Below Deck Med Chef Ben Robinson Wants to Be the Next Anthony Bourdain: "We Have a Lot in Common"

Below Deck Mediterranean saw the return this season of Chef Ben Robinson, who'd been working to establish a successful on-land catering business before he got the call asking him to report back to the galley. And while Ben loves his catering business and looks forward to a future continuing to work with clients through it, he's also candid about just how strongly he feels the siren song of TV.

"In five years, I would like have my own television show," he told The Feast, answering a question about his plans for the future. "That’s what I would like to do."

He added, "I've got franchises in the making, and I've got a knife line, and apparel, and [I want to] just build the brand... but I love the television aspect of it — it’s a lot more fun. I've done six seasons on TV. It's different. My line — because it pisses the producers off — is if it’s not on camera, it didn’t happen."

And he knows people like watching him on TV, too. "I like the TV aspect. I think i’m quite good at it. I think people enjoy watching me on TV. It's an amazing position in life. I'd like to continue that, but obviously still continue to cook and inspire people. And that’s about as good as it gets, really."

So what type of show would Ben like to eventually have?

"I loved Anthony Bourdain," he said. "He was such an incredible man, so articulate, so well spoken, but also an absolute degenerate like me — so I think we have a lot in common. I come from a writing background as well, my dad’s an author, so that would be amazing to one day consider a Bourdain-esque show."

Ben knows that one day, " eventually I will have to get out of the kitchen," because "it's not sustainable." And that's when the Bourdain-inspired show idea would be perfect.

"I'’d like to do that and really just get into food culture," Ben told The Feast. "I consider him a food historian. And it’s such an exciting job to just go around and try different food, meet different chefs — what a privileged life he had. That would be the end goal, but right now I've got a bit of fire in me, I still have vitality, so i’d like to do a show on these kind of catered events and then transition in age."

—Reporting by Laura Rosenfeld