For starters, I'm no shill or diehard Selena Gomez fan. She's a decent actress as evinced by her performances in Spring Breakers (the only actor who didn't dial it in for that one) and Woody Allen's A Rainy Day in New York. As for the singing, well, even she apologizes for that. When done right, cooking, too, is a fine artform. I found this show immediately relatable, playful, funny, and highly instructional. The chefs really boil it down to the basics (except for that splenetic French chef that yelled a lot) and share wonderful, fairly easy to follow recipes. Selena comes across as genuine and unspoiled by her success. She's as cute as a squirrel's nut and seems so down to earth. This is refreshing, as so many of her fellow, former Disney mouseketeers appear damaged beyond repair. Her humility is illustrated in each episode as her errors are never edited out and she has that rare, laudable ability to laugh at herself. Plus she donates $10k per episode to the guest chef's charity of choice. It's also cool that she includes her pets, grandparents and friends (both celebrities and civilians) in the episodes. I could go without the obnoxious one called Raquel who resembles a sleestak attached to a smart phone though. Also, if you close your eyes and listen to Selena speak you'd think she was an 80+ year old, chain-smoking grandma. In any event, Selena should be proud of this and her nice blue knives. I gave it a 10 because that's what she is. Cool fact: the series is filmed inside her own home which once belonged to the late, great Tom Petty!
Review of Selena + Chef
