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. 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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