Top Chef Rewatch: Seasons 13-18

Continuing my project to archive everything I tweeted out during my rewatch of the first 18 seasons of Top Chef a few years ago, my thoughts on seasons 13-18 can be found after the jump!

Season 13:

• We have finished our re-watch of TOP CHEF Season 13! With more than a decade of the show now in the books, I think it’s time to make the switch from rankings to tiers. To wit:
• Tier 1 = All-Stars. Season 8. This one is pretty self-explanatory, no?
• Tier 2 = Classic TOP CHEF. Seasons 4, 6, 12, and 13. These seasons all feature a deep field, but one that includes a smaller group of front runners, not all of whom are established executive chefs.
• Not coincidentally, they don’t really take off until right around Restaurant Wars, when most non-contenders have been eliminated. They also all feature interpersonal drama, but nothing so bad as to taint the whole season. One (not me) COULD argue that this makes for better TV.
• Tier 3 = Proto-“Nice” TOP CHEF. Seasons 11 + 13. Everyone acts professional and more or less gets along, shifting the focus to the challenges + food. What cast member conflicts DO exist double as an implicit critiques of the (white, cis, alpha male-dominated) restaurant industry.
• Tier 4 = Veterans. Season 10. This one is also pretty self-explanatory, I think.
• Tier 5 = Not Classic TOP CHEF. Seasons 3, 9, and 5. Like the ones in Tier 2, these seasons feature deep casts dominated by a smaller group of front runners. They are, however, marred by sub-par challenges and/or house dynamics which cross the line from awkward to cringe worthy.
• Tier 6 = Early TOP CHEF. Season 1 + 2. Also self-explanatory!
• I will report back soon to let y’all know how well this classification system holds up with the addition of Seasons 14-16! Spoiler alert if so: Season 17 will be slotted into Tier 1, and Season 18 = in a new tier called “Nice” TOP CHEF that I like better than Classic TOP CHEF.

Season 14:

• TOP CHEF Season 14 re-watch = complete! Having established a set of tiers in my last series of tweets about Season 13, the task moving forward is to determine where the remaining seasons fit.
• The answer seems obvious in this case: Tier 4 Veterans along with Season 10. It’s worth noting, though, that @mepkat doesn’t think this should even BE a tier. So, to show my work:
• Neither Season 10 nor 14 match my criteria for Tiers 1-3 (All-Stars, Classic TOP CHEF, or Proto-“Nice” TOP CHEF), and they’re both too good to simply be Not Classic TOP CHEF (Tier 5). What else do they have in common? First off, a whopping THREE cast members!
• Next, to state the obvious, each features more than one chef in the regular competition (we aren’t also re-watching LAST CHANCE KITCHEN) who was on the show before. Now, why does this matter?
• I personally don’t find it terribly interesting whether or not people who have been on the show before have an advantage over people who haven’t, if it’s even fair for the two groups to compete side by side, or if it’s an insult to call someone a “rookie” (cough. Emily. cough).
• Way too much of the first ~1/3 of season 10 + 14 are spent on questions like these and on re-introducing us to people we’ve already met, which makes it hard to get to know the new folks. Which I think must be why they both feature so many people I don’t really remember!
• To be clear: I don’t DISLIKE these seasons! I just definitely prefer the ones in Tiers 1 + 2, and think I’d also take the two in Tier 3 over them as well, since they represent a positive step in the show’s evolution, whereas 10 + 14 seem more like a dead end IMHO.
• More on this after Season 16, presumably! In the meantime, odds and ends: Brooke and Sheldon are total bosses. While I didn’t universally love the challenges in Season 14, the best ones (radishes, trash fishes, Edna Lewis) were pretty awesome.
• Lastly, for whatever it’s worth: @mepkat says that she could totally see me giving up immunity too if I was in Jamie’s shoes, and his explanation for why tattoos (as a hedge against selling out) is the same as mine. So I guess he’s my spirit chef-testant? Anyway: on to Season 15!

Season 15:

• TOP CHEF Season 15 re-watch = complete! This one fits quite neatly into my third tier, Proto-“Nice” TOP CHEF along with seasons 11 + 13. Here’s the description again:
• “Everyone acts professional and more or less gets along, shifting the focus to the challenges + food. What cast member conflicts DO exist double as an implicit critiques of the (white, cis, alpha male-dominated) restaurant industry.”
• I’m mostly referring to Claudette here, but also Tanya and the general fatigue that seems to set in for everyone who isn’t a “bear” as the season wears on.
• Speaking of Claudette and Tanya, IMHO the “Olympic Dreams” episode is one of the two great What Ifs? in TC history along with Dale + Lisa’s coin flip for executive chef during Restaurant Wars in season 4.
• If Tanya cooks during the speed round and Claudette cooks during the precision round, does Tanya kill it, and if so what happens next? Does their team still lose and does Claudette go home instead? Or do they pull ahead of red, resulting in Carrie getting eliminated? Etc.
• Great finale food here. I would rather eat at Adrienne’s restaurant, but all of Joe’s dishes sounded amazing, most especially his tortellini en brodo, which probably makes my Top 10 TC Dishes I Wish I Could Try list. Adrienne’s spoon bread course, too, probably.
• One complaint: I consistently wanted the chefs to have 15-20 more minutes for each challenge! If you’re going to make them both catch a fish AND cook it, is it really so terrible to give them a full hour? On the other hand, Colorado is a TERRIFIC host state. Anyhow:
• Season 16 is up next for @mepkat and me, obviously, which should be fun, since it’s likely the last one with potential to make me re-think my tiers. Either way, our plan is to continue on to Season 17 after we’re done, and then *I’m* planning to re-watch Season 18. Stay tuned!

Season 16:

• Re-watch of TOP CHEF Season 16 = complete! My memory of the first ~1/3 of this one was weirdly fuzzy, considering how recent it was. As it happens there’s no question whatsoever which of my tiers this one belongs to: behold the birth of “Nice” TOP CHEF!
• Michelle describes what makes this season different in the “Hoop Dreams” episode while resolving an argument between Adrienne + Sara: “We don’t bully each other, we lift each other up,” she says. “We’re all extremely talented + we’re above all that.” And then they all hug it out!
• If I didn’t know what was coming, I’d probably call this Tier 3, but Season 18 suggests that it might actually represent the dawn of a golden age, so instead I’m going to make this Tier 1.
• Other notes: Eric’s fufu in “The Greatest” is definitely on my Top Ten TC Dishes I Wish I Could Try list, and IMHO he’s right up there with Gregory, Nina, Bryan Voltaggio, and Jen Carroll as one of the best chefs who didn’t win.
• I loved all the Macau episodes, although I really wish they would have let Eric cook his whole finale menu. But I’m clearly biased. The auction in “Kentucky Farewell” was one of the silliest things the show has ever done.
• Last but not least, I’m not the biggest fan of “veteran” seasons, but I won’t be mad if they bring Natalie back when they finally go to Philadelphia. And with that, @mepkat and I are on to Season 17!

Season 17:

• The penultimate stage of our TOP CHEF re-watch = in the bag! This is actually where @mepkat
  gets off, but being a completist I’m proceeding on to Season 18. Anyway: I don’t have much to say about this one! It clearly belongs in Tier 2 All-Stars, so nothing interesting there.
• I’m one of the people for whom the early stages of the pandemic was the BUSIEST I’ve ever been at work, so I will always remember Season 17 fondly as a weekly refuge from the storm. That said, it isn’t as good as Season 8! First, I don’t *love* any of the Los Angeles challenges.
• Second, this starts feeling like a 2-3 horse race SHOCKINGLY early. Gregory + Melissa are on fire all season + Bryan is obviously a legit contender, as is Kevin early + Stephanie late. As much as I love the rest of the chefs, it’s hard to argue that any of them are keeping up.
• Finally, I was taken aback by how little of the food I remember. The challenge that made the biggest impression on me was actually the “signature specialty product” one. The Restaurant Wars + finale MENUS stand out, but (aside from Melissa’s milk tea tiramasu) not the DISHES.
• All of that said, this is still one of my favorite seasons and I look forward to a third edition of All-Stars in a few years! So now it’s on to Season 18, and then we’re done. Stay tuned!

Season 18:

• My re-watch of TOP CHEF Season 18 = in the books! When @mepkat and I started this project more than a year ago, one of the things I was most interested in was seeing how the seasons stacked up against one another, aka ranking them.
• After finishing Season 13, I switched to grouping them together by type. Having now seen all of them at least twice, I find myself thinking about how the show has evolved much more than which seasons are best. And so, to conclude this exercise, here are the five eras of TOP CHEF:
• First era = Early TOP CHEF (seasons 1-3). The series has arguably already “grown up” by the start of S3, but at the end of it I said TC was “right on the CUSP of being great,” so it seems fair to include it here.
• Second era = Classic TOP CHEF (seasons 4-8). I suspect these are the seasons most fans of the show consider to be the best, but upon second viewing the top contenders benefit from less competition than the winners who will follow them. They’re still great, though, natch.
• Third era = Baroque TOP CHEF (seasons 9-10). It’s almost like the only way they could think of to top All-Stars was by going as big as they could with the challenges and setting, and then of course S10 features the biggest cast in series history. It’s all just too much.
• Fourth era = Neoclassical TOP CHEF (seasons 11-15). You could drop S11, S12, and S15 into the Classic era and they would fit right in. S13 very intentionally reflects on the show’s history, and S14 of course brings back eight former contestants.
• Fifth era = Modern (or “Nice”) TOP CHEF (seasons 16-present). As described by Michelle on S16, “We don’t bully each other, we lift each other up. We’re all extremely talented and we’re above all that.” Chefs are encouraged to cook “their” food. IMO the show has never been better.
• About S18 itself: Shota’s “The Cheesier the Better” episode winner is THE one dish I would choose to try if I could try any dish in TC history, and the elimination challenge in “Stumptown U.S.A” might be my favorite-ever challenge.
• Shota, Dawn, and Sara are my picks for the people from S18 to appear on the next All-Stars season. Gabe makes me sad, especially since his food (especially his plum dish in the “Thrown for a Loop” episode + his mole negro in the finale) looked REALLY good.
• Last but not least, I’ve already talked about this a lot, but bringing former contestants back as judges and “mentors” is a much better move than having them compete, unless it’s an all-stars season or a special circumstance (like including a fan favorite from the host city).
• Which, it sounds like this is what they’re going to do for Season 19, so: hurrah! https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/top-chef-bravo-houston-texas-season-19-1235069460/
• Anyway, this has been a fun journey and I’m emerging from it with a strong sense of what exactly I like about TOP CHEF. I don’t have any projects like this planned for the future, but look forward to tweeting about S19 as it unfolds. And with that I think we’re done here!

Links to previous posts about Top Chef can be found here.