What is a Day at the Star Racing Compound Like?

It seems like the fans of this sport have truly started to take in Levi Kitchen as their own. The Monster Energy/Star Racing Yamaha rider has a great following and on social media Kitchen is always ready to interact with his followers. 

We know he came out of nowhere at Loretta Lynn’s in 2020 and went six for six in the B Limited Classes, which we went over in this teaser column last week. Also, we know he likes to fish and his “Chef” nickname has definitely caught on. Yeah, it’s kind of cute because his last name is Kitchen, but does he actually like to cook and how good is he at it? These are the questions we want to know. 

We sat down a bit ago to ask the Chef the most important questions in the world, including what he thought about his rookie season. Levi was very honest and gave us a great interview. Here are the best bits!

vurbmoto: You had some standout rides this year and even won a moto at Thunder Valley, how did you feel your rookie season went?
Kitchen: I think it went well. I got a lot of confidence and I realized I knew where I should be, I guess you could say. The only thing that hindered me was my starts. At the beginning of the season I didn’t figure out my starts and then all of a sudden I holeshot in Colorado and won like it was pretty easy. I was really bummed about Colorado, I was obviously stoked to win, but went into the second moto and got a fairly good start again. I think I came out around eighth. Hammaker and Thrasher got together and I fell on the first lap, so I came from a ways back and managed to get up to fifth. I was bummed I had that tip over because I think I would have gotten up to at least J-Coop and a 1-3 would have gotten me the overall for that day. I was pretty stoked on my rookie season. I had a lot of momentum rolling, especially after Southwick and then to go out and break my wrist two days later was pretty upsetting.

You start off in Supercross, get hurt, come back from that, outdoors you’re fifth in points at the halfway point, then you break your wrist. It seemed like you would get going and then you’d get hurt before you could even build momentum. 
It’s just a bummer. I made progression and then something stupid would happen and you have to start over again. At the same time, I’m not far off where I need to be, so that’s kind of nice. It could have gone a lot worse. I could have been having a really bad season and gotten hurt. It makes me sleep a little better knowing I was at least going fast. 

Then you came back at Ironman…
Oh yeah, that was another rookie mistake, I guess you could say. I was so bummed, especially since how the season had started. The team was like, do you want to try to race? Me, just being young and stupid, I was like, I might as well try. That didn’t really work out that well. I salvaged eighth the first moto, but fifteen minutes in I was hurting pretty bad. Then the second moto I only made it like three laps and was damn near tearing up from the pain.

Did you expect all of your success coming into this season?
Not really, no. I think I exceeded all of my expectations quite a bit. At the same time, before going outdoors this year, I didn’t know if I was getting false confidence. You never know when you’re at the track with all of your teammates. I felt pretty good because most days I was the quickest one I would say. That helps a lot going into a race. My goal coming in was to just get a top five overall and then to maybe get a podium. Honestly, I almost feel like that moto win was more meaningful than just getting a podium.

Your team is huge. It’s like an entire basketball team of riders. What are days at the practice track like? Do you have one guy shooting free throws while the other does rebounding drills?
It can be organized chaos at times. For the most part it’s pretty good, we’ll just do our motos. It’s similar to what everyone else does. Jeanne Carmichael still comes out to help out with section work and things like that. She’s pretty gnarly, but as long as you’re doing your work she is all good. A lot of people call her “Meanie Jeannie” as her nickname, but she’s not. She’s a sweetheart. 

It’s definitely like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory here (laughs). There are definitely a lot of people here. For the nine or ten riders we have, all of them have a mechanic, then you have the motor guys, the suspension guys, managers. It’s kind of cool because we’re all secluded here. You just show up and there are a lot of faces, that’s for sure.

You’ve been back on the bike now, how is your wrist, is it fully healed?
Yeah, it’s pretty good. It could be a little better. It’s still sore at times, especially when it’s cold in the morning. Luckily when I’m riding and my adrenaline is flowing I don’t really feel it. I just fish for therapy on it and a little golf. 

What was the biggest learning curve that you had to overcome this year? 
What I’m stoked about now is that literally the only track that I haven’t ridden is Millvlle. For me coming into this year, I hadn’t ridden half of the tracks. Now I know them all besides Millville, so that is going to be big for next year. Another thing I learned was that you get more motivation every time you race. Outdoors really are gnarly. Sometimes you dread the training days for outdoors and it’s so nice being on supercross right now.     

I wrote a column last year that said that you would be an all-time great in the sport. Do you agree or disagree with my take? Did you see this?
No, I didn’t.

It’s probably the greatest column ever.
Wow. I need to check it out. I feel bad. Hopefully you’re right one day! You’ll look really good.

Do you like to cook?
Yes, I do. 

Are you good at it?
I think I’m pretty good.

This is the most important part of this interview. What do you cook? The fish you catch?
Well, that’s the thing about where I’m at in Florida. I mostly bass fish and you couldn’t pay me to eat the bass here. I’ll probably get some hate for saying that.

What’s wrong with it?
I don’t think anything is wrong with it. I’m just not a fan of it. I’d rather have steelhead and very fresh fish from up north. The fishing is great here, but everything wants to eat you here. 

What’s the biggest fish you’ve ever caught?
I caught a pretty big marlin once in Mexico.

So you fish everywhere then.
Yeah, I’ve done all different kinds of fishing, but my main love for fishing is fly fishing in streams for trout and steelhead. It’s pretty tough. You’re trying to imitate what they eat. You have to look at what’s hatching at the time and it changes by season what they are going to be eating. Whether the flies are on top of the water or in the water.

I’ve been fishing my whole life. My dad used to have to drag me out of bed to go fishing with him and I really didn’t enjoy it until I found fly fishing. He is a great fisherman, even though I kick his butt in fly fishing. He would go out and steelhead fish to put meat on the table for the family.

You push this “Chef” nickname with your merch and everywhere. If you’re cooking for someone what are you making?
Man, I don’t know. I don’t want people to think I’m that good of a cook.

Why not? It’s your nickname. Run with it.
I’m decent. I think I would cook a good steak with potatoes and maybe like a nice wedge salad or something fancy. I’m pretty good at cooking chicken. I won’t overcook it too bad. It’s the easiest thing ever, but I’m damn good at cooking some tacos. Chicken or steak fajitas, I’m pretty good at that, but I probably shouldn’t be eating all this, so I’m going to get roasted. 

Bogle’s Google bio says that he’s a Michelin starred chef. Do you feel threatened by this news?No…Justin doesn’t scare me.

What’s the best part of trolling your teammates on Instagram?
It’s probably just saying stupid stuff that we get, but everyone else is probably like, what are these dudes talking about? I like to mess with them. It’s fun because people are too serious these days. 

Do you ever get in trouble for any of that?
No, surprisingly not! I think Bobby likes that stuff. He’s like a football coach. He’s ruthless. He wants everything to be professional obviously, but he’s not over the top about it. 

Does Bobby have a TikTok?
I think Bobby does have a TikTok. I saw his account. 

Incredible. This was a great interview I think. I’ll definitely be in touch in the future.
Thanks, man!

Main image: Yamaha