Michael Jenkins Is Ready to Lay It All on ‘The Line’

Chef Michael Jenkins might have been raised in Oklahoma, but he’s a New Yorker by choice. His route to the Big Apple and cooking in general wasn’t as cut and dried as others, having decided after some time spent in college that he didn’t really care about what he was learning. “I did enjoy partying though,” he told Food Network Obsessed. “And now I realize that I just liked being in rooms where everybody’s having a good time and that’s, at its best, what a restaurant is.” He’d always loved food, fueled by a rich heritage with roots in New Orleans, Nashville and New York. This, combined with reading Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, led him to pursue training at the Institute of Culinary Education.

Now-Food Network legend Alex Guarnaschelli was a substitute in one of his classes and, after cold-calling restaurants with no luck, he asked for an externship at Butter. She said sure, Michael kept showing up and the rest is history. He eventually worked his way up to chef de cuisine before taking over as executive chef at Lola Taverna when the city was hit by the pandemic. Three years later, Michael made his way back to Butter as its executive chef.

While serving countless diners, in 2010, he appeared on Chopped, taking home the title of champion during his first Food Network appearance. The dish that delivered him Michael the win and $10,000? A polenta-pineapple stack with raspberry lambic topped with fried hot dogs coated in powdered sugar. Now, after more than 15 years competing and judging, he’s stepping into a starring role alongside Bobby Flay, Antonia Lofaso and Claudette Zepeda in The Line.

In years past, Michael battled against Bobby Flay and his Titans, but in The Line, he was hand-picked to duel acclaimed restaurant staffs alongside the legendary chef, Antonia Lofaso and Claudette Zepeda. The premise is simple: execute an impeccable dinner service for epicures in real time. Each visiting team is an expert in a certain type of cuisine, so there’s no home-field advantage to be had.

In Bobby’s words, “The Line is a real-life kitchen roller coaster that the viewer will want to be strapped in for. Seat belts, everyone — the kitchen is open!” And with diners’ ratings rolling in throughout service, the four chefs are in for quite the ride.

While Michael’s competed quite a few times on Food Network — and put on his judging cap for Beat Bobby Flay and Worst Cooks in America — The Line is a beast unlike any other. Beyond creating his own dishes, he has to work in concert with Bobby, Antonia and Claudette to fulfill orders and stay out of the weeds.

“In those most extreme moments, there’s just a calm that kind of washes over me,” Michael told Food Network Obsessed. “Maybe it’s from years of other people not being calm in those moments and you’re kind of forced … to find the centered calm.”

Michael set himself up for quite the challenge when he entered the Bobby’s Triple Threat arena. As Bobby noted during his intro, Michael had tasted and judged all of the Titans’ food, but Brooke Williamson, Tiffany Derry and Michael Voltaggio were fully prepared to take on their tormentor. For Round 1, Bobby assigned lobster and Calabrian chiles, leading Michael to choose Tiffany as his opponent. His dishes earned six points from Amanda Freitag (who, in a fun twist, was one of the judges on his winning episode of Chopped), while Tiffany’s earned eight, giving the Titans a strong start.

With potatoes and Gruyère on tap for Round 2, Michael opted to go against Brooke and make Yukon and Idaho potato gnocchi with bacon, corn and mushrooms, as well as potato croquettes with romesco and Gruyère sour cream. Brooke went a safer route with potato and guanciale risotto with Gruyère and salt and vinegar potato chips with Gruyère cheese sauce. Amanda awarded both chefs seven points, bringing Michael closer to a Titan takedown.

Michael chose artichokes and pistachios for Round 3 against his namesake. Amanda thought that Michael J.’s stuffed artichokes with pistachio pesto were good, but Michael V.’s black pepper and cheese agnolotti with pistachio colatura pesto was just a little better, with a final score of 30 to 33.

What did Michael want for Christmas in 2023? To beat Bobby Flay on Holiday Throwdown. Before he had his chance, he had to face off against fellow New York City chef Ayesha Nurdjaja. With lox and cream cheese as the assigned ingredients, Michael chose to make mezzaluna and Ayesha went with flatbread and taramosalata. Guest judge Carson Kressley felt Michael’s dish was ambitious, but the dish suffered slightly from the time constraint, awarding Ayesha the W. Michael moved to Carson’s side to judge the next round. For her chance at Bobby, Ayesha had to take on — and take down — Geoffrey Zakarian.

After sitting on the sidelines, final boss Bobby stepped up to cook Ayesha’s signature dish: lamb tagine. He graciously allowed Ayesha the chance to pick Michael or Geoffrey to be her sous chef and she nabbed Geoffrey, while Michael headed to Bobby’s side. Ayesha was quick to decide on pairing her tagine with jeweled rice with currants and roasted squash with pomegranate chermoula, while Bobby settled on saffron couscous, spiced carrots and crispy parsnips.

With Michael’s helping hands, Bobby was able to turn out his take on Ayesha’s Moroccan selection. Round 3 judges Melba Wilson, Max Tucci and Aliya Leekong preferred their lamb’s consistency over Ayesha’s, but thought Bobby’s addition of Kashmiri chili made it too spicy. Ayesha (and Geoffrey) sleighed the competition and took home the bragging rights, while Bobby practiced his resting Grinch face.

Reflecting on his experience, Michael told Food Network Obsessed, “It’s fun to play around with things we’ve all been eating for a long time. In the restaurant, I have to make sure I do it justice. On TV, I can do whatever.”

Alongside chef Natasha Pogrebinsky, Michael suited up for a Beat Bobby Flay do-over. Before either could face the man himself, they had to go through each other. Round 1’s secret ingredient of portobello mushrooms inspired Michael to make a salad featuring three different treatments of the fungi and Natasha to make a mushroom stew.

As guest judges, actress Debi Mazar and chef Michael Symon were impressed by his variety, but could it earn him another chance at Bobby? “I love when I get a bunch of different peeks into one ingredient … but for as many mushrooms that are in here, it doesn’t taste mushroomy,” said chef Symon. With room for more flavor, Natasha knocked Michael out of the competition.

For his first time on Bobby Flay’s home field, Michael was confident right out of the gate. After learning he was battling Robert Hesse for the chance at Bobby and that tomatoes were the secret ingredient, all he could think about was how the vegetable’s versatility was an advantage. Michael chose to make burrata on toast with tomato romesco and a tomato vinaigrette, while Robert went more classic with a tomato grilled cheese and tomato feta salad.

Guest judges and Food Network faves Scott Conant and Geoffrey Zakarian enjoyed his approach, but felt the tomatoes weren’t the star of the dish as intended. “[In] 20 minutes, you made a very, very incredible dish with a lot of flavor … but I want to just have an explosion of tomatoes in my mouth and I’m not really getting that,” Geoffrey said. Luckily, that wasn’t enough to knock Michael out of the competition and he moved out of the Bobby lobby.

It was Michael’s turn to do the assigning — and he chose chicken wings as his signature dish. Bobby couldn’t fathom needing 45 minutes for the fried food, so Michael let him take one minute off the clock as a compromise. The challenger committed to ghost chili chicken wings with a carrot cucumber salad and a blue cheese dip, with the challenged landing on chipotle chicken wings with celery relish and a blue cheese sauce.

Guest judges Corby Kummer, Terrance Brennan and Drew Nieporent put on their best game-day faces before digging into both dishes. Drew thought Michael’s chicken skin “could be a little more crisp,” but the wings were overall very tasty, and Corby called the salad “refreshing” and “great.” Sadly, Bobby’s birds couldn’t be beat and Michael had to fly the coop sans bragging rights. “I do not like losing, it’s kind of awful,” Michael told Food Network Obsessed, “but it’s a necessary step, because we get better when we fail.”

Following his victory on Chopped, Michael stepped into Cutthroat Kitchen ready for another win. While he was competing against the same number of chefs, more money and more problems were on the table. With $25,000 each to bid on tactical sabotage throughout three rounds, it was truly anyone’s game once Round 1 started.

Michael had 30 minutes to make the best fish sandwich he could, which he had to prep in a canoe alongside two of his competitors. His salmon ceviche sandwich impressed judge Susan Feniger, earning him a spot in Round 2. Next up was the perfect bowl of chili — and being forced to ride around on a toy mechanical horse during prep and cooking. Lucky for this Oklahoma buy, Michael was able to lasso another chance to win with his take on vegetarian chili.