'Worst Cooks In America' Co-Chefs Ranked from Best to Worst (2024)

A new season of Worst Cooks In America is right around the corner. Season 27 premieres Jan 7, and airs each Sunday at 8PM on Food Network.Chef Anne Burrell is the primary mentor and host of the show, using her natural teaching abilities to assist hapless cooks in learning how to make edible food. The group of cooks who are invited to participate in Worst Cooks in America are split into two teams: the red team and the blue team. Anne is always the mentor for the red team, which she lovingly refers to as the Rockin’ Red Stars. The Blue team, however, has had mentors that have come and gone from the series. The upcoming season will focus on cooks who are spoiled: they don’t attempt to cook for themselves, even down to the simplest of dishes. The new mentor for the blue team in the upcoming season of Worst Cooks is none other than Chef Tiffany Derry.

Chef Tiffany is making more rounds through different Food Network shows, and her presence in this new season of Worst Cooks is an exciting one. A big part of the fun of watching Worst Cooks In America is seeing these highly decorated chefs become utterly perplexed by the choices these terrible cooks make in the kitchen. The series works because it peels away the “Food Network Personality,” thus making some of the chefs who come off as a little annoying much more palatable. With that in mind, there are certainly Blue Team mentors who outshine the others. Here is a list of those Blue Team chefs, ranked from best to “meh.”

11 Alton Brown

10/10

Alton Brown gave being the Blue Team mentor a try during season 18 of Worst Cooks In America. Fans of the series and Alton were certainly surprised to hear about his participation on the show, as he had never participated in any of the Food Network competitions in his decades-long career with the network. The results of his presence were beyond excellent, as Alton was consistently baffled and exasperated by their lack of common kitchen sense. Unfortunately for the Alton Brown fans of Worst Cooks, that was his first and final season as a Blue Team mentor. He officially left Food Network in 2022. Even though his team did not win the full competition, he earned top ranking due to the high level of entertainment he (and his team) provided.

10 Bobby Flay

9/10

Everybody wants to beat Bobby Flay, and Worst Cooks In America is no exception to this. Bobby is one of the few chefs who mentored the Blue Team in multiple seasons of Worst Cooks, acting as a mentor in seasons 3, 4, 5, and 17. The one thing that all of his seasons have in common is adoration. In every single season, Bobby Flay was mentoring the Blue Team. At least one of his recruits had a crush on him. His reactions were always of light embarrassment, however, the more encountered this phenomenon, the more he had fun with it, which is what made him fun to watch each time. And who knows, perhaps these crushes helped his teams in the long run. Of the 4 seasons Bobby was in, his team beat Anne’s team 3 times.

9 Cliff Crooks

9/10

Cliff Crooks is one of the newer faces gaining popularity on Food Network. Because of this, Worst Cooks became the perfect platform for the network’s avid viewers to get to know him better. Chef Cliff has an endearing personality and was a very good mentor. Cliff was the Blue Team mentor in season 23, and his recruit won in the finale against Anne’s team. Before becoming a Worst Cooks mentor, Cliff had been a finale judge for a few seasons prior.He briefly had his own show, Chef Bootcamp, that ran for 14 episodes in 2022. Since the end of Chef Bootcamp, Cliff has gone back to making his rounds throughout the Food Network as a guest judge on many of the network's competition shows.

8 Carla Hall

9/10

Carla Hall’s kooky-auntie energy was fun to watch in her season of Worst Cooks In America. Her big personality combined with her knowledge made her the perfect mentor for the Blue Team. Carla has only mentored once during season 21, and it would certainly be nice to see her come back to the show. Her recruit also beat Anne’s recruit in the finale, earning another win for the Blue Team Hall of Fame. Since being on Worst Cooks, Carla has acted as a judge in the Halloween Baking Championship and the Holiday Baking Championship as a judge and co-host for multiple seasons.

7 Tyler Florence

8/10

Tyler Florence has been the Blue Team mentor more than any other person on Food Network. With seven seasons under his belt, Tyler was the mentor for seasons 6, 8, 12, and 15. All of those seasons only featured regular people: Tyler was also the mentor for three of the Celebrity Worst Cooks casts in seasons 13, 16, and 19. Tyler was a good mentor, but only won once out of the 7 times he worked with the Blue Team. Tyler has been the residing host of The Great Food Truck Race since 2010, a competition series that is still running on the Food Network.

6 Michael Symon

7/10

Bobby Flay’s brother from another mother and fellow Iron Chef, Michael Symon, was the mentor for season 22 of Worst Cooks in America, which featured former contestants who returned to the competition to relearn and improve their skills. Michael is a jovial guy to watch, and it was clear that he enjoyed himself, even though his recruit lost out to Anne's team. Michael pops up in various Food Network series as a judge and co-host, and has his own show, Symon's Dinners Cooking Out that focuses on teaching people how to create delicious dinners on the grill.

5 Darnell Ferguson

7/10

Super Chef Darnell Ferguson was the Blue Team mentor for the Viral Sensation-themed season of Worst Cooks in America. He was a solid mentor, who had a lot of patience with his team, patience likely developed while being a father of 8. His patience nearly helped his viral sensation take the win, but it was stolen by internet sensation Kleptora, aka Nick Trawick. Chef Darnell is the current host of Super Chef Grudge Match, and still competes regularly on other competition shows in the network.

4 Robert Irvine

7/10

Robert Irvine was a Blue Team mentor in seasons 2 and 14. Season 14 was superior to his first season; Robert seemed much more relaxed, being so distanced from his first Worst Cooks experience. He also experienced the “Blue Team Mentor Crush” with one of his Blue Team recruits enamored with his muscles. He also won season 14, meaning it’s highly likely that he learned from his first experience. Robert Irvine has been the host of Restaurant Impossible since 2011.

3 Rachael Ray

6/10

Rachael Ray was the mentor for the 3 Worst Cooks seasons, two of which were celebrity editions. Rachael’s Blue Team actually won both of the celebrity edition seasons that she mentored. Some of her more grating Food Network personality quips aren’t front and center during her time on Worst Cooks, but she is, in general, an acquired taste for most people. Rachael is currently the host of her titular talk show, Rachael Ray, which has been running since 2006.

2 Alex Guarnaschelli

5/10

Alex Guarnaschelli was a solid Blue Team mentor for season 20 of Worst Cooks in America. She worked well with the recruits, and her recruit, Ariel Robinson, took home the win for the Blue Team. Alex’s personality is just very slow and quiet, and the primary entertainment factor came from her team, not her. Unfortunately, the viewers who did not get the opportunity to watch season 20 when it aired will never get to see it. While nearly all the Worst Cooks seasons are available to stream on Discovery+ and Max, season 20 is not due to an unfortunate tragedy. Shortly after her win aired, Ariel Robinson was arrested for beating one of her foster children to death. No one would blame Alex if she never came back to the show as a mentor after that experience.

1 Jeff Mauro

4/10

Jeff Mauro, also known as The Sandwich King, is an acquired taste for most people. And a good majority of those people wish that he would talk less and make more sandwiches. As the Blue Team mentor for season 24, 90s Celebrity Edition, and for the most recent season that aired, it focused on all single recruits, hoping that learning to cook would help them in love. To be frank, Jeff is at his least annoying as the Blue Team mentor. Not only is he more palatable in Worst Cooks, but his recruit actually won season 26 of Worst Cooks. Jeff acts as a co-host on the controversial morning show The Kitchen, and also is a judge on various other Food Network series.

The newest season of Worst Cooks In America premieres January 7, and airs each Sunday at 8PM on Food Network.

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