Exclusive Interview: Nathan Webb Turns Up the Heat on This Is Fire and Talks About Winning the Competition

Too Hot to Handle‘s Nathan Webb brought the heat on Season 2 of OFTV’s This Is Fire. Competing against fellow OnlyFans creators, Nathan beat out seven other aspiring chefs to win Season 2 of the competition. Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with this multifaceted talent about This Is Fire, his secret to success, how he spent his prize winnings, and more.

PC: Congratulations on winning Season 2 of This Is Fire. How did you initially get approached to do this series? What attracted you to it?
Nathan: No one assumes that I can cook. I’ve been a personal trainer for a long time, and everyone looks at my physique and they’re like, “He just takes steroids.” But no, a lot of it comes down to your diet. My grandmother is a fantastic chef. I used to watch her like a hawk. It’s always been something that I was interested in. I have friends that had worked with OFTV before and knew that I enjoyed cooking, so they were like, “You’d be great for this show.” I submitted my favorite dish. It was a basic steak and fries. They loved it.

The whole time that I’ve been in Texas, I always smoke meat. That’s what I do. That’s how I got into This Is Fire. The beauty is that Jojo (the chef) is a meat-loving dude. It’s almost like I cheated in a way, which I didn’t. I’m not going to take it away from myself. I feel like I did well. I knew that Jojo wanted a big old plate of meat. You have to cater to who you’re cooking for. If I was cooking for anyone else, would I give them a full rack of lamb? Probably not. But for him, he’s getting the whole thing.

PC: When you started this competition, you said that you would rate your cooking skills as a seven. How would you rate them now?
Nathan: I learned a lot. There were so many ingredients that I had no idea about like ricotta. I was in Ohio last weekend and there was a cheesecake, and it was a ricotta cheesecake. I was like, “Whoa, let’s give it a go. Let’s see,” because I did a savory ricotta. I love throwing things around. You know what’s going to taste good together. It was fun using ingredients like lamb. Would I go to the grocery store and spend $60 to buy some lamb? Probably not. The budget allowed me to cook all these things that I would never really buy and cook myself. That’s what I loved about it. I would say my cooking skills are an eight. Because there are still some things that I can’t do. I can’t make sushi. Aside from that, I can cook you a great steak and pork chop. So I can do everything like that.

PC: Has your relationship with ricotta changed?
Nathan: No. It’s still disgusting. I remember when I tried it when we were filming, I was heaving. No one knew I was serious. I was like, “No, I need the trash can. I’m going to throw up.” But I couldn’t do that. How unappetizing would that be for the poor chef. I actually liked it in cheesecake. It was delicious when I had it in cheesecake. Would I use it in beets and other things again? Absolutely not.

PC: In the semifinals, you faced off with a buddy of yours. Was that more or less challenging?
Nathan: I would probably say more. He and I are so comfortable around one another. It’s like going to the gym with your friends. I feel like you push yourself more when you’re at the gym with your buddies because you want to one-up your friends. I don’t see everyone else as often, but I see Stevan [Ditter] all the time. It’s beautiful. I can see him and nod. Was it tougher? No. I think it was a lot more pressure, but I wouldn’t say it wasn’t necessarily tougher.

When I saw what he was doing, I was like, “I’m good.” He did what? Pasta and mashed potatoes? His chicken really sucked. I’ll tell him that. I tell him that all the time. He’s from the East Coast. He loves cooking fish, shrimp, lobster, crab, and stuff like that. If he were cooking a lobster tail, he probably would have beaten me. But other than that, that’s the only chance he’s getting.

PC: You’ve described your cooking style as controlled chaos, which is the perfect way to describe this competition series because there are so many elements that you can’t account for ahead of each faceoff. What was your mindset ahead of each cook-off? How did you prepare?
Nathan: I’ll let you know the truth. I did this every time, and they caught me every time. [laughs] Our call time was at 8:00 AM. We’d be filming all day. The first day, they showed me where the restroom was. But I would conveniently forget every day and have to walk through the kitchen area. I was like, “Where’s the restroom?” Because I would try to see the ingredients. They caught me every day. It didn’t work. I never actually saw the ingredients.

The only time I may have seen something was when I was joking. I was spitballing. On the seventh episode, I was like, “I feel like it’s chicken parm today.” It was completely random. I drove past an Olive Garden on the way there. Everyone was like, “Why do you think that?” It was controlled chaos. I just threw a bunch of different flavors in and it was how I’ve always cooked. Either people are really polite to me or they’re too lazy to cook their own food, but they always tell me that I cook great.

PC: You and Chef Jojo had a lot of really funny banter throughout the competition. How beneficial was that while dealing with all the chaos of this competition?
Nathan: Honestly, it was fantastic because when you’re cooking at home there are certain dishes that you can do in fifteen or twenty minutes. I don’t know why, but on the competition stage there’s double the time and it’s harder. You don’t need 45 minutes to cook a chicken parm, but then suddenly you do. It’s the weirdest thing. Every time I felt like I was panicking, I would throw a joke at Jojo and he would do exactly the same. It relaxed me a lot because it was hot in that kitchen. On Day 1, I wore a gray t-shirt. It had to go. OFTV had to go and get me two new t-shirts because I have the worst sweat. Then I was trying to find ways to calm myself down. I was like, “Well, I like to joke with people, so why not start joking with everyone around me?” It kept me in my element. Rather than being hyper-focused on this competition, it was like, “I’m going to make it fun.” I’m going to make it me in my kitchen joking with my friends. That’s how I changed my mindset. It worked every round.

Emma [Magnolia] hated me for a couple of days after the final. I’ve seen her a few times in Vegas since. She’s fine now, but she brings it up every now and again. That’s how I changed my mindset. It was like, “I’m going to joke around, and if I win that’s the best way to do it.” When you try to be too serious, which a lot of people were, you start to second guess and you mess up. I was there just to have fun.

PC: Of all the dishes that you cooked on the show, which were you the most proud of? Which was the one you’d do over?
Nathan: I would do the chicken parm again because I wasn’t happy with the flavor. The chicken was a little dry. I loved the lamb. I thought it was perfect. My mother loves lamb. I love lamb. She taught me how to cook lamb well. That was perfect to me. I’ll be honest, when I saw them cut into Emma’s lamb, I knew I had won. Mine came out perfect. Hers came out like a leather book.

PC: You’ve also said during the competition that while you were competing for the grand prize, you wanted to learn as you go. What was the biggest takeaway that you got from being a part of this competition?
Nathan: That’s a great question. I think it was learning to diversify my ingredients. I know that’s a political answer, but I’m a pretty basic guy. I’m the most basic person in the world at home. I don’t challenge myself. I know I can do it. If anyone comes over they’re like, “What do you want to eat?” They can literally throw anything at me and I can make it. But for myself, I’m so bland. It’s chicken and rice or chicken with barbecue sauce. It’s stuff like that. There were so many simple ingredients that heightened my dish like Chef Jojo said. Never in my life would I grate lemon and orange zest onto a meal. But it works. It’s so simple. It’s just adding these weird ingredients. I usually just steam vegetables from Walmart and I’ll be like, “That’ll do.” But then it’s so much more fun to try things like beets and prepare them differently. That’s my takeaway. I learned a lot from Jojo and from watching him. He would show us a dish before we would make our dish. It looked insane. It looked ridiculous in presentation. People eat with their eyes. But I would always say that people eat with their eyes, so even if it sucks they’ll always remember seeing the plate. You can take a bite and say, “It sucks.” But before that, they’ve made the determination that the plate looks great.

PC: How did you spend the grand prize?
Nathan: I said the whole competition that I wanted to take my little girl to Breckenridge. I always wanted to take her to the snow. We did that! I wrapped filming and got my prize money. We went to Breckenridge in December. That was about $5,000. I spent the remainder on a down payment for a Corvette C8. I had fun. I’ve always wanted to take my daughter to Breckenridge. Checked that off. I was like, “Christmas is coming up. My birthday’s coming up.” I’ve always wanted my dream car and I’ve never done it. I’m not a big spender. I don’t like designer things. I was like, “Let me treat myself.” I’m clearly a fantastic chef. If nothing else, Jojo offered me a job. I can fall back on that.

PC: There are so many different facets to your talent and creativity. What can fans expect from you for the rest of 2023?
Nathan: That’s a great question. I would love to do my own style of a cooking show, whether that’s on OFTV or whatever it may be, because I feel like I’m relatable. I mean, as relatable as you can be. What is normal anymore? I would love for people to see that cooking can be fun. Everyone I know, all of my friends, especially in Los Angeles, are big on DoorDash and Postmates. You can’t have fun with that. Cooking should be fun.

Aside from that, I want to show that personal training can be fun. People hate the gym. No one wants to go. But we can make it fun. The same with cooking. My adult life has been centered around health and fitness. If I can tie the two together, my love for cooking and my love for being fit and active, that would be dope.

To keep up with Nathan, follow him on Twitter, Instagram, and OnlyFans.