A Google search for "chef" has them as the #2 hit (both logged in and in Incognito so it's not just because I'm a programmer). Seems like they have the SEO under control.
I wonder if my assumption about incognito search results being non-personalized is false.
Here in PEI, Canada, if I search Chef in incognito, they're #4 and the first 3 hits are for the movie Chef from 2014.
The SEO shouldn't actually be too tough because people are quite a bit more likely to link to Chef the company using the word "chef" than anything about cooking.
And hey, Google went with "Go" which is nearly impossible to SEO and it worked out.
Though they do have the benefit of being Google. A significantly smaller team might have had better success than the original Go!, but that's not saying much.
I would bet more important though is their search and mind share. More people searching for chef that are actually searching for them.
I think the only way they got as far as they have is because of that search volume, not necessarily their content or the links to their content.
I am basing this on absolutely nothing, just theory ... curious what others think or know?