‘Selena + Chef’ Season 4: Gomez’s Cooking Show Still Has The Secret Sauce

Most activities Americans found comfort in peak pandemic — be it escaping into the world of Animal Crossing: New Horizons or growing scallions in cups of water and baking banana and sourdough bread — are ruined for me now. Though these things once sparked joy, serving as much-needed distractions from COVID-19 anxiety, they’re too linked to 2020’s horrors for me to ever find comfort in them again. But the same can’t be said for Selena + Chef, a rare pandemic-born godsend that has yet to lose a modicum of charm.

The HBO Max cooking show, which premiered in August 2020, came from host Selena Gomez’s desire to improve her cooking skills in quarantine. Each episode finds the singer and Only Murders in the Building star video chatting with a professional chef and cooking a number of ambitious, delicious-looking dishes in her kitchen. After sharpening her culinary skills, she donates $10,000 to a charity of the chef’s choice. Over 40 episodes, the show’s raised $400,000 for 26 nonprofit organizations.

With the first three episodes of Selena + Chef Season 4 arriving on August 18, it’s the perfect time to celebrate one of streaming’s greatest comfort watches.

Season 4 has Gomez, her beloved bestie Raquelle Stevens, and her grandparents (Nana and Papa), driving to Malibu to spend the summer whipping up dishes in Hannah Montana’s house. Despite a few fresh ingredients — including a boring new knife set — the show remains packed with the same personality, culinary chaos, star power, and food porn that’s made it shine since Season 1.

From the first time Gomez turns on her kitchen cameras, it’s clear Selena + Chef’s secret sauce is its refusal to follow the recipe for a traditional cooking show. Unlike most hosts, Gomez learns to cook as she goes, which gives viewers a front row seat to all the complexities, cuts, kitchen fires, and non-glamorous (yet incredibly entertaining and relatable) trials and tribulations of a budding chef. Alongside the chaos, you also see professionals do their thing. In the words of the former resident of Selena + Chef’s Season 4 set, you get the best of both worlds.

Simply put, this cooking show lacks professionalism in the best possible way. As Gomez is schooled in everything from basic knife skills to deboning and decapitating a fish, she puts on a delightfully organic physical comedy show that morphs into a buddy comedy anytime Stevens steps into frame. The conversation is always flowing, and the show gives viewers a rare, intimate peek into Gomez’s home, friend group, family, mental and physical health, and love life.

Whether she’s twerking to the sound of a mallet pounding a coconut, groaning at the thought of dating, or putting a dollar into the “Okey Dokey” jar, she serves up everything you’d want from a millennial cooking show, including ready-to-replicate recipes. At the end of each episode, Gomez and her loved ones even take time to taste and rate the food — a tradition that adds to the series’ warm, cozy vibes.

Season 4’s master chef roster includes Gordon Ramsay, Matty Matheson, Rachael Ray, and a visit from Gomez’s first culinary instructor Ludo Lefebvre, so it’s sure to be a good time. Though HBO Max has only shared three Season 4 screeners, it’s clear the series hasn’t lost any of its zest. If you’re looking for some feel-good comfort viewing, Selena + Chef is waiting to be devoured.

The first three episodes of Selena + Chef Season 4 are available to stream Thursday, August 18 on HBO Max. The next three episodes will premiere on August 25, and the final four will drop on September 1.