I was arguing with my sister about who has the best knife work from top chef and I told her that Hung Huynh had amazing knife work, but she said Gregory did! Does anyone else have any other suggestions haha

In my opinion, Phillip. What a jerk. I can’t believe he blamed the judges for not liking his dishes. When the other chefs described them, they sounded so unappetizing.

Opinions of which chef was too full of themselves?

Hey everyone!

I recently watched Top Chef: Wisconsin as my first season of the show, and I really enjoyed it (though it seems like a lot of people on this sub don't enjoy it as much). Honestly, I felt like the show avoided the pitfalls of being an excessively cheesy reality TV show, the contestants and judges seemed like real, genuine people (for the most part), and overall I just felt like it was a professional affair that was more focused on merit than anything else.

I decided to watch the first episode of Top Chef: All-Stars (Season 8), and the vibe could not have been more different. It seemed like the show tried to focus on the most over-the-top aspects of each contestant's personality, the episode was needlessly cruel (e.g. having the chefs watch the judges and their fellow chefs eat and criticize their dishes in real-time), and everything was excessively edited, to the point where very little cooking was even shown on screen.

This stuck me as a sharp, stylistic shift, and I'm wondering if the show transitioned stylistically at some point. Is there a good season to start with if I don't like the excessive cheesiness/drama and just want a focus on good cooking/competition?

Did you enjoy the finale and do you think the right person won?

I know this conversation has been repeated probably every month since it aired. But I feel so bad for Nick. He was put in an impossible position, that was made worse by the people who put him there and the fans afterwards. Like he was being asked to give up the chance for basically 5 years worth of income for someone he’s known for a couple of weeks. After taking a chance he wouldn’t have without immunity.

And it’s frustrating because the judges and production could’ve said we’re going to eliminate from the other team or that they just weren’t sending anyone home. Nick had 0% responsibility for their decisions. But they tried to put it on him in a really gross way.

I don’t see a lot of people talking about this season but I think it’s highly underrated. One of the better seasons - mostly because of the talent and comradery.

That moment between Jamie and Maria during judging panel in e11 tugs at my heart strings T_T One of the most memorable TC moments imo.

Also Jamie is one of my favs :) Bring her back!

At Spirit Halloween. I wonder what costume he was getting.

https://kstp.com/kstp-news/local-news/twin-cities-celebrity-chef-justin-sutherland-arrested-for-violating-no-contact-order/

I love how much Nina hates Michael. Every time I think something she says it.

I’m rewatching and I keep feeling guilty because there are chefs who competed (and sometimes made it really far) who I’ve just forgotten existed. And I don’t even want to say who because I’m like it’s not you it’s me.

Which is your favorite sara/sarah and would love to see make a comeback on top chef on an allstar?

Hello all! I just created r/CookingCompetitions!

Thanks mods for allowing me to post this here. I was looking for a sub where we could discuss any cooking competition show, but had trouble finding one. So I decided to make one!

This is new, so I welcome all feedback and ideas. Hope you join and help create a good space to talk about all the cooking competition shows you love!!

Bryan Voltaggio every single time

My favorite is from the finale season 21, so it's recency bias:

A guest judge (can't remember who) when tasting Savannah dish "this does not taste like Mofongo"

Tom quickly chimes in "It's Mofong NO"

I spurted out my coffee ☕😄

So Heather was unequivocally consistently shitty to Beverly (well deserved early out), and Lindsay and Sarah were both condescending during Restaurant Wars, but I'm also like...after RW, the camera was constantly cutting between Lindsay & Beverly. I would call out the overuse of musical stings, but that's in allll the old seasons lmao.

Also tbh it feels like Ed got a bit of a pass...he was basically implying that Sarah faked getting heat exhaustion, and there's hints that he was digging shit up later, like him bringing up the RW halibut in the stew room when Beverly left.

Yeah there's no excuses for the on-camera shit, but it does feel like Production was trying to push a catfight narrative on top of that.

(ok I also forgot about the ridiculous Olympic finale. WHY. lmao)

John gets a lot of crap for his attitude (which is mostly deserved tbh), but rewatching Josh is way worse than John is. Like John has multiple moments where he is kind and supportive towards the other chefs, but I haven’t seen one where Josh is anything but a jerk.

Scrolling through Peacock I found this one season spinoff. Did anyone watch recently or even live? The vibes are lowkey spooky.

I started at season 1 and up to the wedding episode. That was a ridiculous challenge, and it was galling to watch the judges criticism, especially the wedding planner. Tiffani said she thought it was better than what most wedding guests get, and the wedding planner yelled at her and said her clients expect spectacular food. Her clients like Katie Lee and Billy Joel spend six figures on catering plus another $50,000 on a cake. They don’t give them 16 hours notice, one hour to buy all the food for $3000, and expect five courses plus a wedding cake. It makes me never want to watch the show again because I am so angry at how the producers handled it. Fuck them, I hope whoever had that idea got fired, and that the fans reamed out the judges after that aired.

We all know the infamous “it’s not top scallop” quote, so I wanted to see what other people got a laugh out of. I’ll go first, “I’m not your btch , btch” was a true classic, but when Gail said in the zoo challenge “it looked like something a bear would produce, not eat” for sure got a laugh out of that one. Gail always has the zingers lol.

Mine best 3 (in chronological order):

Stephanie Izard (S4)

Brooke Williamson (S14)

Buddha Lo (S19 & 20)

Least favorites (chronological order):

Ilan Hall (S2) because he was such an asshole and beat a more deserving Sam Talbot and Marcel.

Kevin Sbraga (S7) because he barely won anything before the finale and he beat Angelo Sosa who was sick

Gabe Erales (S18) because he beat more deserving Shota and because of his real life assholeness that only surfaced after the show

It's telling that that these 3 of my least favorite too chef winners barely got invited to any top chef seasons episodes after their win, while the finalists in their season were frequently invited back.

Everytime I watch the Season 6 finale I always skip over Padma eliminating Kevin. I don't understand why they had to do that to him. I know he knew he had a bad finale and pretty much knew he wasn't winning but it still felt like such a mean thing to do to him!

Toby said the solution to the problem with Kevin's mushroom was to not eat it. Seriously ? Is Toby the worst judge that's ever been on this show?

Mine is Bryan Voltaggio.

His laugh is endearing and contagious.

I'm watching S13E12 which is in my hometown San Francisco. I find it ironic that Top Chef apparently has a deal with Whole Foods that the chefs have to source most of their food there because Whole Foods has really crappy food. I shopped there when they first opened, their bakery section has delicious looking pastries and cakes and I have a sweet tooth so over the next few weeks I bought various bakery items and they were all either inedible or really unsatisfying. I remember in particular a berry galette that cost $17.99 and the berry filling was just goopy and thick and syrupy, no real fruit flavor, and it was inside this massively underbaked crust that was easily 1/2" thick. That one I returned. Most of the others I just tossed.

Then, their house brand, I don't remember what it's called (365?). I bought a bag of dried apricots and when I opened it, there was a gooey clump of gray fuzz inside.

They sell some of the same brands as Safeway (our local big supermarket chain) but at 50% higher prices. In fact all of their merch is really expensive.

I don't shop there anymore. And I really wanted to love it when they opened because it *looks* so inviting.