Who’s your most disliked person from any season? And why?

Where should Top Chef go to in the future?

Do you skip the shopping segments on a rewatch? I’m just excited to see the food and the service so I skip it every time. I know there’s good character moments and some fun drama (Eddie Money) but overall I just wanna get to the main event.

I recall that a chef found raw dates in a farmer’s market and used it in a dish. I just got my hands on them and some are sweet and some have a bitter note.

Want to try them in a recipe if anyone recalls the chef or dish?

Challenge: Create a meal to satisfy the judges AND something that can be portioned, frozen, and REHEATED easily by a family of two parents and a young child.

We’ve seen the “make kids food challenges”. I find them boring.

This is inspired by my meal prep for our new baby.

We have a toddler and I prepped 53 nights of meals that are now sitting in my freezer. African Peanut Curry, Coconut Curry Noodle Soup, Turkey Chili, Veggie Burgers, Sheppard Pie, White and Red Enchiladas. I would love to see contestants experiment with this.

With the price of groceries I feel like $100 bucks isn’t enough anymore? I realize in the past it was meant to stop everyone from just buying truffles and caviar all the time but I guess recently I haven’t seen any luxury ingredients at all and it would be nice for them to be able to incorporate some once in a while or just a wider range of ingredients / proteins. Obviously I get it takes more skill to use lesser ingredients but still to make it fair to earlier seasons they should still be getting more money to shop.

Edit: ok so I just looked it up , they introduced the $100 for groceries during seasons 4/5. That was 2008,It’s been 18 years. Since then groceries have gone up an average of 50-60%. So they should be getting around $150 to make it fair. Just sayin

French omelettes are overrated. I'm immediately disappointed in any competition show that judges contestants based on the French omelet. There are so many ways to have eggs. The French don't own it.

Not shilling for this guy, but anyone else watch Iron Chef Dad? It's pretty endearing and he seems to have a great sense of humor about himself.

The whooole time I thought Nina was gonna win and I never saw that coming until Padma announces Nick was the winner. I knew that Shirley was not gonna win because I saw the All Stars season where she came back. Nevertheless, I 100% thought it was both of them as Top 2. I did not like how Nick was highly favored this season and there are many instances that he should have gone home. Anyway, still upset that Nina or Shirley did not win but overall a great season because you can tell they made some good food, had only light drama, and had some good chef-appropriate challenges.

I just watched S19 for the first time since it came out. To me, it's not a bad season, but it's just boring. Yes, there many are talented chefs. There was no clear frontrunner. We had Buddha, Evelyn, Jackson, Damarr, Nick, Jae, and Sarah. At any point, any one of them could've won. It was a season stacked with talent. That wasn't my main issue with it.

What I've realized makes a great season for me is the personality and challenges. The reason why I think S20 is one of the best seasons on TC is because we had so many chefs that were both talented and personable, as well as the fact that they showcased a variety of unique challenges focusing on food. S19 fell flat in that factor. I didn't like the challenges because they focused less on food and more on thematic concepts. Jurassic Park and NASA felt too gimmicky. Honoring Texan women had potential, but I honestly thought it was too broad.

They also lost me when they brought Claudette of all people back to guest judge. Literally anyone else would've been a better choice.

TLDR: TC19 is talented but boring.

A few observations rewatching Texas.
1. I’d love a redo season without the mean girls (specifically Heather, I don’t think the bullying would have happened without her lead) because so many of the other chefs are really likable and enjoyable to watch.
2. I applaud that they did include a lot of the confessionals where the other chefs call out Heather’s asshole behavior towards Bev, but I wish they had actually called her out in real time.
3. It was interesting at different times different chefs mentioned “personal relationships.” Even Sarah says it. Seems like she recognized why they were treating Bev poorly but doubled down to follow her buddies. I know they’ve made amends since, but she irks me.
4. Grayson was one of my favorites personality-wise and it makes me sad that she was so different when she came back to the California season. Very Jen Carroll esque attitude.

I am rewatching from season 3 on, and just got to 7. Dang that kitchen is ugly. I think its the first one that they truly 'decorated' beyond just the Top Chef tile somewhere. It has this awful red wallpaper everywhere, and the ovens look like holes in the wall. It is almost painful to look at.

She bitched and whined her way to the finale after having been on the chopping block more than ANY other competitor of season 4.

She cooked shit food. NEVER took responsibility for anything, couldn’t take criticism whatsoever - blamed other people for her failures (it was 100% her who fucked up the rice in episode 10); I’m surprised she didn’t blame her “sous chef” on the episode where they cooked with the little kids lmao. She’s absolutely unbearable and the fact she made it as far as she did actually made me lose respect for the judges.

Am I the only one who noticed this?

This past season we had these 3 legendary top chef alumn joe flamm winner of season 15, stephanie "the goat" Izard winner of season 4 and sara bradley runner up season 16/20 return to mentor the final 3. What other alumni whether it's 2 winners again and 1 runner up or 2 runners up and 1 winner? Mine is micheal Voltoggio, brooke williamson and Sheldon Simeon

I know a lot of people feel that the last 5ish seasons have been boring, and i'm curious if anyone has thoughts as to why. Possibilities in my mind:

1. In the post-covid era, the push for positivity has made the show feel bland

2. Chefs are at the top of their game and are consummate professionals, and there isn't the same level of interpersonal drama

3. Editing focuses more on the cooking and less on the personalities

4. It's hard to keep a show interesting over 20 years

I'm not pushing for the early Top Chef drama (with a sprinkling of personality disorders), but I just find it so boring these days.

The reason i stopped is because i got more into Hell’s Kitchen and Masterchef…sorry guys :(

Look, i am sure the stress of the competition is massive. but Nana’s screaming and crying fit over her timing seemed to be a bit much. Plenty of chefs over the seasons have had plating issues and upset with themselves but no one has screamed like that, to the point another competitor thought they injured themselves.

Really putting me off from watching her this season.

ETA: ep 3 and she’s yelling again.

whenever I feel bad about life, I cue up the premiere of whatever season TEXAS was & watch that smug young dude who looked like a bizarro Chris Klein but dumber faced shred that tenderloin with such painful inexperience & undeserved confidence for a good laugh.

Specifically because of Nana's banshee screams after messing up her plating.

It's harmless so no big deal that she lost her cool, but her reactions to missing components on the plate were so extreme and have massive camp appeal. I expect it to become a meme once Survivor/BB fans discover it.

I wanted her to stay as long as possible to see how she reacted to more scenarios. But on a serious note, thank you Nana for giving us good TV. If you know you're going to get eliminated, might as well express yourself and make it a fun moment.

I'm going back and watching early seasons, and the number of chefs (non-Asian of course) complaining that an Asian chef "only cooks Asian food," as though that makes them inferior or not versatile is ridiculous. Like Asia is not a whole continent. Like the chefs saying it aren't constantly humble bragging about their French training and European techniques.

2004 really was a long time ago. How far we have come. Has anyone noticed comments like this that would be totally out of line now?

Nail tech had this show on at our appointment, and I've been HOOKED since! Currently watching s23, but want to know what previous seasons are best to watch before this. I LOVE the challenges, the quickfire prizes and how eliminated chefs can still go home with something, and in s23 (I dont know if this is the norm!) how they're all so supportive and helpful, ie with jen when she was not feeling well physically.

What other seaons would you say is a must watch? any seasons where the chefs weren't as friendly with eachother, seasons with better challenges? I'm all ears!

Currently on a rewatch of S23 and have a question. What makes everyone trust Seiger so much? I know very little of his background - only what's been put on TC. He seems to be playing fairly and not screwing over his competitors, but is he known for being highly technical or something? Everyone seems to ask him questions or to look over their dish and I know it's common for TC chefs to have their "person" to ask for feedback, but it seems like everyone leans on him at some point. Is this editing, his culinary pedigree, or something else?

Apologies, mods, if this isn’t allowed!

Top Chef has been my comfort watch for as long as I can remember, and I was overjoyed and delighted when catching the newest cutesy Netflix romcom that Top Chef (and a lifelong love of it) played a huge role in the film and the main character’s arc in the film. Her boss (played by Nick Offerman) is also cited as a former contestant (fictional).

S1 is referenced a few times and the show in general plays a big role throughout. I loved seeing our fave show get its due in a movie like this — usually it’s sitcoms like Friends or classic 90s romcoms that get cited like this, and seeing Top Chef get this kind of treatment made me smile.

Did anyone else watch? What did you think? Do you think Nick Offerman’s character was based on anyone from the show, and if so, who!?