‘Bobby Flay’s The Line’: Claudette Zepeda Dishes on Food Network’s Tough New Competition Show

Bobby Flay’s The Line is a new Food Network competition series that leans into the pressure cooker chefs are under to execute dishes while working in a team setting. The culinary heavyweight enlists Antonia Lofaso, Michael Jenkins, and Claudette Zepeda to join him against some of the country’s most acclaimed restaurant staff aiming for top-level dinner service. 

The dueling lines must deliver dishes to diners and VIP guests, who rate each plate. After the ratings roll in, the lines can then choose to pivot their strategy based on that feedback. Bobby’s home team’s reputation is at stake to secure the win, but if the visiting team prevails, they earn $25,000. 

For Zepeda, it’s an opportunity to test her skills alongside some of the best in the industry. The Mexican-American is certainly no stranger to a little healthy competition from Top Chef and Iron Chef to Tournament of Champions and Guy’s Grocery Games: Global Games. Ahead of the September 8 premiere, we caught up with the personality to talk about what makes The Line stand out. 

Chef’s Bobby Flay, Antonia Lofaso, Michael Jenkins and Claudette Zepeda discuss their Modern Cantonese Cuisine menu, as seen on The Line, Season 1 .(Food Network)

You’ve done a lot of competitions over the years. What makes this one stand out in your eyes? 

Claudette Zepeda: I’ve spent more than a decade competing on TV in the food world. This by far has exceeded everything I’ve done both professionally and creatively. It pushed me more than any other competition. The team aspect was something I got so much fulfillment out of. The camaraderie that was built. I never met Michael before doing this competition before. I knew Antonia and Bobby, but never cooked with Bobby. The way that we meshed our personalities and helped each other. Bobby was a very hands off leader. He kind of let us make our decisions and commit to them. We were in a safe space to depend on each other when we needed it and to ask for help. It ended up being about the team effort that was the most fulfilling. The cooking pushed me like no other competition did and allowed me to show my range from other parts and not just Mexican cuisine. Overall, this is unlike any competition on television and what I’ve ever done.

How would you describe your overall home team dynamic? 

The respect you could feel. The respect we had with Bobby and each other. There was nobody that ever got heated. If we hit a low point or not do something as good, we were really hard on ourselves. You could hear the echo of our teammate going, “Shut up. It’s fine. You did great.” Instead of harping on that and being down, one of us would make sure the other didn’t go down the pit of despair too long. That we could pull ourselves back. There were no egos. It was truly what I felt. The ability to be vulnerable, ask questions, and not know everything was such a freeing and creative experience that there was no room for ego. Every day was a new challenge with a new dish. Because with the competition, it’s how it’s set up with the live course coming in, we’re able to pivot. Then realizing, “Oh crap, I can’t do this anymore.” And still moving forward with your teammates supporting you. I think that was a blessing in disguise that you didn’t know would happen until it was happening. 

How would you say it gives viewers a new perspective on what goes on in a restaurant kitchen? 

We make jokes you don’t want to know how the sausage gets made, but it’s really showing people how the sausage gets made. Very seldom do we get to show people and talk about our shorthand language and to show people how we do VIP dishes, how we pivot, how we speak to each other. Sometimes we don’t speak to each other and just communicate through looks and movements. The dance of a kitchen is very special when you have a team that is really cohesive and gels really well with the personalities and you see that. I can now look at it through a voyeuristic point-of-view. Just to see how special that is and was. For the diners to not know who the chefs behind the curtain were, and then the reveal. 

All of those points will be special for people to witness for the first time. I’m excited as a viewer to relive it. I don’t normally watch shows I do because I don’t want to get into my own head of how I can do better. But this is a show I can watch because I’m so proud. I know what happens and know the edit will show a part maybe I didn’t see because I was head down in the kitchen. I think the aspect of how things run and the dynamic between two teams that some of them they’ve never met before. I think all those points make it unlike anything on television now. I’m ecstatic to bring that to the world. 

What do you want to tease about the challenges? 

Many times we knew the bones of the dishes and the cuisine, but we didn’t have the time and experience cooking the cuisine. That is something that will come  off. There …There is this dynamic that happened when we were trying to bring our own experience and biases that we weren’t familiar or comfortable cooking and still surprising ourselves. That is something I hope to see. I’m excited to show that part of it. I can tell you we really pushed ourselves outside our comfort zones on these cuisines and really beat ourselves up on something we thought we had in the bag. It was humbling. 

In the premiere, Marcus Samuelsson surprises Bobby with Hav & Mar’s Executive Chef Fariyal Abdullahi. What can you say about the first episode? 

I have known Marcus for the better part of 12 years. Fariyal is like a little sister. I helped her on the pastry side of Hav & Mar. I had never met her before, but something compelled me to help her because I started out as a pastry chef. I started sending her recipes, FaceTime notes of the process. There was a kinship I felt with her when she opened Hav & Mar. Seeing them walk into the kitchen with their team was fun. When you’re cooking against your friends and cooking against someone you know can absolutely beat you. All of that goes to the waist side where you’re just having fun. We are very competitive with each other and want to beat each other at the same time. 

There is also something we never lose perspective. When you lose to someone you respect, it’s not really a loss. It’s a tip of the hat to that person. So we’re going into this with the complete open heart of, “Oh my god, this is the team we’re going up against. This is going to be great. Marcus and Bobby, knowing the history of their friendship and side by side in their careers. There is this camaraderie. I’ve never seen Marcus lose his cool. What you’re going to see is people having a good time. There were times where they would over to our side to shoot the sh*t. Those are the moments that can really show behind the scenes who we are as collaborative human beings, even in competition we really enjoy each other and what we do. 

Contestants Claudette Zepeda, David Viana, Kevin Lee, Tobias Dorzon, Viet Pham, Aarthi Sampath, Gabe Bertaccini, and Einat Admony, ‘Guy’s Grocery Games: Global Games,’ Season 1, Food Network, premieres July 8, 2026.. (Food Network)

But representing Bobby on his team, I’m sure that comes with a little bit of pressure. You want to make sure you’re representing, right?

Absolutely, that never leaves our sight of vision. Knowing we’re not cooking for ourselves, but we’re on Bobby’s home team. That perspective never leaves the room where you have to do your best. You can have fun, but when you get to the point where you can have fun and still crush it. There is a balance. You can laugh and high five and two seconds later kill it or all those moments are silver linings in the day, but we never lost the sum of all parts. But also that we are still representing Bobby’s team. 

How do you look back on competing in the last decade since from Top Chef to today?  What have you gotten out of the experience? 

I do a lot of spiritual journey work. I do a lot of mental health advocacy and work on myself. I walked 160 miles across Spain for my mental health, to work on being a better person and learning the lessons. I see very clearly. When I look at clips or people mention clips when I was competing, I don’t recognize that person. I’m not there anymore. I don’t live in the past, but what I can say is I have extreme empathy for the cook I was and the girl on television just trying her best. I have two kids and put them through university off cooking. That is not always the case for females in this industry. I can say with my full chest is the privilege to do this job and to have this career I’ve had. A lot of the times I pinch myself like whose life did I hijack. Obviously, I work my butt off, but the universe has put me on the right path with the right people, and I’ve worked hard to stay on that path. I can say every time I get in the kitchen within the competition world I learn something about myself. I’m a better cook for it. 

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Starting in the Top Chef world and doing Iron Chef and then doing all the other competitions I’ve done and suffered a lot of losses. People think of the wins, but I lost way more than I’ve won. Each loss is a lesson to learn. I’ve also come out of them a better cook. I think of everything I do in my day-to-day career, everything gets broken down into 20 minute increments because I’m a competition chef. All of us can say that. When you have to do dinner for 15 people, in our brains, we can go. I can do that with a blindfold on because we have reprogrammed our brain to think of everything as a frame of a challenge. Nothing rattles me because I’ve come from this world and this competition. It has made me a better human being in the kitchen, a better leader, I completely understand when people get frustrated because I’ve been that person and have a short fuse. Now my kids are 23 and 21 and the legacy I leave isn’t what I’m doing. It’s how people feel around me when I’m doing what I’m doing. That’s really important and I never lose sight of that anymore. Little Claudette is nothing like not in a bad way and is so different from current Claudette. I hope to be much different 15 years from now too. 

Bobby Flay’s The Line series premiere, September 8, 9/8c, Food Network (Next Day on HBO Max)