Anastasia Surmava on Her Cocky Attitude as Chef: "I Was Just Trying to Hold It Together"

Anastasia Surmava got a major promotion when she went from third stew to chef following Mila Kolomeitseva's departure this season of Below Deck Mediterranean — and she had the attitude to back it up.

But eventually, Anastasia realized that maybe it would be best for her to return to the interior and have a more seasoned chef (who would turn out to be Ben Robinson) climb aboard to close out the season. So one Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen caller wondered during Monday night's episode if Anastasia felt like she was "a little too big for her breeches in the kitchen" after watching this season back (clip above). 

"Here's the thing: I had everybody telling me, especially my chief stew [Hannah Ferrier] and my captain [Sandy Yawn], 'You need to have a chef's attitude, you need to step it up, you need to act like a chef,'" Anastasia explained. "Inside, I was internally combusting, and on the outside, I was just trying to hold it together. So I think I was just maybe trying to convince myself that I could do it."

When another fan asked if Anastasia thought that she acted too cocky while in the chef position, she said on WWHL, "I mean, yeah, looking back you always learn things about yourself."

Anastasia then affirmed Andy Cohen's question about whether she would receive the same criticism if she were a male chef. "Yeah, I think there was a huge double standard, I mean, especially because I didn't have the experience to be in that position in the first place," Anastasia shared. "But I was trying super hard, and I was just trying to act like everybody was telling me I needed to act."

During the WWHL After Show, one fan was particularly unhappy about the moment when Anastasia was planning a menu and implied to Aesha Scott that it doesn't take as much brain power to clean the interior, as the second stew was doing at the time. Anastasia said during the WWHL After Show that she "apologized many times" to Aesha for her comment. 

But actually, Aesha wasn't bothered by it at all. "[I] wasn't so much insulted. It's just like, on the show you get so close that it was like my sister giving me a snarky comment. So I was just like, 'Sorry!' The way that I would [with] my own sister," Aesha explained. "Yeah, it doesn't matter."

Though Anastasia received mixed reviews as a chef and crew member this season, Ben had nothing but praise while speaking about her work in the galley during an interview with The Daily Dish earlier this season. "I'm really proud of her. I actually admired what she did. There's absolutely no resentment there," he shared. "I'm proud of her. She killed it."

Watch the Sirocco crew dish more on Anastasia's performance in the Below Deck Mediterranean Season 4 After Show, below.

The Below Deck Crew Dishes on Anastasia Surmava's Increasingly Commanding Attitude