Top Chef Season 20

Continuing my project to archive everything I’ve been tweeting about Top Chef the past few years, my thoughts on season 20 can be found after the jump!

Episode One:

• Counting down the hours to #TopChef S20E2! While we wait, here are my thoughts on episode one:
• Tom and the other judges were obviously very happy with the quality of the food! But will that translate into good TV? The answer, as always, will depend a lot both on the quality of the challenges + the makeup (not just the talent) of the cast. E1 was promising on both fronts!
• I love vegetable-based elimination challenges because they lead to “ingredient x every which way you can imagine” dishes like the carrot + onion ones that landed on top here. Requiring a protein was a smart twist:
• It rewarded chefs able to utilize familiar ingredients in unexpected ways, whereas a purely vegetarian challenge might just have revealed who is most comfortable with that style of cooking. Which: there’s a time + place for that, too! Namely, quickfire challenges.
• As far as the cast goes, judging by the Americans this seems like a competitive bunch even by TC standards. Then again, only 1/4 of those chefs won their season compared to 3/4 of the rest of the field, so maybe they all just have chips on their shoulders.
• Speaking of the internationals, I assume English fluency was a filter during casting. Per the LA Times article below, they also wanted diverse backgrounds + personalities. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2023-03-08/top-chef-world-all-stars-bravo
• Here in the States we’ve been documenting the rise of something we call “Nice” TOP CHEF the past ~5 years. The big question might be, do these folks have different ideas about what’s expected of them?
• I note w/ interest that E1 featured an old school approach to judges’ table: they just called the chefs on the top/bottom back, not the whole lot. Dawn didn’t throw Gabri under the bus last week, but it’s still early. What will happen when fatigue + stress levels start to rise?
• I am not going to post my rankings for this week from the TC Pick’Em game I run because at this point, I still don’t have any idea who the contenders are. So that’s all for now! Enjoy episode two, y’all!
• I meant to also add: this year’s TOP CHEF Kitchen is appropriately grand for Season 20 World All-Stars!

Episode Two:

• Counting down the minutes to #TopChef S20E3! While we wait, here are my thoughts on episode two:
• We got no clarity whatsoever about how competitive this cast is. Luciana flew into a rage when Amar and Dawn moved her pots of water but everyone laughed about it afterward + this is pretty tame compared to things that happened during the early days of TC. So why highlight it?
• Is it simply because this was the most dramatic thing that happened, to foreshadow greater conflict on the horizon, or because the “I’m not here to make friends” days are so distant that moments like this are humorous to editors/producers, chefs, and audience members alike?
• TBD I guess! In the meantime, I thought the quickfire was over-engineered but the chef’s did fine, so whatevs. On the other hand, I loved the simplicity of the elimination challenge. I’m sorry to see Dawn go but can’t argue w/ the decision based on the evidence of the episode.
• Excited for pub food this week! Here are my current Power Rankings: 1. Begoña, 2. Charbel, 3. Dale, 4. May, 5. Ali, 6. Buddha, 7. Sara, 8. Tom, 9. Sylwie, 10. Nicole, 11. Gabri, 12. Luciana, 13. Amar, 14. Victoire. Enjoy E3, y’all!

Episode Three:

• Counting down the hours to #TopChef S20E4! While we wait, here are my thoughts on episode three:
• I love English pub food, so I enjoyed this one, but my favorite part was actually the dishes served to the chefs during their pub crawl, not the ones they produced themselves during the elimination challenge. This perhaps shouldn’t be surprising:
• “Make these dishes your own” challenges have yielded memorable results in the past, but usually when the chefs connected strongly w/ the food in some way, which few did here. To be sure: the two dishes on top were very impressive, as was Sara + Tom’s play on shepherd’s pie!
• I’m still waiting for something I’m absolutely desperate to try, though. But this may just be because the general skill level is so high that it’s hard for individual dishes to stand out? I’m less certain about what I’m now pretty sure is a deliberately old-school vibe.
• I don’t think anyone has said “we don’t know anything!” yet, but the stew room scenes after chefs return from judges’ table are straight out of TC’s classic era. Which: THIS is fine. What I don’t like is how Dale’s + May’s attempts to explain where they went wrong were edited.
• Like last week’s “incident” w/ Luciana’s pots, the reaction shots felt like an unnecessary attempt to conjure drama out of nothing. On a happier note, Begoña’s + Gabri’s matching outfits during their interviews have already earned them a spot in the TOP CHEF BFFs Hall of Fame.
• My last set of Power Rankings were terrible, so there is of course movement this week. Here’s how I’ve got the order figured now: 1. Begoña, 2. Buddha, 3. Sara, 4. Charbel, 5. Tom, 6. Ali, 7. Sylwie, 8. Nicole, 9. Luciana, 10. Victoire, 11. Gabri, 12. Amar. Enjoy E4, y’all!

Episode Four:

• Counting down the hours to #TopChef S20E5! While we wait, here are my thoughts on episode four:
• The quickfire could have produced memorable biscuits but didn’t. A team elimination challenge w/ not a lot of cooking time like this one probably wasn’t ever going to. But English peas + Stilton are favorite ingredients of mine and I enjoyed seeing what the chefs did w/ them!
• Padma lauded Team Yellow for huddling up before they started cooking. A top takeaway from a Building Teams + Leading Change training I attended at work this week was that this is a good strategy no matter how little time you have to complete a task. So that was a fun coincidence!
• S20 Sara is way better than S16 Sara. She seems to have a knack for asserting herself when working with others without coming across as domineering. Unlike Nicole (or, to be fair, most other people who have ever been on TC).
• The shot administered to Victoire is the second-most uncomfortable looking jab in TC history: poor Angelo in the S7 finale remains the titleholder. Seriously, though–yikes!
• Finally, we are of course watching LAST CHANCE KITCHEN + it’s the same great digestif as always, just a bit more Dramatic in its presentation. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone look as bored on their stool as Samuel or as unhappy to be *anywhere* as Dawn looks on hers.
• Without further ado, here are my Power Rankings heading into episode five: 1. Buddha, 2. Sara, 3. Begoña, 4. Ali, 5. Charbel, 6. Sylwie, 7. Nicole, 8. Tom, 9. Victoire, 10. Gabri, 11. Amar. Enjoy, y’all!

Episode Five:

• Counting down the hours to #TopChef S20E6! While we wait, here are my thoughts on episode five:
• Another solid, if somewhat unremarkable, episode. Victoire especially has an incredible story. The elimination challenge was designed well–I like how everyone was given “until dinner” to cook and appreciate the fact that they actually had a decent kitchen to work in.
• Based on her pedigree + what she showed early, Begoña going home definitely qualifies as a shocker. I thought it would be Gabri, but I get it. Long story short, she was undone by her choice of dish. Finally, I’ve been spelling Sylwia’s name w/ an e instead of an a. Sorry, Sylwia!
• And that’s all I have to say about that! Looking forward to seeing who returns to the competition tonight. Power Rankings: 1. Sara, 2. Buddha, 3. Ali, 4. Charbel, 5. LCK Winner, 6. Sylwia, 7. Tom, 8. Victoire, 9. Amar, 10. Nicole, 11. Gabri. Enjoy this week’s episode, y’all!

Episode Six:

• Counting down the minutes to #TopChef S20E7! While we wait, here are my thoughts on episode six:
• I like when TC experiments w/ format, so plugging both ends of this episode into LAST CHANCE KITCHEN worked for me. I also loved that Dale earned immunity for winning the quickfire. It was super lame when Brother Luck won his way back onto S16 only to immediately get sent home.
• What I *didn’t* dig was Begoña + Dale only being given one hour to cook. They should have had 90 minutes minimum. But mad respect to Dale for putting up respectable food in maybe the most impressive feat of time management since Eric Adjepong shucked 100+ oysters in two hours!
• Which: I was surprised to discover that this happened in the same episode referenced above that Brother was eliminated from! Weird. Anyway, I know I liked the elimination challenge because keep thinking about what *I* would have cooked for it + the sandwich showdown afterward.
• It seems like Sylwia + Tom were a textbook case of bad concept/good execution vs sound concept/flawed execution, so it’s cool that they cooked again. Last, Dale handled immunity the way I like to think I would have, by investing it in building good relationships w/ his teammates.
• Power Rankings: 1. Sara, 2. Buddha, 3. Ali, 4. Dale, 5. Charbel, 6. Victoire, 7. Nicole, 8. Amar, 9. Gabri, 10. Tom. Enjoy episode seven, y’all!

Episode Seven:

• Counting down the minutes to #TopChef S20E8! While we wait, here are my thoughts on episode seven:
• I thought both the quickfire and elimination challenges could go either way, but the chefs responded well and created great-looking food that the judges seem to really like! I feel bad for Dale, but now he at least has a chance to make TC history by coming back a second time.
• This episode finally produced food I’m super sad I can’t try, namely Sara’s pecan pie pork rib and Charbel’s edible Lebanese flag. I’ve been waiting for S20 to turn a corner from good to great, and maybe this was the start? Tom certainly seems to think so, which is a good sign!
• I’m excited for street food tonight and eager for E8 (+ the NFL draft, which I’ll be flipping to during commercials) to get started, so without further ado: Power rankings! 1. Sara, 2. Buddha, 3. Ali, 4. Charbel, 5. Nicole, 6. Amar, 7. Victoire, 8. Gabri, 9. Tom. Have fun, y’all!

Episode Eight:

• Counting down the minutes to #TopChef S20E9! While we wait, here are my thoughts on episode eight:
• As much as I enjoyed the Most Epic Mise En Place Relay Race Ever (@mepkat + I reminisced much about cheftestants past like crazy-angry Dale from S4, crazy-fast Hung from S3, etc.), this week’s episode was overshadowed by a very good LAST CHANCE KITCHEN. Which is fine: LCK rules!
• But this felt like an interlude between S20’s breakthrough (I hope) E7 + restaurant wars. Cheers to Tom for winning: he may be the hardest chef to predict in TC history. I’m bummed to see Charbel leave, especially after he did so well last week, but it seems like a fair decision.
• I obviously have no idea what the pressures of being on TC do to you, but I’ll never understand why Gabri didn’t just say “I’m not comfortable Frenching racks of lamb.” Moments like this = why I’m skeptical about his chances of winning the whole thing despite his obvious talent.
• On the other hand, I continue to be impressed by (and jealous of!) Sara’s apparent ability to say absolutely anything she thinks is true in a team setting without offending anyone. We’ll see how much of a super power this really is this week, I guess!
• No one could possibly care about my Power Rankings at this point (I’m in 15th place out of 16 in the TC S20 Pick’Em game I run!), but here they are anyway: 1. Sara, 2. Buddha, 3. Ali, 4. Amar, 5. Victoire, 6. Nicole, 7. Tom, 8. Gabri. Enjoy episode nine, y’all!

Episode Nine:

• Counting down the hours to #TopChef S20E10! While we wait, here are my thoughts on episode nine:
• I have to admit that I was disappointed. E7 seemed to promise great things to come, but while E8 had awesome challenges + was a lot of fun, it didn’t pop. Which: no worries, I thought, restaurant wars is right around the corner!
• Eliminating front-of-house from the equation to shift attention to the food sounded wise. After all, this is the most talented cast in TC history, so let them shine! But about halfway through @mepkat
  commented that it felt like just another episode + she was right.
• I don’t necessarily miss the chaos of services gone awry, but it wasn’t replaced w/ anything equivalently interesting. I’d been assuming the reason there have been so few memorable S20 dishes is because the level of competition is so high that it’s hard for anything to stand out.
• But it’s actually the fault of how everything is being presented to us, yeah? Buddha’s deconstructed “full English” made an impression because it was WAY out of left field. But Sara’s reimagined cullen skink was pretty original, too! Why not more about her thought process?
• And even with Buddha’s dishes, the details were light. “Secret guest judge” Jimi Famurewa’s description of the tomato tea component having the complexity of wine was super intriguing, but was it possible for those of us watching from home to tell what the heck was in it?
• I don’t think it’s a coincidence that judges’ table saw the re-emergence of the “manufactured drama” I’ve mentioned a few times this season whereby the editing suggested that the chefs from Root were mad at each other, but little to no actual dialogue backed this up.
• I fear that maybe this whole season felt flat and they tried to “fix it in post,” as the fella says. But hope springs eternal! Thali +Wellington challenges sound great and E7 really *was* good–maybe it was just a few individual episodes that were thought to need sprucing up.
• My Power Rankings are unchanged (minus Nicole, natch) from last week: 1. Sara (it’s nuts that she was picked last for restaurant wars!), 2. Buddha, 3. Ali, 4. Amar, 5. Victoire, 6. Tom, 7. Gabri. Fingers crossed that *this* is the week S20 finally takes flight! Enjoy E10, y’all!

Episode 10:

• Counting down the hours to #TopChef S20E11! While we wait, here are my thoughts on episode ten:
• This was a fine bounce back from the disappointment of E9 in that I had more fun watching it, but I think this may have more to do with me resetting my expectations for S20 than anything different about the two episodes. E10 = an enjoyable chapter in a good, but not great season.
• Which, okay! “Good, but not great” is, you know, GOOD. So let’s roll with that. Both the quickfire + elimination challenges produced dishes I’d like to try, including: Buddha’s onion carbonara w/ smoked fish, Ali’s chutney, and Amar’s tandoori sweetbreads à la Floyd Cardoz (RIP).
• Sara did well again, but I’m beginning to think I’m overrating her as a FAVORITE based on her delightful screen presence. On the other hand, Gabri’s cascading disasters are *exactly* how I keep envisioning him going home. He dodged a bullet. I’m not worried about Buddha.
• Excited for Wellingtons, a double elimination, and one last chef rejoining the competition! Power Rankings: 1. Ali, 2. Buddha, 3. Sara, 4. Amar, 5. Tom, 6. Gabri. Enjoy E11, y’all!

Episode 11:

• Counting down the hours to #TopChef S20E12! While we wait, here are my thoughts on episode eleven:
• This was another solid episode. I have tried my hand at a Wellington before and enjoyed seeing how the pros do it! Everything that Buddha + Gabri made looked and sounded delicious.
• I’ve been a big Sara booster all season and thus was obviously sorry to see her and Amar go, but the verdict seems just. I can easily see everyone left *making* the final, but Gabri + Tom would need to find another gear to win it.
• Last but not least, the two-part LAST CHANCE KITCHEN finale was epic! The returning chef should be considered a legit contender. Power Rankings: 1. Buddha, 2. Ali, 3. LCK Winner, 4. Tom, 5. Gabri. Enjoy the farewell to London, y’all!

Episode 12:

• I will actually *not* be counting down the hours to #TopChef S20E13 today because I’m heading to Rochester, NY in a few hours for this year’s @nitrateshow (my first, btw!) and therefore won’t be watching live tonight. Before I go, though, here are thoughts on episode 12:
• I’ve complained all season about not enough memorable dishes. Buddha took it upon himself to correct that! His quickfire “orange blossom” is as intriguing as any dessert I’ve ever seen on TC + his beef & onion “red wine” got more the level of attention his E9 tomato tea deserved.
• Sara scared me, but I’m glad she pulled through. Tom, like Gabri, had a high ceiling and low floor, but the latter’s upside is even higher, I think, so this result may be the best-case scenario for us fans.
• In 2021 I declared that there are five eras of TOP CHEF: Early (S1-3), Classic (4-8), Baroque (9-10), Neoclassical (11-15), and Modern (16-19). I now think the All-Stars editions exist outside this paradigm because they have more in common w/ each other than any other seasons.
• Hopefully that extends to the Paris portion of S20 being way more intense than the London episodes! Which: credit where credit is due, IMHO this *was* the best integration of challenges + setting since . . . New Orleans? Or ever, even?
• But I want to see some freakin’ EPIC dishes leading up to + in the finale! My Power Rankings are unchanged since last week: 1. Buddha, 2. Ali, 3. Sara, 4. Gabri. Enjoy E13, y’all! I will be back again next week w/ thoughts on it after I catch up via On Demand.

Episode 13:

• Counting down the minutes to the #TopChef S20 finale! While we wait, here are my thoughts on E13. But first to address the elephant in the room: this is Padma’s last episode as host! It’s hard to imagine TC w/out her, but that’s exactly why this may be a blessing in disguise.
• I wondered aloud here at the end of S19 how long it would take before modern/”nice” TOP CHEF got boring. Now we’ll never know because it’s hard to imagine that S21 won’t mark the beginning of a new era. Maybe it will suck! But finding out will at least be interesting.
• So: E13! If there was any doubt that this was a season of *American* TC with international guests, it should have been dispelled by the Quickfire–I’m sure they could have lined up athletes from Jordan and Mexico otherwise.
• I was hoping for something like S17’s Parmigiano-Reggiano/Prosciutto di Parma challenge, but instead we got a close analog to the episode which preceded it when the chefs paired aperitivos w/ Peroni, then cooked with white truffles. Which is fine!
• Whatever doubts I may have about whether this was the best way to utilize Paris are counter-balanced by the joy of watching everyone nerd out over meeting Alain Ducasse. Soup isn’t always telegenic, but they did a good job making Sara’s look + sound delicious. Buddha’s dish, too.
• I believe we’re supposed to infer that Gabri might have even won had he gotten his mushroom cookie on the plate, so it seems just that Ali was eliminated. I’m sorry we won’t see his finale meal, though! I think Buddha has to be the favorite, but all three chefs have a legit shot.
• All that said, Sara is who I’m ROOTING for. Enjoy the finale, y’all! I’ll be back next week with closing thoughts.

Episode 14:

• #TopChef S20E14 has been in the books for a week, so I assume anyone reading this has either already seen it or doesn’t care about spoilers. It took this season a minute to find its footing, but I think the saga of Sara + her liver is the food-centric drama I’ve been waiting for.
• All three chefs couldn’t find a centerpiece ingredient. Two kept looking; one made a substitution. Per @tomcolicchio, the improper cooking of that protein was all that kept that chef from winning. This is WAY better than stolen pea purees, under-the-bus-throwing, or hazing!
• Great-looking meals all around! If I could order up any dish I wanted right now, I’d go with Sara’s burgoo, Buddha’s trout, Sara’s pea cake, Gabri’s “chiles en nogada,” and Buddha’s lobster curry in that order.
• Like it or not (@mepkat, for one, doesn’t), Buddha’s back-to-back wins are now incontrovertibly the greatest achievement in TC history. Meanwhile, S20 seems equally clearly the *second* best “All-Stars” season behind S17, but ahead of S8.
• As previously discussed, S21 is suddenly the dawn of a new era. There’s a definite risk that it will be the last season I watch religiously, but I’m more excited about it than I would be if I thought it would likely just be a S16-19 clone. And that’s a wrap till next year!

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