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 think it's probably geography. I'm in Seattle FWIW. The number one hit is a movie from IMDB: "Chef (2014) - IMDb".
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.
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.
Sure, but the question is how much capital they had to put towards getting that #2 spot. I'm an SEO newb so have no idea, but my guess is a fair amount.