Category: Top Chef

Last month I exported all of my tweets from my rewatch of seasons 1-18 of Top Chef between 2020-21 and the ones I posted following each episode of seasons 19 and 20. To complete this project here are my tweets from season 21, which just ended last Wednesday. Because this installment is more or less current, I’m not going to bury it after a jump. Without further ado:

Episode One:

• I’m counting down the hours to @BravoTopChef S211E2, which means it’s time for impressions of E1! This season is all about Kristen, obvs, and the initial returns = positive! We’ll see how much we miss Padma’s puckishness, but experience as a competitor is an interesting tradeoff.
• I’m down with the new rules. No feel for this year’s TC kitchen yet because they didn’t spend any time in it. I love Milwaukee + it looked good here! Great transition from a bridge at night to the same one in the morning. Thumbs up to the JUDICIOUS use of split screens.
• The Tom’s “hat game” montage could have been twice as long IMO! I think soup is the task you wanted for the elimination challenge, followed by filled pasta–if you didn’t bring a surefire dough recipe, what are you doing here? Roast chicken = last because there’s nowhere to hide.
• I watched E1 twice, once live w/ @mepkat, then again w/ our girls. My youngest was super bummed out that David went home, but my oldest shouted out “stop saying ‘sexy,’ it’s annoying!” Watching him pour salt into his poaching liquid during the climactic cook made me wince.
• Speaking of which: it was basically a bonus episode of LAST CHANCE KITCHEN, yeah? Hopefully these three chefs now know exactly what to expect if they end up competing in it. It’s too early to actually know anything, but FWIW here’s how I have the chefs ranked as we head into E2:
• 1) Manny (natch), 2) Danny, 3) Michelle, 4) Dan, 5) Rasika, 6) Kévin, 7) Alisha, 8) Charly, 9) Savannah, 10), Laura, 11) Amanda, 12) Valentine, 13) Kaleena, 14) Kenny. If you read this far, you’re clearly also a TC fan. Here’s to a second episode even better than the first!

Episode Two:

• I’m counting down the hours to #TopChef S211E3, which means it’s time for tweets about E2! Good challenges this week! I like that the Quickfire, Elimination Challenge, and LCK had a through-line, but didn’t beat you over the head with it. To start at the very beginning:
• Hops are an ingredient I’d expect anyone cast in TC: WISCONSIN to have practiced w/. Laura learned exactly the right lesson from Manny’s E1 win. That said, Michelle’s flank steak is the dish I’d most want to try. Elevated beer snacks progressive menu = great team elim challenge!
• 10 minutes didn’t seem like nearly enough time for menu planning, but the chefs coped just fine. Whenever the judges describe a dish as “too salty,” I think “I’d probably like that!” Kévin’s trio of olive canapés = no exception.
• The exchange w/ Joe Flamm about “traps” vs. “opportunities” + @tomcolicchio‘s enthusiasm for Rasika’s dessert tells you everything you need to know about why he’s still doing this after 21 seasons: he clearly believes the format yields dishes which might never otherwise exist!
• Danny didn’t shine this week, but he thinks about food the way the judges want him to, which makes him a contender. Manny’s mixed nut mole = dish I’d most like to try. Kenny’s pave looked good, too, but how much credit goes to his teammates? Unclear, so his stock holds steady.
• Dan was brave to disclose his Kennedy’s disease diagnosis so early, and probably strategically wise. His is one of the most compelling story lines of the past few seasons. But my favorite thing about E2 was the sequence at ~25:00 where Kenny + Rasika narrate Team Yellow’s menu:
• Go back + rewatch! I maybe only noticed because I recently saw DAYBREAK EXPRESS, but it’s color-coordinated: they found the yellowest part of everyone’s dish! Finally, not addressing David’s absence from LCK = an unforced error. Tom’s contradictory explanations here don’t count.
• Anyway, two good dishes there, too! I’d have gone PA Dutch: pot pie w/ the saffron + one of the proteins, probably lobster. Rankings: 1) Rasika, 2) Manny, 3) Michelle, 4) Danny, 5) Dan, 6) Kévin, 7) Laura, 8) Amanda, 9) Savannah, 10) Alisha, 11) Charly, 12) Kaleena, 13) Kenny.

Episode Three:

• I’m counting down the hours to #TopChef S21E4, which means it’s time for thoughts on E3! Nothing much to say about the Quickfire–cherries + a “mystery door” ingredient is a solid idea for a challenge and all the food looked good, even if nothing stood out.
• A cheese-based Elimination challenge was inevitable + I wonder if that’s the reason for the impromptu fritter fest? Everyone came prepared w/ the dish they would make + didn’t want to deviate too far from it even when they realized eight other people were doing something similar.
• I see why the judges would be annoyed by this, but as a guest I think I would have enjoyed comparing all of them! This is a perilously easy challenge to “Monday morning QB” since what exactly you make depends on WHICH cheese you get, hence fritters: they work w/ nearly anything!
• But I felt validated by LCK since the first places my mind went were buldak + eggplant parm. Also blue cheese and watermelon. Anyway: Michelle’s dish was far + away the best sounding/looking one! Danny’s also struck me as a smart use of aged cheddar in a (croquette) vacuum.
• I wasn’t surprised that Kenny went home because it sounds like the judges tasted a flawed (not enough relish) version of an unsuccessful (bottom three for the guests) dish vs. two variations on boring (use of cheese curds and bland).
• As my favorite (for Vulture) recapper @roxana_hadadi observed last week, S21 has hit its stride + is very much what we’ve come to expect from TC. Kristen isn’t just an ersatz Padma (yay!), but nor has she significantly altered the dynamic of the Quickfire or Judges’ Table.
• The rule changes haven’t upended things either. In fact, to bring back my “eras of TC” from 2021, I see very little which distinguishes S21 from S16-19 Modern/”Nice” TC. Exempting S20 (all-stars), this makes the era five seasons old, which is as long as any other one lasted.
• This is both good + bad: on the one hand, I’m definitely down for 11 more episodes of the same! On the other, as I said after S19, this will *eventually* start to get boring, right? But maybe a double elimination is just what the doctor ordered!
• Here are my “power rankings” as we head into E4: 1) Michelle, 2) Rasika, 3) Danny, 4) Manny, 5) Dan, 6) Savannah, 7) Laura, 8) Amanda, 9) Kévin, 10) Alisha, 11) Charly, 12) Kaleena. Have fun watching it, y’all!

Episode Four:

• I’m counting down the hours to #TopChef S21E5, which means it’s time for thoughts on E4! Awarding immunity to people who Elimination challenges instead of Quickfires makes sense to me, but the latter remain important + I’m disappointed there wasn’t one again this week.
• They provide insight into how the chefs think about food + more than double the number of dishes we get to see most weeks, which is why many of us watch! Oh well. No issues here w/ extending Michelle’s immunity to Charly–volunteering to be her teammate was risky, after all.
• But @roxana_hadadi is right that it = a missed opportunity to reward someone. Partnering the winner of the absent Quickfire w/ Michelle = one way to do it. Immunity for Dan/Kaleena as last week’s runner-up = another. There’s also precedent for giving Michelle the challenge off.
• Otherwise, good challenge! I was surprised there wasn’t more talk about local/”site-specific” ingredients. Cutting room floor, maybe? Rasika + Danny’s dish looked great and sounded delicious–I’m intrigued by the use of green Chartreuse! Alisha + Kaleena had a very bad day.
• I liked shortening Judges’ Table better than manufactured drama: I suspect there was no way to tell this story honestly where it wasn’t obvious who was going to win/who was going home. But they also could have called EVERYONE back, which I’d have preferred to Kristen’s pep talk.
• My “power rankings” have been spot on so far this year–I’m winning the TC Pick’Em game I run! Of course I just jinxed myself, so handle w/ care! Here they are for E5: 1) Rasika, 2) Michelle, 3) Danny, 4) Dan, 5) Manny, 6) Laura, 7) Savannah, 8) Amanda, 9) Kévin, 10) Charly

Episode Five:

• I’m counting down the hours to #TopChef S21E6, which means it’s time for thoughts on episode five! Both challenges had everything I’m looking for: strong connections to the host city, hard but not impossible, conducive to food being created that looks + sounds delicious.
• I liked the “shop before you know what you’re cooking” Quickfire twist because it seems like it would be fun to get $100 to spend strategically at a great farmer’s market. Providing all the ingredients for a Carson Gulley sauce to go w/ what the chefs bought = eminently fair.
• W. Kamau Bell + Tory Miller were excellent guest judges–fun + fair–and the Harvey House was a beautiful venue for the Elimination Challenge. I like it when the chefs are served a meal to draw inspiration from because it’s a whole set of bonus dishes to ogle. In this case . . .
• The prime rib that Joe + Shaina Papach = what I’d eat if I could have *anything* from this episode. If restricted to just competition dishes, I’d probably go w/ Savannah’s chicken because even though it didn’t win, the judges did like it, and I love the idea of tonkatsu + caviar.
• Both relish trays looked terrific, too! I love chicken liver mousse + well-executed crudités, so cheers to Dan! I coincidentally made black garlic tahini last weekend + it was delicious, so Danny’s intrigued me, too. As previously noted this season, “too salty” ≠ a problem here.
• I really have just one complaint: the chefs should have had more than $1000 to shop w/ considering that they each had to feed almost 50 people w/ their share–$1500 would have been better. But looking at how much more successful Team Purple was than Green, I concede the point.
• It will be fun to see how everyone reacts when Soo joins the competition this week. W/out further ado, here are my power rankings: 1) Michelle, 2) Rasika, 3) Danny, 4) Dan, 5) Manny, 6) Savannah, 7) Soo, 8) Laura, 9) Amanda, 10) Kaleena, 11) Kévin. Enjoy tonight’s episode, y’all!

Episode Six:

• I’m counting down the hours to #TopChef S21E7, so it’s time for thoughts on episode six! This one was a shocker. I had Michelle + Rasika pegged as top contenders, so it was jarring to see them stare down a double elimination together. Michelle was clearly stumped by the brief.
• This isn’t a *great* sign for her, but it wasn’t clear to me what the judges were looking for either, so it may not be predictive of future struggles. Meanwhile, Rasika will be a tough out in LCK, so I absolutely wouldn’t assume that this is the last we’ve heard from her.
• ating okonomiyaki in Kyoto was one of the great culinary experiences of my life and funnel cake was my go-to fair food in my youth, so Dan’s elimination challenge dish is the one I’d most like to try. Danny’s = more evidence that he’s on the same wavelength as the judges.
• I worried that Soo’s LCK success wouldn’t translate, but the initial returns couldn’t be much more positive! I thought last week’s preview tipped Savannah’s success + this week’s editing foreshadowed Danny’s win, but these things can go either way, so it’s probably nothing.
• Despite having Rasika at number two last week, I’m still winning my TCS21 Pick’Em game! Without further ado, here are my new power rankings: 1) Danny, 2) Michelle, 3) Dan, 4) Soo, 5) Manny, 6) Amanda, 7) Laura, 8) Savannah, 9) Kaleena, 10) Kévin. Enjoy tonight’s episode, y’all!

Episode Seven:

• I’m counting down the hours to #TopChef S21E8, so it’s time for thoughts on episode seven! The flambé Quickfire was fine + it’s always nice to see Bryan Voltaggio! The team Elimination challenge was a solid rendition of the standard tie-in to the local sports franchise.
• None of the food really stood out: if I could pick one dish to try, I’d be tempted by Soo’s corn dog, but would probably go w/ Michelle’s winning étouffée + creamy grits on the recommendation of the judges. Where things really got interesting this week was in LAST CHANCE KITCHEN!
• I love “cook as many dishes as you want” formats + this one reminded me of an evolved version TCS2 winner Ilan Hall’s old Esquire Network cooking show KNIFE FIGHT, which I liked more than any of the *actual* TOP CHEF spinoffs. The outcome was a surprise, but seemed fair.
• Next up = Restaurant Wars! Springing this on everyone when there are an odd number of chefs left was a nice touch. Hopefully it will otherwise be as old school as the preview suggests, though–if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! Speaking of the preview, I don’t usually watch them…
• But I do before RW because that one contains valuable clues for the TC Pick’Em game I run. My strategy assumes that this will be a double elimination + that Channel will win because losing Danny (exec chef) + Michelle (front of house) now would be the biggest shock in TC history.
• Without further ado, here are my power rankings as we head into this pivotal episode: 1) Danny, 2) Michelle, 3) Dan, 4) Amanda, 5) Savannah, 6) Soo, 7) Manny, 8) Laura, 9) Kaleena. Enjoy Restaurant Wars, y’all!

Episode Eight:

• I’m counting down the hours to #TopChef S21E9, so it’s time for thoughts on episode eight! Another Restaurant Wars is in the books! True to their word, the judges + producers refrained from additional twists after they let Michelle pick her own team. Speaking of which:
• This was an extra set of hands for Channel, but also meant each chef got $2k less for winning, so you can literally put a dollar figure on how valuable it was. I say Dos by Deul came out ahead! Anyway, if the episode lacked drama, that’s a testament to how well both teams did:
• Either could have won many previous editions of RW, although I think some past winners also would have beat Channel. The pivotal moments seemed to be: 1) Dan redesigning his dish to better fit his team’s theme, and 2) too many crispy components that sat too long for Dos by Deul.
• Both teams’ service issues canceled each other out, and Michelle was hardly a front-of-house disaster, plus she seemed to adjust her approach between the first + judges seatings. I always want to try the winning dish, but I’m even more intrigued by Danny’s carrot-clam chowder:
• Dishes that feature carrots are some of my favorites to order out because you can do so much with them, but many techniques represent a time/equipment stretch for home cooks, especially those of us who have to feed children! I’m bummed that both teams’ cocktails got short shrift.
• Tonight’s episode has enormous potential + many previous seasons of TC only really took off after RW: here’s hoping that’s the case here! “Power rankings”: 1) Danny, 2) Michelle, 3) Dan, 4) Soo, 5) Laura, 6) Manny, 7) Savannah, 8) Amanda. Have fun, y’all!

Episode Nine:

• I’m counting down the hours to #TopChef S21E10, so it’s time for thoughts on episode nine! Best one of the season so far. @roxana_hadadi points out in her Vulture recap that it repeats both the Quickfire *and* Elimination from S12E6, but I find this interesting, not problematic:
• Those challenges were kinda gimmicky: the latter not only limited the chefs’ pantry, but also restricted them to just cookware available during the Plymouth Colony’s “First Thanksgiving.” Here the point seems to be more purely honoring indigenous foodways, not tripping people up.
• So you could say, look how far we’ve come in ten years! Anyway, if I could conjure up a Michelin-starred restaurant in Ithaca, it would serve food like what we saw on this episode. I do agree with Hadadi that S21 is having an identity crisis. We’re clearly in a new “era” . . .
• But at this point I doubt we’ll know what to call it even after the finale. Which: I think I dig it? Uncertainty > stagnation! Most intriguing food = Savannah’s squash + maple jelly, natch, but also Dan’s sunflower chokes. I want to see those in the freezer aisle at Wegman’s!
• Speaking of Savannah: I’m kicking myself for ranking her as low as seventh, my first big misstep of the season. Lesson = learned! I’m also still in first place in my TC Pick’Em game. We are now officially in “anyone can win it territory,” which is always an exciting moment.
• Here are my new “power rankings”: 1) Danny, 2) Michelle, 3) Dan, 4) Savannah, 5) Soo, 6) Manny. I would consider most of these folks to be either the favorite to win LAST CHANCE KITCHEN or second to Laura, although that too is anybody’s game really. Enjoy episode 10, y’all!

Episode 10:

• I’m counting down the hours to #TopChef S21E11, so it’s time for thoughts on E10! I don’t have a ton to say about this one, but not because there was anything wrong w/ it: challenges w/ strong ties to the host city/state have always been my favorite + the chefs did well overall!
• That said, none of the food jumped off the screen. Danny made another great carrot (side) dish, and that’s what I would try if I was watching via Wonka Vision. My favorite moment was the close-up of a lonely ear of corn lying in the sand at around the 30 minute mark.
• The Elimination Challenge verdicts seemed just, and for the first time in awhile there was some genuine suspense: it seemed like the win might have almost gone to Michelle, and that either Manny or Savannah could legitimately have been told to pack their knives and go to LCK.
• Speaking of which: this wasn’t my favorite season! Too wonky, what with the mystery surrounding David’s non-participation + the weirdly unscripted pivot after Kaleena declined to try her luck a second time. Aside from some cool techniques by Soo, the food wasn’t memorable either.
• But it’s over now + S21 is entering the home stretch. Laura is a true contender, so it remains anyone’s game, but Danny has clearly established himself as the favorite. Don’t sleep on Dan, though! “Power rankings”: 1) Danny, 2) Dan, 3) Michelle, 4) Savannah, 5) Laura, 6) Manny.

Episode 11:

• I’m counting down the hours to #TopChef S21E12, so it’s time for thoughts on E11! Just as not all movies need to be thrillers, it’s 100% fine if there’s very little suspense heading into Judges’ Table. The most important question is always: was the story of the episode told well?
• I loved how this one cut back + forth between Laura serenely listening to her muse + Savannah desperately trying to get food on the plate (er, table) before time expired. I also thought the complicated Quickfire came across crystal clear, which couldn’t have been easy to achieve!
• I was impressed by how well *all* the chefs did in the latter, which proves my point that we have truly entered the point of the season where anyone can win. @mepkat
  and I both wanted more details about how Laura made her baklava rings + hers is the dish we would try if we could.
• I don’t have much else to say about E11 except: poor Michelle! This = a classic “bad day in the kitchen” elimination. Looking forward to saying “Goodbye Wisconsin”–it was a better host than I expected! Power rankings: 1) Danny, 2) Dan, 3) Savannah, 4) Laura, 5) Manny. Enjoy E12!

Episode 12:

• I’m counting down the hours to #TopChef S21E13, so it’s time for thoughts on E12! This week featured two great achievements in TC history: first, Manny getting 23/26 in the blind taste test is right up there w/ Hung’s prep relay exploits. It’s too bad he couldn’t capitalize!
• Second, I was blown away by Savannah’s storytelling in the Elimination Challenge. Ask @mepkat: every rave comment by the judges was something I had just said while Savannah presented her dish! Then ask her how she feels about me always talking while she’s trying to watch. Anyway:
• Savannah’s pave looked delicious, but if I had Wonkavision I’d use it for the Quickfire: I love a good Caesar, so I’m very intrigued by version w/ cheddar, and I also wish I could experience Dan’s “train wreck” steak + eggs for myself, because how could anything be THAT bad?
• As we head into the final two episodes, let’s take a look at the stats! Danny has three Elimination Challenge + two Quickfire wins, Savannah has two of the former + three of the latter, Laura has one of each, and Dan has won two Elimination Challenges but no Quickfires.
• Meanwhile, Danny was on top in six Elimination Challenges total but only on the bottom once, for Savannah it was five and two, for Laura it was two and two, and for Dan it was seven and two. Add it all up and I think I’m ranking everyone in the same order I had them last week:
• 1. Danny, 2. Dan, 3. Savannah, 4. Laura. But as I’ve been saying every since Laura returned to the competition from LCK, this anybody’s game and there’s no outcome that would surprise or disappoint me! Enjoy E13, y’all, and see you next week w/ my penultimate set of tweets!

Episode 13:

• Happy Juneteenth! No work today, so here are early thoughts on #TopChef S21E13 as we count down the hours to the finale. That was disappointing, huh? It wasn’t the fault of the challenges: kissing up to sponsors (a TC tradition) aside, I loved the fish-centric Elimination.
• The Quickfire was good, too: the idea surely was that everyone would come ready to put their own spin on keshi yena since it’s only, you know, the national dish of Curaçao. Only Savannah really did this but she still lost, proving that better food > nailing the brief every time.
• Anyway, none of the chefs’ food jumped off the screen, which is too bad. If I had Wonkavision I would have used it on Masaharu Morimoto’s dinner for them: I’ve had the pleasure of ordering omakase @ his Philly restaurant twice, but wasn’t served his famous tuna pizza either time!
• The judges blamed stress, but @mepkat
  + I couldn’t help but wonder if swimming with stingrays maybe wasn’t the best way to get yourself ready to cook, but hopefully everyone just needed to shake off some rust after six weeks off and is now ready to cook some killer finale food!
• I’m in first place in my TC Pick’Em game by 46 points, which means I’ve already won since the finale is only worth 20. I could therefore indulge myself by ranking the chefs according to my rooting interests, but I’ve had them in the same order all season so why mix things up now?
• 1. Danny, 2. Dan, 3. Savannah. But it really is anyone’s game! I’ll be back next week w/ a final set of tweets + I do mean ever: now that I’ve migrated all of my thoughts on previous seasons of TC over to ye olde blog, that’s where I’ll post anything I write about S22. Till then!

Episode 14:

• #TopChef S21 is in the books, so it’s time for one last set of tweets about the finale! I was absolutely convinced that Dan was the winner after Judges’ Table, so @tomcolicchio‘s pique that the edit doesn’t support the outcome is very much justified–I’d be miffed, too!
• That said, @mepkat *wasn’t* surprised, so I was eager to watch it again. IMO they definitely do make it seem like Dan has it, but on closer inspection it at least has the looks of a razor-thin margin that could go either way. Per Tom on X, Dan’s first dish was a bit of a clunker.
• The evidence is kinda there, but it’s implied that Danny under seasoning his scallops is nearly as bad as the weird texture of Dan’s tuna. Still: Danny’s dish *looked* stunning. So whether by a wide margin or not, he clearly took that course. Nos. 2 + 3 on the other hand . . .
• Both appear to go to Dan, correctly or not. There’s no criticism of his snapper at all, so case closed there. Meanwhile the raw pumpkin + cook of the lobster in Danny’s third course get a *lot* more attention than Dan’s oxtail being maybe too sweet + rustic. On to dessert:
• Danny clearly is the winner, but the comments selected for the episode suggest that it was very close. So it’s 2-2 with Dan appearing to win on goal differential. This is what I think must have been inaccurate–if it’s clear Danny dominated courses one + four we feel differently!
• Ditto if Danny’s sauce work in course three was enough to make up for its flaws + the judges were in agreement that his degree of difficulty was higher. Oh well! I actually thought Savannah’s menu *sounded* the best, but she was out after less than flawless pasta + “mofong-no!”
• Back to the edit: I think there are just a few key shots missing, so it’s not a disaster. I also liked the cut from Danny troubleshooting running out of melon to Dan saying “we have a fire on deck four!” Other nice moments = chefs losing their partners in the grocery store . . .
• And Tom razzing Savannah about Duke/UNC (@mepkat
  is a Dukie). I was impressed w/ how Danny conducted himself in the kitchen: he PUSHES Manny w/out seeming PUSHY. The dishes I most want to try are, in order: 1) Danny’s dessert, 2) Danny’s scallops, 3) Savannah’s saltfish fritters.
• Finally, the fact that I’m talking about the edit + not Kristen is a huge compliment to her! She had big shoes to fill but made the host role her own. While that handoff was impressively smooth, this was still a transition year + I hope S22 has a better sense what it wants to be.
• I’ll definitely be watching + will no doubt have thoughts! But I’m planning to share them on ye olde blog, not here–maybe a post at the start of the season, another around Restaurant Wars, and a third after the finale? And perhaps one more just before it? We’ll see. Till then!

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

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!

Continue reading “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 19 can be found after the jump!

Continue reading “Top Chef Season 19” →

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!

Continue reading “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 7-12 can be found after the jump!

Continue reading “Top Chef Rewatch: Seasons 7-12” →

Starting during the pandemic summer of 2020, I rewatched seasons one through seventeen of Top Chef and tweeted reactions to all of them. I had so much fun that I’ve tweeted responses to each individual episode of the series which has aired since then. This is actually pretty much the only thing I use X for any more, and as such I can’t see myself paying for an account should they ever stop offering free ones, which seems likely. I therefore thought it might be prudent to migrate all of this content to ye olde blog while I still can, since I spent quite a few hours of my life creating this content and wouldn’t want to lose access to it. There’s quite a lot, so I’m going to break this up into three posts and put everything after a jump. I’ll also create one post each for season 18-21, and may or may not archive a few other things as well. But without further ado, I give you my tweets about seasons 1-6!

Continue reading “Top Chef Rewatch: Seasons 1-6” →

As anyone who follows me on Twitter knows, I’m pretty into Top Chef. A few years ago I created a game for my family and friends to play modeled on the “pick’em” contests that ESPN and other websites roll out each year for football and other sports. With the premier of Top Chef Season 18 just around the corner this Thursday at 8pm Eastern, I thought it might be nice to share the rules here in case anyone else wants to do something similar. It took us a couple of tries to get this right, and we’re still making tweaks here and there (we’re increasing the number of points you get for correctly predicting the winner of the finale from 10 to 25 this year, for instance, to keep a few more people in the running right up until the end), but I think we’ve found a good balance between rewarding people who put in effort without punishing anyone who doesn’t have a lot of time. The following is adapted from an email I send out every year to remind everyone how the game works. Without further ado:

The rules for the game are simple: each week you compile a ranked list of all the chefs left in the competition. You receive positive points for chefs who win the Quickfire challenge and double positive points for chefs who win the elimination challenge; you will receive negative points for chefs who are eliminated. If you forget to submit a list for a given episode, your list for the previous episode will carry over. To illustrate how this works, here’s an example from episode one of Top Chef Season 15:

If you were a believer in the predictive value of alphabetical order, you might have submitted the following set of rankings for this episode:

1. Adrienne
2. Brother
3. Bruce
4. Carrie
5. Christopher
6. Claudette
7. Fatima
8. (Mustache) Joe
9. (No-Mustache) Joe
10. Laura
11. Melissa
12. Rogelio
13. Tanya
14. Tu
15. Tyler

I would have interpreted this to mean that you thought Adrienne was the best chef and Tyler the worst. In episode one, Tyler was named the winner, Tu won the Quickfire, and Melissa was eliminated. You therefore would have received two points for Tu’s Quickfire win, since you had him ranked second-from-last; two points for Tyler winning the episode, since you had him ranked last, and since elimination challenge wins are worth double points; and negative eight points for Melissa’s elimination, since you had her ranked eighth. Your score for this episode would have thus been negative four points, so: not a good round for you! If you were a big believer in the predictive value of reverse alphabetical order, on the other hand, you would have received 14 points for Tu’s Quickfire win, since you would have had him ranked second-from-the-top; 30 points for Tyler winning the episode, since you would have had him ranked #1, and since elimination challenge wins are worth double points; and negative eight points for Melissa’s elimination. In this scenario, your score for the episode would have been 36 points.

Hopefully this all makes sense! Even if it doesn’t, as long as you understand that you should rank all of the chefs left in the competition each week, you’re probably good to go. Additional notes:

• Picking the winner of the finale will be worth 25 points.
• No negative points will be awarded after Padma stops telling people to “pack their knives and go home.
• You may include “LCK Winner” in your ranks for any episode which is expected to feature a Last Chance Kitchen winner returning to the competition. If you don’t, “LCK Winner” will be automatically inserted at the bottom of your ranks. There is no bonus or penalty for identifying the chef returning to the competition by name.

And that’s pretty much it! Again, the beauty of this format is that you can rank all of the chefs in a minute or two if you’re in a hurry, or you can spend the entire week pondering the fact that Restaurant Wars is coming up, and the preview seemed to indicate that Chef A is going to be front of house, which is a kiss of death, but on the other hand they’re good at desserts, and Chef B shouldn’t still be left in the competition, etc. I also generally try to send out an email containing everyone’s picks as soon after the start of the initial broadcast as I can, but wait until the following Monday to send out updated standings to give people who aren’t watching live a chance to catch up. Last but not least, in non-all stars seasons, we typically begin the competition with episode two, not one, to give everyone a chance to get to know the new cast. Enjoy Season 18, Top Chef fans!

3/15/24 Update: In Season 21 we experimented with weighing later episodes more heavily than earlier ones via the following formula: the first four episodes in the competition (2-5) were be scored exactly as described above, but each week’s point total was doubled in the four episodes after that (6-9) and tripled in the final four (10-13). This seemed to work out well, so as of Season 22 it is now a permanent feature of the game!