The restaurant isn't real, its a soundstage. Theres a regular cast and crew, gaffers, boom mic operators, wardrobe, lights, makeup......a lot of those jobs pay shytty or are interned in...unless this show is unionized...then the people can make good dough, but still nikkas gotta eat.
I imagine that they do cook some shyt but just like when they cook on good morning america/rachel ray/today show etc....the show the prep, then put the food in the oven, then they have one thats premade that they start to show and eat cause when your cooking a casserole or baking a cake, they dont just keep filming and cut shyt out to when the food is done, or stop filming and wait and resume filming once the shyt is done.
You used to see Emeril cutting one onion to show the audience that he knows how to cut onions then he slides over a bowl with onions that were already cut but you never saw him cut those cause he was talking to the audience the entire time..
Watch now: Steven Raichlen's Project Smoke | Episode 313: Project Smoke Road Trip | MPT/Maryland Public Television Video heres a link to another cooking show same sort of concept just different type of cooking, just watch from 2 mins to 3 minutes 30 seconds