Now, I think that you are already leaning that way with the wonderful "The Dish with Kish" episodes... here's what I can see - open up a Top Chef kitchen during the off seasons, and shoot mini episodes with a large rotation of past competitors showing us how to cook. Part of what made BA so special was the chemistry. I think the Top Chef rotation already has so much of that built in, as many of these chefs know each other very well. Put that shit on Peacock or YouTube (or both or whatever) - I'd watch it all. What do you guys think?

As much as I find Soo to be charismatic and talented I’m still against his participation. It’s inherently unfair. He gets to end run around all the super challenging competitions (Frank Lloyd Wright!?!) and stays in by competing against the weakest chefs of the season. I find it super frustrating.

Whether you’re enjoying TC or not, I have a couple of suggestions for you if you have Netflix!

“Pressure Cooker” is addicting, it was for me anyway! I binge watched the whole series because I loved it so much! It’s like the show “Big Brother” but with Chefs! And instead of physical/mental challenges, it’s cooking challenges! I’ve never missed a season of “Big Brother & I think I’ve seen every cooking show that’s ever been made so that’s probably why I liked it so much! The description is - Follow eleven chefs who will cook and cohabit with one another as they compete to become the ultimate chef's chef and win $100,000.

A couple more great cooking shows on Netflix:

“Five Star Chef” - Professional chefs from around the world compete to bring their fine-dining concept to the historic Palm Court restaurant at London's luxurious Langham Hotel.

“The Final Table” - Teams of chefs from around the world vie to impress some of the world's toughest palates as they whip up iconic dishes from different nations in this reality cooking competition.

Am I the only one who feels like the edit made it obvious that Kaleena and Alisha were going to be eliminated the entire episode?

This last chance kitchen it’s totally rigged.

Sheldon gets a manicure bc they had time to kill on the cruise ship to Alaska and he says “where I come from, men don’t get manicures” 🙄

Meanwhile his wife is actually going through labor on the show.

Well. Where I come from, men don’t leave their wives while they have their first kid…

Bright side, forgot how much I loved Brooke!

Is it just me or is anyone else rooting for Soo on Top Chef Last Chance Kitchen?! I love his cooking style, his personality & his sense of humor! I hope it comes down to a Soo & Riska finale & Soo wins!

A few weeks ago I absolutely splurged and visited Karen Akunowicz's Fox and the Knife in Boston. Probably the best meal I've ever eaten. The waistaff was AMAZING. They really specialize in sharing plates, and were so helpful in encouraging not just WHAT we might order, but how much and what to drink. Nearly TWO hours later (and it didn't feel that way) we were done. Truly very special. Karen, as well as the manager both stopped by our table to see if we were enjoying everything

We shared: Whipped Ricotta, Panzanella di Finocchio (fennel, pomengrante & sumac salad), tagliatelle Bolognese (boar), mafaldinie alla funghi (mushrooms and farro). We also fell in love with our new favorite cocktail -- which we've now made at home a few times!

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We spent a few days in NY and we enjoyed some great food, but one of our highlights was eating at Rick Bayless' Tortazo, a casual mexican cafe. Our waiter was delightful and the rest of the staff was top notch.

The drinks were delicious (and it was still happy hour when we ordered). The "fully dressed" quacomle and chips is NOT to be missed, and I sort of wish we ordered more! Our entrees were a shrimp taco - dorados style and a roasted much room quesadilla with carnitas. Food was hot and came out really fast! We will make this a repeat place (we go to NYC a lot.)

Nom nom nom.

Definitely starting to see a spread of scores!

https://www.instagram.com/p/C5pedllL8ur/?igsh=MTM0ZjJuNGtxNWpxag==

I’m currently watching season 8. The judges table is missing from current season? I love them talking about the food. Not to mention the suspense of the chef’s impending doom of being asked to pack knives. I think they are being to nice this season. I watched the latest episode yesterday and I forgot most of it!!

I watched all of the US seasons before World All Stars, but I have no idea about any international Top Chef franchises besides the Canada one which I have never watched, so is there a guide of some kind to know which international seasons to watch before World All Stars?

This season’s competitors have been overall such a letdown. Rasika is a shining light, and Michelle is solid, but everyone else…meh.

After last week, when there were like a dozen croquettes, I thought they would step up their game. Doing a Frank Loyd Wright themed dishes is difficult, but it’s also very common to do a challenge in which the chefs take inspiration from some other art form. Paintings, movies, songs, the symphony, scary dreams. Some people bomb, but there are usually a solid group of others that rise to the occasion. Those are some of my favorite challenges.

I’m glad Kristen and Buddha gave them a combo dressing down/pep talk at the end. I hope we start to see them push themselves more.

When chefs say they’re going to remake the same dish that got them kicked off the show I always wonder, why would you impose additional rules on yourself?

It reads to me as a sign of poor self esteem — you can see them thinking “I failed on this dish and that means I am a bad chef, so I must succeed on the dish to prove I am a good chef.” Who are we proving to?? People with an intrinsic sense of worth do not take a single failure (on a game show, no less) this personally.

To me, chefs deciding to “seek redemption” is a great example of how we create our own suffering: They are fighting perceived demons, trapping themselves in a good vs. bad narrative, when in reality they could release failure and be present and creative now. And the redemption dishes always lose anyway!!!!

This episode made me cry! I’m a queer Tamil woman myself and the one dish I always cook and the most delicious, comforting food in the world to me is rasam and aloo, always using my grandmother’s rasam powder from India. It has tons of fresh cilantro and I like to add garlic and lemon. It’s so simple to make but so incredibly bright and warm at the same time. Tamil food is so good! This lesser known representation made me feel so seen 🥹

Edit: oh my god she liked my comment to her about this on instagram, brb either getting a divorce or exploring polyamory for Rasika 🏳️‍🌈🌈💍 (doesn’t matter that she likes every comment, shhhh)

On the Compliments to the Chef podcast (a good alternative to Pack Your Knives) the hosts mention a massacre and fire that happened at the Frank Lloyd Wright house Taliesin. It's a pretty interesting read.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliesin_(studio)#Taliesin_i

So one argument that was made for introducing a wildcard chef into LCK was that they’d likely contracted for x number of episodes and when David opted out they were ‘stuck’.

But now that yen done a double elimination surely that argument goes out the window. They could have spun this double into two separate episodes and started the LCK season with eliminated chefs 2 and 3

Dish with kish “water solmierr” guy… wtf. It was comical. I understand they’re the sponsor whatever but be for real. Just make a comment about still vs tap vs sparkling.

“I traveled all across Europe and all the water tasted different” like no shit man. Not a new phenomenon that water tastes different in different places 😂

The look on Buddha and kish’s face when he’s trying to get them to try water like wine.

You could tell Kristen was like “okay were pretentious but we don’t need to be this pretentious”

I’m at the near end of season 18 as I work through the series and I always just get so attached to all the contestants. Just wanted to share my pure joy and love for this show 🤓

I didn’t see an episode post, so I created this one for discussion. Did you enjoy the Frank Lloyd Weight tour? What did you think about how the various teams handled the challenge?

Is anyone else increasingly skeptical about the 16th chef concept on LCK? I'm just not buying that its an even and fair judging each time. While on one hand it seems like something Tom wouldn't take part in, it also just seems like of course he's going to go through. Because if not, what's the point of the hype?

I’ve seen every season of Top Chef and am currently rewatching season 12 and the current season at the same time and I noticed again that the chefs seem to bring their own ingredients with them too. During a challenge, Mei Lin gave Aaron some dashi powder she had brought with her to use For his dish after his broth dumped on the ground. Also, during the new season, a chef used another’s pistachio powder (?) or something similiar like that that she had herself. So I was wondering how much the chefs are allowed to bring with them to the show to use in the challenges. Just like how Buddha brought all those molds with him for the newest All Stars season.

Am I the only one who’s confused by the new season? I am taking care of my 4 months old while watching so my attention span is definitely shorter. However I watched episode 4 twice and I can barely follow. Seems so unstructured compared to older seasons. Why no quick fire challenge? Do they just have one challenge now every episode? Someone please explain to me like I’m a 5 year old. I do like Kristen though which I’m surprised because I was scared the show would suffer with no Padma. That doesn’t seem to be the cause.

Let’s not spoil anything except the theme.

I was really struck (and have been in the past) by the furniture—just the use of wood unadorned, so solid, so stable. It will last for a lifetime and beyond and needs no decoration. For some reason that just really speaks to me

I also really liked all those vertical wooden slats that were a beige or tan color. So to illustrate these concepts, I would make a filet mignon cut into a perfect rectangle, and vertically Hasselback a potato. A very classic meat and potatoes dish celebrating the very solid architectural wood element. My partner would then do a circular theme: scallops etc.

I swear those two are hilarious! I don't want them to leave ever because you can tell they are genuinely having fun.