Jemele Hill From ‘Below Deck’ Reveals if She Prefers Chef Mathew or Chef Kevin’s Food (Exclusive)
Who was the better chef? Chef Mathew Shea from Below Deck Mediterranean or chef Kevin Dobson from Below Deck? Journalist and charter guest Jemele Hill weighed in on her two experiences on the show and said one chef definitely shined.
Jemele Hill shares who was the better ‘Below Deck’ chef
Hill spoke exclusively to Showbiz Cheat Sheet about her experience, sharing that both chefs were outstanding. But when push came to shove, she preferred Dobson’s fare. “I mean being honest, Kevin’s food was better,” she said. “I think Mat tried really hard. The majority of the food we got from Mat was good. I mean, we did have a couple of meals that were not up to standard, in my opinion. But I think overall, he gave us what we wanted.”
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“But I do think Kevin was, you know, a little bit more polished and there was not one bad meal that we got from Kevin at all,” she continued. “He really hit on all cylinders. I guess the only thing I didn’t have was the d*ck cake [laughs].” Hill celebrated her bachelorette party during her first voyage on Below Deck. Dobson made a pretty graphic cake in the shape of a penis, which he unwittingly presented to the guests and Captain Lee Rosbach after Hill had gone to bed.
But the charter guests bonded more with Chef Mathew
While Hill had better meals on Below Deck Season 7, her friends vibed more with Shea on Below Deck Med. “They were two different types of chefs,” she recalled. “And I mean, you know, even from a personality standpoint, I didn’t really get a chance to, I guess, really talk to Kevin until we were on Watch What Happens Live together. And so I saw a little bit more of his personality. But you know, he was a little more stoic on the boat. Friendly but stoic.”
“Whereas Mat was friendly,” she said about interacting with Shea. “I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that he’s a sports fan as well. So I think he was familiar with me and also Michael Eaves, who is a SportsCenter anchor who was on the trip. So, you know, so he was more friendly. And I know the guys when they talked to him, they really enjoyed the conversation. So he was just a little bit more open. So their personalities were very different in terms of how we interacted with them on the boat. It’s from the perspective, I do think Kevin was a better chef.”
There was something about breakfast …
Beyond a few bland dishes, Hill said they also found a hair in one of their plates on Below Deck Med. “We had an issue where there was a hair in our food,” she shared. “It’s just the timing of it. It was bad timing for Mat because I believe it was over breakfast and there was a hair in somebody’s food. And we, you know, we just pointed it out. But it just so happened that Captain Sandy [Yawn] walked up when that happened.”
“And she was like, ‘What’s the problem?’ And that’s when we explained like, ‘Oh, there was a hair.’ And actually, just like, you know, no big deal,” Hill recalled. “We just want another one. She immediately took that plate and went marching back to the galley. So I don’t know, obviously we don’t know what conversation took place, but now I understand everything that had happened in the season, why she reacted kind of strongly in the way that she did.”
Hill also said she and her friends were up late partying, sometimes until 4:30 or 5:00 a.m. But the crew didn’t always manage to keep pace. “And there was one point, my husband and his friend Ronnie, we were so hungry,” she recalled. “One night we went into the kitchen, not like somebody was in there and, you know, we were just kind of poking around. But I will say that we were really hungry one night and wanted some snacks.”
Hill’s Below Deck Med charter is the final voyage of the season. Below Deck Mediterranean is on Monday at 9/8c on Bravo.