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The Yes, Chef! season 1 finale, which aired on NBC on June 30, 2025, crowned Emily Brubaker as the winner, earning her the grand prize of $250,000. She was introduced as one of the 12 highly skilled chefs who had a history of attitude problems and hard-to-work-with personalities.
In an interview with TV Insider, published on July 1, Emily reflected on her stint on the show and shared that she grew a lot over the season.
The Yes, Chef! season 1 winner said that participating in the show forced her to acknowledge her flaws. She realised that she had to work on her issues herself and that no one was coming to help her with it. Essentially, she felt it was a powerful experience for her as she hadn't confronted her issues before.
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"You recognize your own issues and try to make it better. That was really huge for me because I’ve never really sat with my own problems. You tell yourself, 'Nobody is going to fix this for you. You have to do it yourself,'" she shared.
Yes, Chef! winner Emily Brubaker reflects on being the inaugural winner and shares her future plans
Yes, Chef! season 1 finale featured the top three contestants, Emily Brubaker, Lee Frank, and Zain Ismail, competing in a final challenge to win the $250,000 prize money.
In the final task, the finalist had to prepare a three-course meal. They were changed to complete the task with the help of sous chefs who included their family members and past contestants. While Emily had a bit of an issue with bread pudding, she managed to outperform Lee and Zain and become the inaugural winner of the NBC cooking show.
In her interview with TV Insider, Emily described winning Yes, Chef! as “crazy” and shared that the reality didn’t fully sink in until the night after the finale aired on June 30, 2025. She called it an “incredible honor” and reflected on how much hard work went into getting to that point, saying it was amazing to watch it all come together in the end.
When asked how the prize money would change her life, the Yes, Chef! contestant said that it would help her family get out of the debt that was piled up due to their moving to California.
"It’s life-changing in the fact that we definitely put ourselves in debt. We put ourselves in an uncomfortable situation. We were living a very good quality of life in Las Vegas. Coming to California, just the expenses. It’s a brutal shock when you do that move," Emily shared.
The Yes, Chef! season 1 winner continued:
"This will level us out and put us back on pace to where we were before we left. My family is so happy to be here in San Diego that we wouldn’t change this for the world. This will put us in the right direction."
As for what she would do next, Emily shared that she would go back to working at Omni La Costa, which she described as her "dream job" and "home." She stated that she loves the company she works for and wants to see her entire group continue to grow and succeed.
In terms of appearing on TV Shows, Emily would like to be a mentor, judge, or take up a role where she could help guide the contestants the same way she'd been able to do it on her personal level.
Yes, Chef! season 1 episodes are available on NBC.
