YesChef Review (2026): Is It Worth It?

Last updated: 14 October 2026. Written by Josh Hutcheson, OnlineCourseing editor. See our review methodology.

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What is YesChef?

YesChef is a streaming subscription for learning to cook from well-known chefs. It takes the MasterClass formula, cinematic 4K video and famous instructors, and points all of it at the kitchen. Where MasterClass covers film, writing, business and music as well as food, YesChef does only cooking, which is both its appeal and its limit.

One membership opens every class. Each class starts with an hour-long documentary about the chef, their food and their country, then moves into the kitchen for a run of shorter lessons, each with its recipe, step-by-step instructions and subtitles in English or Spanish. Recipes also come as PDF cookbooks. It is ad-free, the classes are pre-recorded so you watch when you like, and any class released while you are a member is included.

YesChef is a web app. You watch in Chrome, Safari or Firefox on a phone, tablet or computer, and YesChef says native iPhone and Android apps are coming but are not out yet; you can add the web app to your home screen in the meantime. There is no offline viewing, so you need a steady Wi-Fi connection in the kitchen.

The chefs and courses

On 14 October 2026 YesChef had seven complete classes and one documentary:

From each chef’s class page on yeschef.me, read 14 October 2026. YesChef counts the documentary as a lesson.

The classes are long. Jamie Oliver’s, his first online class, runs 7.5 hours over 24 lessons. Francis Mallmann’s teaches his “Seven Fires” open-fire cooking and also shows how to make every recipe on a standard stove and oven. Kwame Onwuachi’s class is Jamaican and Afro-Caribbean food (older reviews, including ours, called it “modern American”), and Edward Lee’s is the Korean-meets-Southern cooking he teaches from his home in Kentucky. Dario Cecchini, the Tuscan butcher, has only a documentary so far; YesChef says his second part and more lessons are coming.

Because the catalog is small, each chef gets room to teach a way of cooking rather than a handful of recipes. The trade-off is obvious: once you have worked through the chefs you like, you are waiting on new releases.

What it’s like to learn on YesChef

The format is the selling point. You spend an hour with the chef before you pick up a knife: where they grew up, who they cook for, why their food tastes the way it does. YesChef members on Trustpilot mention this more than anything else, and it makes the technique that follows easier to remember because you know what it is for.

The kitchen lessons are filmed close, so you can see hand position and texture, which matters more in cooking than in most skills. Each lesson pairs the video with its recipe, and YesChef says most recipes use tools and ingredients you already have, with alternatives suggested when a chef uses something unusual.

There is one way to ask questions: a Feedback tab in every lesson. YesChef says more community features are coming. There is no grading, no assignments and nobody looking at your food, so it suits cooks who learn by watching and repeating. If you learn better with structure and correction, Rouxbe, whose chef-instructors answer questions inside every course, is the better fit.

Not everyone takes to the style. One Trustpilot reviewer said Nancy Silverton’s pasta lesson felt more like watching Italian grandmothers than being taught; another called the platform beautiful but light on technique. People who wanted inspiration and stories were happiest.

YesChef pricing: is it worth it?

YesChef sells one all-access membership at three lengths. On 14 October 2026 it was running a 30% fall sale with no end date (“Offer ends soon”):

Every plan has a 30-day, no-questions-asked money-back guarantee on a first purchase, and every plan includes every class on every device.

Is it worth the money? For a casual dabbler, probably not: $240 a year is a lot for seven classes when MasterClass starts at $120 a year with about 20 cooking classes and 200+ others. If cooking is a real hobby and you will cook along, the per-hour value is strong: $168 for the first year works out to about $4 per hour of instruction across the seven complete classes, roughly 41 hours in all. The sale prices are for the first period only, so budget for the full price if you keep it.

Pros and cons

YesChef vs the alternatives

The obvious comparison is MasterClass. It has more cooking instructors (Gordon Ramsay, Thomas Keller, Wolfgang Puck, Massimo Bottura and others), 200+ classes outside the kitchen, apps for phones and TVs, and a lower entry price of $120 a year. Its classes are shorter, usually 3.5 to 6 hours per class, and lean more on technique demonstrations than on one chef’s whole way of cooking. Our YesChef vs MasterClass comparison goes through it head to head.

For school-style training with feedback and a certificate, Rouxbe ($129 a year, 7-day free trial) is the serious alternative. America’s Test Kitchen Classes ($39.99 a year as an add-on to an ATK membership) is the pick for tested recipes. Our guides to the best online cooking classes and the best MasterClass cooking classes compare the wider field.

Compare with MasterClass →

Who should subscribe to YesChef?

Subscribe if cooking is a real interest, you want to learn how one chef cooks rather than collect quick recipes, and you enjoy the documentary side. The lifetime plan is the right buy if you cook often, dislike renewals and like several of the chefs; on the current sale it costs less than two years of the yearly plan at list price.

Skip it if you want classes beyond cooking, need a phone app or offline viewing, or are price-sensitive: MasterClass gives more breadth for less. Skip it too if you want someone to check your cooking. Either way, the 30-day guarantee makes a first purchase low-risk, as long as you ask for the refund inside the 30 days.

If baking is your main goal, YesChef has some baking (Nancy Silverton’s apple pie, Erez Komarovsky’s challah) but our best online baking classes guide compares platforms built for bakers.

Every YesChef class, compared

Choosing a chef is the real decision, since the membership is the same price whichever you watch first. Here is what each class covers, from YesChef’s own class pages (14 October 2026).

Jamie Oliver Teaches His Home Cooking (24 lessons, 54 recipes, 7.5 hours)

Jamie Oliver’s first online class, and the biggest on the platform. YesChef describes it as his favorite recipes, techniques and principles, with more than 50 recipes. The lessons start with a class introduction on cooking by instinct, then move through fresh pasta dough and Pasta Bianco, green ravioli, a Sunday roast, a squash curry, seared salmon with couscous, bread two ways and a pizza lesson. It is the most practical class for weeknight cooking.

Francis Mallmann Teaches His Argentine Cuisine (30 lessons, 57 recipes, 6.5 hours)

Filmed in Patagonia, Mallmann’s class teaches his “Seven Fires” style: how to build and tend a fire, and how to cook over it. YesChef says every recipe is also shown on a standard stove and oven, which matters if you have no grill. Dishes include the Sunday asado, roasted chicken and vegetables, empanadas, the perfect steak, salt-crusted trout, burnt fruit with cream and simple breakfasts such as a tortilla and fried eggs.

Erez Komarovsky Teaches His Middle Eastern Cuisine (20 lessons, 40 recipes, 6 hours)

Komarovsky, known in Israel as the godfather of modern Israeli cuisine, teaches from Tel Aviv’s markets and his home in the Galilee. It is the best class here for bread: his flowering challah and pita sit alongside lamb kebabs, hummus mezze with falafel, harissa chicken, shakshuka and a rustic summer cake.

Nancy Silverton Teaches Her California Cuisine (13 lessons, 36 recipes, 5.5 hours)

Filmed in her kitchens in Panicale, Italy, and Los Angeles, Silverton’s class is built for entertaining: her Caesar and other salads, the Chi Spacca pepper steak, roasted potatoes, stewed celery, contorni, trout with arugula and her mother’s apple pie. YesChef says she teaches more than 40 dishes and techniques.

Kwame Onwuachi Teaches His Jamaican Cuisine (13 lessons, 29 recipes, 5.5 hours)

A trip through Jamaica and Onwuachi’s Afro-Caribbean heritage, with jerk chicken, oxtail with rice and peas, curried goat, pepper shrimp, escovitch fish and beef patties with coco bread. It also covers foundations most classes skip: stocking a pantry and making a good stock, which makes it a better learning class than its short lesson count suggests.

Edward Lee Teaches His Southern Cuisine (13 lessons, 37 recipes, 5 hours)

The James Beard Award-winning chef cooks Southern food with a Korean accent at his home in Kentucky: fried chicken with gochujang sauce and slaw, cabbage steamed fish, kohlrabi kimchi, steak with kalbi butter, oysters and grits, braised tofu and radish, and a backyard barbecue. YesChef counts more than 30 recipes and 12 hands-on lessons after the documentary.

Asma Khan Teaches Her Indian Cuisine (13 lessons, 33 recipes, 5 hours)

Khan, the London restaurateur, takes you through Kolkata and her family’s Bengali recipes: spice blends, how to cook white rice properly, a balanced curry, saffron chicken korma, matar pulao, tamarind dal, samosas with chutney, yellow curry chicken and rice pudding. It is the class to pick if Indian food is the cuisine you most want to cook at home.

Dario Cecchini (documentary, 9 recipes)

So far this is a film rather than a class: a day in the life of the butcher’s shop and restaurant in Panzano in Chianti, with nine recipes. YesChef says Part 2 and more lessons are coming. Do not buy YesChef for this one yet.

Which chef to start with

• New to cooking: start with Jamie Oliver. It is the longest class, its recipes are the most everyday, and two Trustpilot reviewers singled out the fresh pasta lesson.
• Love grilling: Francis Mallmann, with the open-fire recipes adapted for a stove and oven, then Edward Lee’s backyard barbecue.
• Want bold everyday flavor: Kwame Onwuachi (jerk, curries, slow-cooked oxtail) or Asma Khan (spice blends, rice, curries).
• Bake bread: Erez Komarovsky, whose class covers challah and pita alongside mezze.
• Entertain: Nancy Silverton, built around salads, steak, roasted vegetables and an apple pie.

Use the preview lessons on each class page, or YesChef’s YouTube channel, to see whether a chef’s teaching suits you before you pay.

What a YesChef membership includes

• Every class on the platform, plus any class added while you are a member.
• Hundreds of 4K video lessons, each with its recipe and step-by-step instructions.
• PDF cookbooks to download and keep in the kitchen (one reviewer asked for an easier way to print them).
• English and Spanish subtitles on most classes.
• Unlimited rewatching: YesChef says you can watch any lesson as many times as you like.
• No ads, which YesChef says will always be the case.
• A Feedback tab in every lesson for questions.

What it does not include: a native app, offline downloads, live classes, graded work or a certificate.

Is YesChef good for vegetarians and special diets?

Partly. YesChef says many of its recipes are already vegetarian or easy to convert, and that it plans to mark recipes for gluten-free and lactose-free diets and add ingredient substitutes in the future. In practice, Asma Khan’s and Erez Komarovsky’s classes have the most vegetable dishes (dal, pulao, hummus, shakshuka), while Francis Mallmann’s, Dario Cecchini’s and Kwame Onwuachi’s lean on meat. A vegetarian who mainly wants vegetable cooking will find more in Dominique Crenn’s and Alice Waters’s classes on MasterClass.

Does YesChef have sales?

Often. On 14 October 2026 it was running a 30% fall sale with no stated end date. Earlier reviews describe other offers, including a two-for-one gift deal around Christmas and a discounted renewal offer emailed to a member before their renewal date. The pattern to plan around: sales cut the first period only, and a yearly plan renews at the list price. If you are buying for a long time, the lifetime plan on sale is the deal that locks the discount in.

YesChef vs free YouTube cooking videos

Several YesChef chefs have free videos online, and YesChef itself posts sneak peeks on YouTube, so the fair question is what the subscription adds. Three things: length, structure and recipes. A YouTube video shows one dish in ten minutes; a YesChef class spends five to seven hours on one cuisine, in an order the chef designed, with a written recipe and step-by-step instructions for every dish and a PDF cookbook at the end. You also get the documentary, which is what members on Trustpilot mention most.

If you want a recipe for tonight, YouTube is enough. If you want to cook Bengali or Jamaican food confidently in three months, the structured class is the better teacher, and the 30-day guarantee lets you find out which camp you are in.

Your first week on YesChef

1. Day 1: watch the trailer and preview lessons for two or three chefs, then pick one cuisine you actually eat.
2. Day 2: watch that chef’s documentary (about an hour). It is the part of the class that makes the rest make sense.
3. Days 3 to 5: cook two dishes from the class, one of them twice. Download the PDF cookbook first so you are not scrolling with wet hands.
4. Day 6: use the Feedback tab to ask about anything that went wrong.
5. Day 7: decide. If you have cooked twice and want more, keep it, and turn off auto-renewal now if you only want one year. If you have not cooked at all, ask for the refund while you are well inside the 30 days.

Common YesChef problems and fixes

• Cannot log in: use the “Magic Link” button at app.yeschef.me to get a sign-in link by email, or “Sign in with Google” if you joined with Gmail. Check you are using the email you paid with (or the one you redeemed a gift with), and look in your spam folder for the link.
• Video stutters: YesChef needs a stable connection; switch from mobile data to Wi-Fi, and use Chrome, Safari or Firefox, the browsers it supports.
• Watching abroad: YesChef says it works anywhere with a stable connection and a supported browser.
• Sharing a lesson: YesChef says its classes are not meant for group viewing and its material may not be copied or shared outside the platform. Share photos of what you cooked instead.
• Charged for a renewal you did not want: contact support straight away. YesChef says it may refund a renewal requested within 30 days of the charge.

No time pressure applies to the classes themselves: YesChef says you can finish any class at your own pace and rewatch lessons as often as you like while your membership is active.

How to contact YesChef support

YesChef’s help center runs on Intercom, with a chat and articles on billing, gifting and technical problems, and its Trustpilot profile lists support@yeschef.me and a phone number. Trustpilot reviewers say email and chat replies can be slow around the holidays and that the phone line did not work for them, while others praise quick, polite answers from named support staff. For a refund or a renewal dispute, write to support@yeschef.me from the email on your account, give the charge date, and keep the reply.

Is the YesChef lifetime plan worth it?

At list prices, lifetime ($549.99) costs about 2.3 years of the yearly plan ($240). On the current sale, lifetime is $384.99 against $168 for the first year and $240 for each renewal:

So lifetime pays for itself in the second year if you keep watching. The case against it is the small library: one lifetime member wrote on Trustpilot that they could watch everything in about six months, and was not sure they would have renewed a yearly plan. If you are unsure, start yearly: YesChef’s help center says you can upgrade later by paying the difference between the current lifetime price and what you paid for your pass (open your profile at app.yeschef.me, click Help and follow the prompts), and members on Trustpilot confirm it worked for them.

How to cancel YesChef and get a refund

YesChef’s help center gives these steps to stop the renewal:

1. Log in at app.yeschef.me.
2. Open your profile and click Account.
3. Click Cancel membership, then Cancel auto-renewal.

Your access continues to the end of the period you paid for, then the membership ends. Deleting the app from your home screen does not cancel anything.

For a refund, YesChef’s policy is a full refund within 30 days of your initial subscription purchase, for first-time purchases only, requested within 30 days of the transaction. Renewal payments are not refunded unless the law requires it or YesChef approves it at its discretion; it says it may refund a renewal if you ask within 30 days of the charge and contact it as soon as you notice. In the EU and EEA you also have a 14-day right to withdraw after signing up.

YesChef gift memberships

To give YesChef, you sign up with your own email and tick “This is a gift” at checkout; YesChef emails you a gift card to forward, which can take up to an hour to arrive, and you can schedule delivery. YesChef’s help center says a gifted annual membership expires one year after the recipient first logs in. Some Trustpilot reviewers say YesChef tried to renew a gift a year later, so if you give one, tell the recipient to check their account settings after the first year.

What YesChef members say on Trustpilot

YesChef’s Trustpilot page had a TrustScore of 3.3 from 501 reviews on 14 October 2026: 68% five-star, 6% four-star, 4% three-star, 6% two-star and 16% one-star. Only 18 reviews came in the last 12 months, and Trustpilot notes that YesChef has not invited customers to review recently. We read the 40 most recent, from April 2025 to October 2026.

• Praise: the filming, the chefs’ stories and recipes that turned out as promised. Jamie Oliver’s and Nancy Silverton’s classes came up most, and several reviewers praised the support staff by name for quick, polite answers.
• Billing: the biggest group of complaints. Members describe annual renewals they did not expect, gift memberships that tried to renew, and trouble reaching support, with no phone number that worked for them. Several added that YesChef refunded them or offered a lifetime upgrade once they got a reply.
• Content: a few said the library was smaller than expected (one counted fewer than 100 recipes) and asked for more chefs, especially bread and pastry, and for a native app.

Reddit is harsher. In r/Cooking threads from 2021 and 2024, posters who had bought YesChef called some lessons basic or slow (“too much focus on the pretty shot”), and the most-discussed problem was again billing: a gift card that turned out to be a recurring subscription, renewals without notice, and slow or missing replies before a refund. One poster in the 2024 thread later wrote that YesChef did refund them. Treat these as warnings about renewals rather than about the classes, which reviewers on both sites mostly liked.

Is YesChef legit? Yes: it is a real company with a claimed Trustpilot profile, a help center and a published refund policy, and its classes are what it advertises. The risk is billing, not the product, and you control it by switching off auto-renewal.

Frequently asked questions

Is YesChef worth it?

For committed home cooks, yes: the classes are long and teach a whole cuisine, and $168 for the first year on the current sale is about $4 per hour of instruction. Casual cooks get more variety for less on MasterClass.

How much does YesChef cost?

$240 a year at list price, $96 for three months, or $549.99 for lifetime access. On 14 October 2026 a 30% fall sale made those $168 for the first year, $67.20 for the first three months and $384.99 for lifetime. Every plan has a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Does YesChef have a mobile app?

Not yet. YesChef is a web app that runs in Chrome, Safari or Firefox on a phone, tablet or computer, and it says native iPhone and Android apps are coming. You can add the web app to your home screen, but there are no offline downloads.

How do I watch YesChef on my TV?

By casting. YesChef has no TV app, so you mirror or cast from your phone, tablet or computer to the TV with a device such as Google Chromecast or Apple TV.

How many chefs and classes are on YesChef?

Seven complete classes on 14 October 2026, from Jamie Oliver, Francis Mallmann, Erez Komarovsky, Nancy Silverton, Kwame Onwuachi, Edward Lee and Asma Khan, plus a documentary about the butcher Dario Cecchini with more lessons promised.

Does YesChef give a certificate?

No. YesChef says it is not a conventional cooking school with a set curriculum and certificates; it focuses on home cooking. For a certificate, look at Rouxbe.

How do I cancel YesChef?

Log in at app.yeschef.me, open your profile, click Account, then Cancel membership and Cancel auto-renewal. You keep access until the end of the period you paid for. Ask for a refund within 30 days of a first purchase if you want your money back.

Can I get a refund from YesChef?

Yes, a full refund within 30 days of your first purchase. Renewal charges are refunded only at YesChef’s discretion, if you ask within 30 days of the renewal and contact it as soon as you notice.

Is YesChef the same as the TV show Yes, Chef?

No. YesChef (yeschef.me) is an online cooking-class platform. YesChef itself has pointed out on Trustpilot that a separate network TV competition called Yes, Chef! has different hosts and a different format; questions about who won or when it airs are about that show.

Is YesChef better than MasterClass?

For cooking depth, yes: fewer but longer classes. MasterClass wins on price, variety, apps and offline viewing. See our full YesChef vs MasterClass comparison.

How many recipes does YesChef have?

About 295 across its eight chefs on 14 October 2026, adding up the counts on each class page: 57 from Francis Mallmann, 54 from Jamie Oliver, 40 from Erez Komarovsky, 37 from Edward Lee, 36 from Nancy Silverton, 33 from Asma Khan, 29 from Kwame Onwuachi and 9 from the Dario Cecchini documentary.

Is YesChef good for beginners?

Yes. YesChef says its classes are designed for every level of home cook, and the recipes mostly use ordinary tools and ingredients. Jamie Oliver’s class is the friendliest place to start; Francis Mallmann’s open-fire cooking and Kwame Onwuachi’s longer braised dishes suit cooks with a little more confidence.

Can I watch YesChef outside the US, and in other languages?

Yes to the first: YesChef says it works anywhere with a stable Wi-Fi connection and Chrome, Safari or Firefox. Most classes are in English with English and Spanish subtitles, and YesChef says more subtitle languages are coming. Buyers in the EU and EEA also get a 14-day right to withdraw.

Can I preview YesChef before I buy?

Yes. Every class page has preview lessons and a trailer, and YesChef posts sneak peeks on its YouTube channel. The 30-day money-back guarantee is the full test.

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