more like avant-garde performance art than anything educational.
Each episode is roughly 15 minutes in length. I binged the entire season in one afternoon.
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There’s a rudimentary Jackass-style reality show vibe to the series. The opening episode finds Matheson at his new house, arguing with his wife, Trish, while the production crew shoots everything from afar. She refuses to let them inside to make a mess. So, they remain outside, capturing everything through an open window, while Matty makes a giant — and I mean, humongous — breakfast burrito.
Operating on Trish’s stance, Matty takes his crew and Bear co-star Ricky Staffieri (he plays Theodore Fak in the series) on the road, where he cooks meals in the most precarious and ridiculous situations. One episode finds him in a moving RV cooking steak and shrimp with the trailer’s oven — something you should absolutely never do, for a variety of safety reasons. And another, aptly titled Claw and Order, has him, producer Michelle Rabin and Staffieri playing overworked detectives in a smoke-filled police precinct.
The police drama unfolds in a silly manner, while Mattheson cooks crab risotto for the camera.
Mattheson’s goofy, good-natured, f-bomb-dropping persona keeps the show engaging, though I admit it can be an acquired taste, especially for those unfamiliar with the Canadian chef-turned-Emmy winner. That said, the dynamic between him and Staffieri continues the comedic fun they first established together in kitchen scenes on The Bear.
In fact, Mattheson’s interactions with everyone involved with the production are delightful, and you can see that, through all the performative dysfunction, he truly cares about what he is doing and the people he is doing it with. His side glances to the camera, which gave me big Andy Dwyer vibes, just encapsulated his lovable man-child demeanor.
The added will-they, won’t-they between him and Rabin added a surprisingly heartfelt throughline to these episodes that keeps it grounded.
Just a Dash isn’t a show that will necessarily teach you how to make a recipe, unless you really want to try connecting a hot plate to the tray in front of you on an airplane with the intention of cooking up deviled eggs and bacon. I suggest you don’t; that’s illegal. That said, if you put a camera in front of the culinary maverick hellbent on doing that exact thing, I guarantee you I’d watch the finished product.
Just a Dash steadily surprised me with its blend of cringe comedy and cinema-verité drama, and the only thing I am disappointed about is that there aren’t more new episodes to scarf down. I said it before, and it bears repeating: Food shows are my proverbial comfort food, and I’m delighted to say I found a new favorite.
