To prepare for the new season, and in the spirit of March Madness, I thought it'd be fun to re-live past seasons tournament style. (I stole this idea from an electronic music subreddit.) New categories each week, chefs/personalities with the most upvotes get on the bracket after a few days of nominations, post bracket for discussion and votes. Good/Terrible idea? What categories could be more interesting? What format could make it better?

https://preview.redd.it/hoqhxkhwvlge1.jpg?width=817&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cfaa6854617fb9ad183b11c671f169caa6b2a928

G'day! I'm a Top Chef fanboy. Been on the journey since season two. I wept when Padma retired... Also a passionate and (ifisaysomyself) skilled home cook.

In the day job, among other things, I'm a creative director for an agency and produce several podcasts and youtube series. While I mean no disrespect to any of the current Top Chef centered content currently, it leaves me a little bit underwhelmed and wishing for more. So of course, I'd like to try and add my own creative touch to the offering - and yours.

The ideal format though needs more than one host. Definitely two, maybe three. This is very much a project in the works, so I'm very open to integrating your creative vision with mine. If this even remotely interests you, DM me and we can chat.

Thanks y'all.

https://chicago.eater.com/2025/1/28/24353972/top-chef-destination-canada-chicago-contestants

Through the years, there have been several chefs where I've wondered how they would have done if they had made it past a certain point. For example, in season 13, Renee Kelly was the first to finish in the first quickfire but was eliminated in episode two. I was genuinely curious to see what she was capable of - if only she had made it a little further. Here are some of my picks from other seasons. What are yours?

S3 - Sandee
S10 - I always wondered if the woman who said to Hugh "don't make me cry" stood a chance before she made it clear she couldn't handle criticism.
S11 - Bene - he was a sous chef on Top Chef Masters, and I would have liked to see more of him.
S12 – For his sake, I was glad George got to come back. I felt terrible for him going after the first quickfire.
S13 – I already said Renee (On a side note, I was glad Garrett left in episode one because he was destined to really annoy me!)
S18 - Sasha

This time the city is Boston! Why does Netflix go from S10 to S12 skipping S11???

E01 - Sudden Death

The first quickfire is one of my favorites, the Mise En Place relay. This usually separates the better skilled fast knife work chefs from the slow ones, and honestly even with the sudden death for the slowest, I felt like they should start episode 1 with this every time.

• Katsuji Can't Clam - that was painful to watch, and hear. Luckily nobody was going to cook with the clams he opened. Yikes!
• Gregory goes Gangbusters with the trio, or as Adam Harvey chirped "Hi, My name is Greg and this is how big my dick is! And it's only episode 1
• Gregory Got George Good - honestly his dish looked great,
• George Gone - too soon IMO

Top Chef Food Festival - most of the food looked good but wondering if a bunch of them just threw in molecular gastronomy because Blais is a guest judge? AND his station! OUCH! Clearly Greg can cook, but Mei won with her complex yet flawless congee. But the judges didn't hold back with the critiques!

• Padma spit out Aaron's food before telling him she'd love to see him clean up his act and his station.
• "side dish brocolli" with bacon snow.
• corn soup "fishy cereal" - I knew the moment Gail said this he was a goner.
• Katsuji's overly complicated 20 ingredient Taco where he threw everything in but the kitchen sink!

E02 - Boston's Bravest and Finest

It's the giving back to the community organization challenge and my, those guys are in such great shape I am wondering if the producers do these challenges just to give some of us viewers eye candy to look at. The commissioners were very good looking for their age/stress of the position, not going to lie, they looked better than some of the dishes presented. Food wise a meh episode.

E03 - The Curse of the Bambino

The sports challenge was held at Fenway Park, a mecca for some baseball fans, it immediately reminded me of the great baseball movie 61* (directed by Billy Crystal). Food + Fine Dining at Fenway = a win this episode, right? Nope, some contestants messed up big time giving us all the same type of drama a sporting event would generate. Gregory wons the quickfire giving him immunity which he didn't need because his impeccably beautiful duck dish also won him the elimination challenge. Sorry Ron. I can't believe Katsuji continues to ignore April Lavigne's exhortations not to "make everything so complicated", and is still in the competition!

E04 - Chefs Walk Into A Bar

A Challenge at Cheers judged by the actor who plays bar fly, Norm! Hey, I've been there (when I visited Boston), the place is an institution! Can't believe Stacy got kicked out because one of her guests tried to steal a glass, she could have just paid for a souvenir like the rest of us tourists. The Italian dinner challenge's food was kind of underwhelming. They went for popular but most of the dishes weren't very exciting to me, although I would have gotten the Purple Team's menu too, so their marketing would have worked on me.

E05 - It's War

The War challenge was pretty exciting with a lot of rematches from the Quickfire. There's a hilarious montage of Katsuji's zero filter mouth just going at it. Katie's cake took Aaron out, his dashi falling didn't help matters and eventually he was sent home. In video game terms, this means Katie won the PvP grudge match with a FATALITY!

E06 - The First Thanksgiving

Katie and Mei had exciting cranberry dishes but Katie eventually won for the Cranberry Borscht, probably the most inventive dish I've seen this season, so far.

The First Thanksgiving challenge is set at what I'm betting is a Tourist Trap which Top Chef is advertising. Down to authentic cooking methods and tools from ye olde 17th century days which I'm sure the chefs hated. But Original Descendants of the Feast? Wow nice. The food was average, I thought Mei's cabbage with trout sauce was the most interesting, but Katsuji got the win. Oh no his ego will be out of control now! Sadly, Sayonara Stacy but happy to see Melissa and Gregory survive their bad day.

E07 - Restaurant Wars

Adam's attention to detail and skills really showed themselves off, but it was Doug's even temper, organization and leadership that was rewarded when 4 Pigs (great name) won Restaurant Wars. The other team was a total shitshow! Kerianne was out of her depth, stuff was disorganized, had the worst dish and was sent home. It wasn't even all her fault, Katie had part of the blame after Katsuji threw her under the bus. And Katsuji COULD have fired the crepes, but didn't even offer because he's a selfish prick. At this point I'm done with him, entertaining or not, I would not hire, or want to work with someone like that. I can't be alone on this, right?

E08 - Clean Up in Aisle 2!

What a quickfire! Make chowder for the guy who literally wrote the 50 chowders book? Oh my! Poor Mei "If I go home because everyone stole my clams (Melissa) it would really suck balls!" Thankfully she wasn't the worst, but Katie. She went up against George (voted by the rest) who got back into the competition with his plan B perfectly cooked Rabbit Loin.

Whoa, what a great elimination challenge!

• Wait, taste top chef cooking? 15,000 applications in 1 day? I only WISH I could have been one of the lucky 75 chosen 🤤.
• What? The judges are shopping for them??
• Tom Jedi warriors "give me your lamb" so Richard loses the lamb!
• Then Padma hides Richard's cart, all the fish falls out and we get the title of this episode "Clean Up in Aisle 2!" Richard has the grace to quip "it's like high school all over again, pretty girls making fun of me."
• Gregory and George had great dishes, but I'm very happy Doug won, especially after the wholesomeness of him kindly giving his sign to the little girl super fan who came back for the 3rd mussel, that was just awww and that alone made me root for him to win, so I was happy too.

E09 - Big Sausage

Padma was having fun flirting with the big muscled hunk, Gronk! George can't stuff sausage but his patty still won over Gronk, despite being a fan from a rival team (that Gronk's team beat). He is lucky to get immunity because the elimination challenge was to make a dish inspired by an author and their work.

Favorite episode so far, the food looked amazing and the inspiration was on the plate. Mei won with a vegetarian dish that showed a lot of technique while being true to the author and story, bravo. Was a bit sad to see Katsuji go for doing a messy Carrie! plate, but it's true the sauce was thick and the food just didn't look great.

E10 - For Julia & Jacques

In the introduction, Doug farewell toasts Katsuji "the most f.... lovable dick in the entire world" to laughs from the remaining contestants. Melissa won the ramen quickfire but Mei's spin on Duck L'Orange (with 5 spice powder) took the Julia Child challenge. I was saddened to see Doug leave, but 3 of the 5 contestants really went too ambitious trying to do Julia Child recipes in 3 hours. TBH some of the impersonations were better than dishes served, especially to that panel of judges with Jacques Pepin.

E11 - Sous Your Daddy!

This season's post elimination recap in the stew room has provided some epic hilarious conversations. This time it's George with "We got a little Asian, a lesbian Asian, a gay black dude and a white straight guy." Yup, it does sound like the start of a joke but damn, now that is representation. No elimination but family members as sous chef doing appetizers? Yowza.

• Melissa parents are divorced, her dad doesn't support her career and has never gone to her restaurants. Ouch. The mom did Chawan Mushi, her lobster was perfectly cooked and those vegetables looked beautiful. they won. Good for them!
• Mei's parents own a restaurant and didn't want her in the same line of work, so her brother got everything he wanted. Ouch! She came second.
• Gregory's sister was there for him through the tough times, good for him but her dish overshadowed his. Ouch!
• George's dad sold his diner and invested money into his son's restaurant. Awww. He was a great sous chef, it was just too bad.

E12 - The Final Battle Of Bean Town

Hey! Mei finally wins a quickfire! This is followed by the other contestants joking about her lack of expression, which she admits "maybe I just have this bitch face." Hard NOT to like someone who has clearly been hurt enough in the past that some stuff just rolls off their back. Then it's the innovation challenge. Melissa's walnut miso on perfectly cooked duck won, Gregory who did a good but not innovative dish was lucky that George's overly charred (bitter) Octopus saw him eliminated instead.

E13 - Getting Prickly in Mexico

Doug wins Last Chance Kitchen, comes back with a bang and takes the Prickly Pear quickfire, giving him first choice of sous chefs. He picks Adam and Katsuji whom he is going to have make some crackers with masa? That challenge is a lot of fun, and Doug's dish that was a true homage to the artist's painting gave him a well deserved win. Sadly, Melissa went back even with a good dish, I blame the artist for this, it was the hardest one to interpret.

E14 - Holy Escamoly!

Gregory is such a competitor he nabbed the easy ingredients (Guava and Poblano) paving his way into the finale, leaving Mei to deal with Huitlacoche and Doug to handle the Escamoly, which sent him home. I know it's a competition but he did the same thing to George, so right now I'm not too happy with him because I felt he stole the spot from Doug. IMO I wish all 3 contestants had to prepare dishes with all 6 ingredients, just to have a level playing field.

E15 - Mano a Mano

Great Finale. Found it ironic that Gregory chooses Doug and George to be his sous chefs, considering both kinda got eliminated because of him! Both were class acts, they did nothing to sabotage him, instead I think his downfall was the shrimp shell (bad idea) and overly sweet after fixing his carrot soup/sauce. Frankly I was very happy to see Mei win. Her choosing to stage at a Mexican place must have helped her prepare! She put out consistently good food, had more range and really swung for the fences. Stuff I love to see, like that dessert was one of Tom's favorites.

Concluding Thoughts

Favorite Episode: Big Sausage. I love the "create something" inspired by book/food/movie and this episode all the dishes looked great, and tasted great.

Most Emotional Episode: Sous Your Daddy. Like some families are just ... ouch.

Restaurant Wars Rating: Drama 10/10. Food 7/10.

• Katsuji - Most entertaining! If this was Top Talk Smack, he would be the winner by a mile.
• Doug - Pocket Dynamo. I still think he went out too soon (both times).
• Melissa - Knife Skills Queen. Gorgeous Vegetables. Great mom. Too bad about her shitty, unsupportive dad.
• George - Tall, Greek and Handsome. Happy to see him get a 2nd chance. Edit: Just found out about his involvement in Mike Isabella's Sexual Harassment case. Very disappointed.
• Gregory - Tall, Dark and Can Cook. The most competitive cheftestant and a great chef. In any other weaker season he would have won.
• Mei - Steadfast, Determined, Creative - A worthy winner. Asian parents tend to favor traditional careers (like her brother)Her parents should be proud, she is making a big mark in their industry. This show probably won't bode well for her parents, or Melissa's deadbeat dad.

i'm rewatching season 10 right now and i cannot stop laughing and stefan. who is the funniest out of all the seasons?

From the trailer, it looks like the editing is better than last season. Seems more punchy, a little more drama and excitement.

How can the judges concentrate on the food with Padma’s cleavage always on display?

[editing to add: thar be spoilers ahead!]

I forgot the winner and remembered liking the season so I gave it a rewatch. I cannot believe Jeremy won!! I must have blocked it out of my memory.

He should have been eliminated several times, especially when Kwame was sent home instead of him. He was so insufferable to watch and I was legitimately pissed when he won. Amar was robbed. Just a reminder of how mediocre white dudes used to dominate this show.

This episode had me asking this question: who was the first person who saw a spiny sea urchin and not only decided to eat it but to eat it's gonads?

Makes you think...

I’m going to Maui and definitely visiting Tin Roof by Sheldon Simeon - for those that have been, what are the must orders?

Richard Blais- Four Flamingos (4/10) Kristen Kish- Arlo Grey (6.5/10) Paul Qui- Top Roe (6.5/10)

^^ All three underwhelmed me. With Richard’s being borderline not good.

Which Top Chef actually has a delicious restaurant?

Kristen Kish shared today on her Instagram story that filming for Dish With Kish started!

This may have been discussed here already but why did they stop doing reunion specials? Because the show got less “reality tv drama” esc?

Would you bet your Top Chef Prize Money against my team? Who would you choose?

During world all-stars, when Buddha had to tell his teammate (I think it was the Brazilian chef, who was herself a top chef winner) that her mashed potatoes were bad and needed to be re-done. The confidence that it takes to say that to another accomplished chef, and the politeness but absolute firmness with which he did so was really awesome. 99% of other chefs would have expressed dissatisfaction, and then when they got pushback just backed off and sulked. As someone who struggles with confrontation, I was genuinely inspired by him in that moment.

Okay, I love this challenge! Having to shop and cook at target and buy whatever you want sounds like heaven. But the entire time I am watching this, something occurs to me…. Did they even wash any of the utensils? Did they wash anything at all prior to cooking?!? Now watching this episode years later and having worked in retail, this really grosses me out.

One example is Katsuji. I get it that he’s a kosher chef, but he decided to put the pig’s head in his beans, making it sour, because of the glands in it that he wasn’t aware of, but he had other teammates that could have told him!

Another is that some chef’s don’t have a reliable dessert recipe, and so in Restaurant Wars in S6, one team didn’t have a dessert! Just another finishing entree.

There are countless examples where the chef can’t speedily mise en place simple ingredients like onions or artichokes, break down chickens, debone fish, or shuck clams. Others don’t even know how to sous vide or use a pressure cooker. I’m not saying they need to be Richard Blaise, but it is disconcerting to see.

Common sense would tell me that a contestant selected to participate in a Nationally Televised and Syndicated Cooking Series would learn to cover the gaps in their skills to ultimately win six figures, instead of freewheeling/guessing/hoping for the best! It happens every Season! Too many times I see a contestant unable to successfully execute and then they look at the camera glumly and sadly, saying how they are out of their depth.

Have any of the cheftestants from season 18 ever commented on Gabe and his misbehavior?

Just rewatched the season 19 episode that had the challenge “inspired” by Jurassic World Dominion. everything felt so forced to tie into the theme of distant dinosaurs. Someone had quetzalcoatlus and stuffed a bird with “everything” because the dinosaur stuffed everything into its mouth.

pretty bad stuff. right with the Trolls challenge but at least that one was just quick fire at least. i will say that Jackson’s bloody hand dish for velociraptor was kinda fun though

i guess i liked the one in season 10 i think where it was a Reynolds wrap thing and the chefs could only cook using vessels fashioned from reynolds wrap. It was at least fun watching them improvise as opposed to cooking whatever and trying to force stories tying into the challenge

Another situation is in S8 All Stars, Fabio is so charismatic. During the museum challenge he tells everyone about his gnocchi and it’s his grandmother’s recipe. He describes them as pillows, and he even kisses a woman on the cheek because she said they were terrific haha.

Fabio was also the best front of the house GM I’ve ever seen in restaurant wars. Dale Talde yells at the runners but Fabio smoothes things over without a hitch. He also knows that Dana Cowen is attending, and he tells the camera, “Dana, you are going on a date with me tonight!” Haha.

I am an American, and thus eat American foods most of the time, but these particular episodes made me actually seek out these foods in real life! I went to a Vietnamese Pho restaurant the next day! Also, Persian food and Mexican food!

Also, ALL the seafood in season 14 (Shrimp boil and John Tesar’s King Crab Dish, also his clam broth dish for the James Beard Dinner)…No trash fish though…

What do we think ACTUALLY happened to the pea purée?!

So I've been revisiting some of the seasons again and while some episodes are bad because of other reasons (bad or questionable judging, annoying guest judges, annoying contestants), there are others where I'm just perplexed because they are so overburdened by restrictions or inherent issues. Here are two very recent examples:

1. The Seattld Quickfire challenge where Marilyn Hagerty (the woman from Grand Forks, MN who wrote the viral Olive Garden review) was a guest judge - the chefs 1) had to make a holiday classic dish from their families, 2) had to use Truvia, and 3) had to use only one knife between them

2. The Top Chef Masters S1 episode where the chefs had to put together food for an event, interview former Top Chef contestants (some of whom had their own quirks), then found the venue get changed.

The first one baffles me because it was three different random rules at once and the second one because they don't really explain the sudden venue shift, which means there are some dishes that might be a food safety issue since the new venue is in the sun.

What are others that struck you as just being too convoluted to the degree where the chefs were set up to fail?

I really like these challenges because it really highlights the creativity (making delicious dishes using simple ingredients), technical skill (butchering, cooking techniques), and experience (knowing flavor profiles, texture, and right combination of ingredients) of the chefs.

I can rewatch these challenges over and over again!

Edit: I meant S10 not S4!