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In some seasons, chefs usually openly talk about whether they are cooking for the judges or for the regular people that they had to serve for that challenge. And many of them very honest about they are trying to please the judge more. I would think good food is good food, and the opinions would be relatively consistent. But lol, no. Not the case at all. Which is why I am very glad that this season including a panel of very different chefs. In season 14 Charleston, in which i am rewatching. There is an episode where the superfans were able to give a score. Of 7 matches, he disagree with the superfans 4 times. 2 of those 4, the fans were overwhemingly favored on candidate. In this episode, all 14 chefs cook extremely well. There were no bad dishes. And even when all 4 judges had to share their opinion to break the tie due to the superfans score first. The judges were dead even. 4 of the 7 matches, the judges break 2 to 2. 5 matches Padma was able to judge, of which 4 times she agree with Tom. Richard Blais also in this episode. 6 matches he was able to judge, and he agree with Tom 1 TIME OUT OF 5. That is ridiculous. Of those 6 matches, he agree with the superfans 50% of the time. On one match, the fans prefer one contestant. But that contestant lost all 4 judge votes.

I am trying to do a demographic breakdown because despite a lot of criticism. I feel like Top Chef casting is extremely diverse and should be given way more credit than people give the show for. Even with early seasons. However, I ran into a problem with people like Gabe Erales. I can't tell if a person is a white Hispanics. If anyone is rewatching old seasons and stumble upon a person that is racially ambivalent by look, let me know because I can't watch all 17 seasons just for this project. I just want definite proof to defend this show integrity.

https://www.mashed.com/365480/the-best-dish-tom-colicchio-ever-ate-on-top-chef-exclusive/#:~:text=The dish Colicchio is referring,Top Chef in season 9 ( https://www.bravotv.com/blogs/best-thing-gail-simmons-ate-on-top-chef Gail in 2017 and Tom in 2021, after all these seasons of Top Chef still said Paul Qui's dishes are the best they ever had. If they had an all winner season, Paul inclusion is a must. I hope by then, he was able to genuinely and properly redeeming himself to his victims (if that what they want and to be honest, they matter the most and really can be argue the only people that matter). And then somehow genuinely portray to the people that need to see it that he is a changed person and working on improve himself and the society that he is in. I, personally, think Paul can and does have the heart to do it. Despite some of his comments didn't sit well with people. Growing up in a very abusive family (assault included), I don't know why a person like me believe in second chance and reformative justice more than others. But I do, I don't follow Paul's life so I don't know what he had done positively in his private life. Because people don't air everything they do. I hope his victims found peace, found strength through this rather be haunted by it. I hope his fans and former fans can believe in the guy again. And I hope that he do the right things. It sounds easy. But there is no manual to this. Sometimes, you don't want to push a person into a corner with no way out. A cousin of mine couldn't dig himself out of that hole, and now he is a vegetable.. A celebrity is still a human, much less Top Chef celebrity is probably on the lowest tier of celebrity anyway. Despite the charges are drop, he know he done it. But regardless, even the criminals need redemption.

Uproxxx pointed out Chris's dessert must be crazy good for Dale to want second even though it was the 14th dish he ate that night and must have been full. Hunger of course to me is one of the greatest ingredient out there for a good meal. Which is a factor on why going first tend to be better. I will give another example, on Top Chef duel, Marcel and Richard went head to head on making a dessert with a hot and a cold component. Richard serve second. And in that 3 to 4 minutes between the judges eating/criticizing Marcel dish to eating Richard's dish, the heat transfer between the two temperature making his component not very hot and not very cold to the point of not much of a temperature gradient. But despite this, he won that challenge due to Marcel messing up. It was Maria. Nice observation there. And I agree on that principle because I am part of the clean plate club. Even when I am on a diet, I just throw thing in the refrigerator and finish it later. The thing to point out is that why Gabriel/Nelson went home. They had the crispy skins in the menu. And by getting that part of the dish, Nelson over cook their fish. Gabriel redid it and cook the fish well but the skins ain't crispy. So they decided to use Nelson's fish because it fit the menu. And Gabriel thought about cutting the fish off and leave only the skins but he didn't want to waste food. Which ended up being the reason they went home. In the exit interview (upthread somewhere), Sara did say that she switch the protein during the process and ended up not having enough fish.

Read my reply to catrice, I do attribute this to Gabe that design the team to be almost independent of each others outside of plating really. He tried to make the team element of it into non existence. For what it worth Sara is the the most team player of the group. She, even with her insecurity of the front of the house, trying to push to got some of that stuffs (drink and what not) done 1 hour before service. Since everyone making 2 dishes independent of each others. Anyone taking their time decorating etc is wasting their own cooking time. Unlike the other team, the Penny team do their decoration first. And in that time, I see mostly Sara and Dawn were doing it. Which IS TERRIBLE. Since Dawn served first (and Gabe didn't really need to his extra dish, probably would have been better if he didn't) and Dawn didn't finished conceptualizing her dish. She should spent more time cooking. But being a TEAM PLAYER, she and Sara were putting up the decoration until the other two guys come and help. On the other side, Maria was doing it by herself for a bit. But since everyone has a hand in each other dish, they are really more responsible for each others. Let me said this, EVEN IF Dawn told them exactly what she gonna make. They will still lose. The way they set up their team and the loosely connected theme. At their best performance they cannot beat such a flawless performance from the other side. THEY WILL STILL LOSE ANYWAY. So the whole Dawn thing is a red herring. So then, the question is how much is she responsible for Sara going home. Is Dawn's decision either taking time out of Sara's cooking time or make Sara's dish taste worst. I said no. If anything, Gabe and Chris not helping with the decoration earlier would impact Sara more. AS for being a team player, after Dawn put out her first and third dish, she is done for the day. All the stuffs that she did after that, was for the TEAM.

Kokoson team, 5 of dishes are collaborated works. I think there is a reason why Gabe's team is the way it is. They stray awayed from collaborating. They strayed away from having a front of a house/executive chef. Just so that no one supposed to fall on someone else's sword. And that everyone supposed to own their own dishes whether it is success or failure. 7 dishes aren't divided by 4, hence Gabe had to do an extra dish to make the work load even and everyone is separate from each other in term of their food. I think they trying to beat the meta game, and all a while digging their own hole.

I hope my post merge and not double post :/ put can't seem to put quote into an already existing post. Anyway, past contestants did mention that for restaurant war challenge, going first is a big advantage. The Judges are probably hungry, whereas when they going to the second service they already more than half full. Especially in regular season with a larger amount of service. Where they could just focus on the judges then play catch up. Rather than fell so far behind due to services when the judges come. People serve second usually would have a line that very backed up by the time the judges come. *Mod if I broke the rule can you merge and or delete my post. Sorry.

I am thinking while watching the episode is that he (Brian Malarkey) pick Dawn to go base on the ranking on the episode avishar going home (right after Nelson/Gabriel) and that Sara is the winner of the competition based on wide range of cooking (not really, her range is about as wide/limited as all the top players of this season). So for Dawn to have that edit, and for Sara was the one that went home. Man, Malarkey got one two, two punches right there. Anyway, I do think Sara can cook back in. As for the discussion on Dawn, regardless of her, HER TEAM CANNOT WIN. The other team was flawless. So unless they could put up a more than flawless meal, they would lose, especially they got couple of dishes that were below average. And so if losing is inevitable then it only come down to who go home. We focus on Dawn a lot. But her course is 1st and 3rd. Meaning she is the first to serve, and her other dish isn't all that far behind. She had way less time than other in this format. So I don't ding her as much. Even if the food that come after her fell out of sequence. But if the dish was so so so so so perfectly executed and can stand on their own, then whoever that chef is. They wouldn't go home.

okay, shot fire. You should not apply to be a showrunner. What you advocating for is a gigantic budget for renting, shooting, manpower, food, scheduling for a one hour episode. May as well just toss the whole Restaurant War episode in the trash. I think you are looking for like Kitchen's Nightmare or something. Or a documentary of some kind. The reason why Restaurant War is absurd, it is because tv is absurd on its face. Look at other competitions. People hanging out on an Island and do weird stuffs and call it Survivor. It made for tv. The stresses bring out drama, which some folks like it (I am indifference). I kinda agree. But the whole team set it up to fail. They decided as a team to just do their own things. Didn't have a cohesive plan. And to be fair, by that rule, then whether they fall or not should squarely land on the individual. Because if they ignore the teammate and just dish out the best dish that they could make. Then they wouldn't be going home. I like Sarah. But had she just chunk out two strong dishes irregardless then she wouldn't going home. In fact Dawn's two dishes were the only thing that put the entire team on the map of even able to compete with the other team. The only comforting thing about Sara going home is that Brian Marlakey was so wrong, wrong, wrong about his smug prediction. I gonna miss her and Shota interaction with each others. Shota just lost his best bud Avishar and now his best girl, Sara. As for Chris vs Sara, I think he making the best dish on that team save him. He got a bad dish, and a really good dish. Sara got an okay dish, and a bad dish. So that is why she went home. Gabe had a bad dish that isn't part of the 7 courses (that save him a bit), and his other dish was okay. So many introverts on that team, I think Gabe was probably the only person who possibly could interact well with the guests. @biakbiak- I like that restaurant war episode for the team selection process between Dale vs Marcel. But to be honest s18 probably had my favorite restaurant war concept. My gosh, every single dishes on the winning team looks like art. Outside of Maria's dish, probably because of the bread that she used, but I am sure it taste great. I grow up on Banh Mi, but boy I love Mexican Tortas. Cabeza Tortas is my favorite, but Lengua Tortas ain't half bad.

Dale was arguably one of the forefront runners of both very competitive seasons that he was on. He was definitely top 3 in season 4 with Antonia Lofaso (love her) behind him, Richard, and Stephanie. Would you be happier if Lisa F (or Mike I) from that season be on there since she is runner up and even beat Richard Blais in the finale? In season 8, he kinda pretty dominating. Had probably the most wins of everyone before he got eliminated 6 solo wins and 1 team win. Not sure if he would be the strongest 3 in that competition. I would argue that he is, but there can be a good counter argument against that. I think despite his own inconsistency in that season which landed him on the bottom, of the final 6. I would say he is stronger than Carla (love her), Tiffany, and Mike I (who was pretty average until after Dale I got eliminated). He also had more wins than I would say all of them except to maybe Richard that season. So that is a very weird criticism that you have. Especially with this episode where people are highlighting about placement and cumulative performance.

I really really want to try more French food but unlike other cuisine. French is on the more expensive end, it is hard to able to try too many dishes. I had 4 dishes so far. Even escargot, I like the Asian preparation more. I hope I am able to try a lot more French food. As for Italian, I had try what claimed to be the best Italian restaurant in Charleston with people speaking Italian, the food taste like cafeteria food even worst than Olive Garden. But I used to live in Little Italy in Chicago and had try the food there. Their pizza is well interesting but probably not for everyone especially people who prefer the more Americanized higher calories food. The food in Little Italy was way better than what I had down South. But that Polenta dish I had was delicious. And coming from an Asian background, it reminded me of congee. Which I could totally see how Melissa was able to combine Italian and Chinese into her food in the last few episodes in Italy. As for the French food (only in one restaurant so it is more reflective of that restaurant than the French cuisine), all the cookery was perfect. All the texture was correct and desirable. But the butter that they use that they had to import. Had this weird weird weird either sour or bitter taste (don't remember for sure and I know those two are on the opposite end of each other). So all of the food had this weird sour/bitter butter aftertaste (all the while lacking salt). I had tried other cuisines (Lebanese, Irish, Italian, Turkish, Mexican, Peruvian, Indian, Bengalese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai, Filipino, Ethiopian, Southern Soul Food). Of all the restaurants, that only one French one was lacking on salt. But like I said their dessert was so memorable even years and years later. I remember every texture, every temperature, and different level of sweetness. It was one of the more complex and probably the most delicious dessert I ever have. As for savory, I could have order the wrong dish, the dish could have not prepare correctly, and or the restaurant was the wrong choice.

Hmm, this is a crackpot theory because I haven't go over the data and especially we have a few contestant that trained in classical French and do pretty well (and win). But Chris, like Nicholas Elmi had always been criticized for under salt. Likewise, Hung, back in the day, had food that was (at time unfairly) consider as soulless. And in either this or the last episode, it seemed like they meant salt when they say soul XD. But yah, Chris is a very technically sound chef. His protein was cook masterfully while completely bland. As far as my very limited exp with French cuisine (and by that I meant I only eat at a famous French restaurant once), the food is severely lacking seasoning (outside of their probably the best dessert I ever had in my life). Also, some of these chefs seemed to mess up their homey background food. A running theme of Avishar and South Asian cuisine. Of course we have Kiki. And then there is Chris when he tried to cook Haitian food from time to time. Avishar tends to do well every time he breaks out that molecular gastronomy. I feel for Shota this episode in regard to want to but fail at cooking good food for the front line workers. However, reading between the lines (and I hope I am wrong), he said the ingredients are lacking for his 6 to 8 dishes that he want to cook this episode. I wonder if this is the range problem that Brian Malarkey was talking about. But then again, Shota was pretty adaptive in episodes prior.

I saw some weird reddit post accusing Tom of favoritism and gave Gabriel an immediate chance to come back to the competition. And then another LCK chance after he lost the first one. Here is my response. . When Last Chance Kitchen first came to be, there are some obvious flaws. 1) Early eliminate chefs had no way in hell to actually come back to the competition. 2) And in the event that they did, they could literally miss 90% of the seasons and win it all. Which would make the fans outraged. LCK came to be in the first place to the fandom always had chefs that they think unfairly eliminated and or eliminated too early. Later on, there are couple of adjustment. One of which was that you actually have two chances of coming back to the competition. The first is earlier in the race, and the second is toward the finale. Though, I think later implementations are good. Since there is always that one or two chefs who never really had a "second chance." So take season 17, when Kevin G actually had to competes against contestants that still in. Meaning all of the contestants had a second chance and or able to deny someone a second chance. I think this is rather fair. Brian Malarkey for example wasn't able to have his second chance in Season 17. However, he was able to cook against Kevin G during Keven G's last chance kitchen in order to put in effort to deny Kevin G to re-enter the competition. So, was it a coincident that Gabriel's elimination coincide with a contestant re-enter the competition. NO, this is perfectly correspond with the first re-entry. . You notice, that there are challenges that require divisible by 2 or by 3 or whatever (sometimes the team are uneven). The structure of the season already been layout. Although this week episode don't really have a team challenge, so an odd number due to someone coming back is fine. The year prior, the LCK contestant was able to comeback following a double elimination (in this case Karen was part of double eliminated and basically back the following episode). Nini who lost to Karen in LCK, was able to have another go at LCK against who ever eliminated next which was (Eric). If following this logic, Gabriel should have an automatic shot to fight against who ever got eliminated at the cooking for frontline worker challenge. But that didn't happen, if Tom was pro Gabriel, he would just follow this format. Instead, he use the excuse that Nelson was medically separate and allow all of the remaining to have another shot. I think the original plan was to only eliminate Nelson and or Gabriel, and or just let those cook against each other for the next spot. But since Nelson is out, Tom allow Roscoe, Kiki, Sasha, and Brittany another shot. If anything, then it feel like Tom is pro Roscoe, Kiki, Sasha, Brittany than he is pro Gabriel who by the way did well for his part of the elimination challenge. And They could have very well keep the immunity in which would save Gabriel and this happen before when only one teammate go home due to the other have immunity. And beside, it isn't like that isn't fair especially because Gabriel did cook his portion of the dish very well. However, it seemed like they want 2 people to go, and another 1 to comeback to have 9 contestants. Because the next episode is restaurant war where they do need an even number. Mindblow isn't it. Either way, it seemed like they planned out that the eliminate chef is to return an episode prior to and or on the episode of Restaurant war to make sure there are 8 contestants.

Allow me to grate your nerve some more. If you rewatch the series, Maria happened to bump into Gabriel quite often. Team up with him in the very first challenge and had cook directly against him couple of times. Gabriel grates on her nerve just as much as she grates on your nerve. And I like Gabriel, I do buy that his asshole-ness is just him being assertive after years of not feeling self confident due to being overweight (at least that is the explanation that he gave). That also explain the many many non meat dishes that he cook too (also his salad in last chance kitchen). Many chefs did show one way or another, verbally and physically, over the many episodes that they are hesitated to work with Gabriel. Last episode, Gabriel tried to pair up with Shota, and Shota rejected him to go for Sara. Either way, Maria's problem is that she is too honest, just like Gabriel. That is why some don't like Gabriel, and other don't like Maria. Thinking of someone of an asshole, doesn't meant she hate them. At least no where NEAR the level that you hate her. Also don't know what television you are watching, what is this new conservative identity politics I am seeing here. BECAUSE plenty of guys call women bitch and asshole. COME ON, especially this show. Are you calling yourself a fan? When the famous quote, "I am not your bitch, bitch." Where do you think that from? And who saying to who. Tiffani Faison was called a bitch by all the fans, and people only change their opinion of her after her second appearance. I also like Tiffani Faison the first time around and I also can explain her behaviors in that season away too. If you look up at the comments from the recent Tournament of Champion,, many Top Chef season 1 watchers still dislike Tiffani Faison and routinely brought that up in their heavy dislike of her. I think Tiffani Faison's assholeness is also her being assertiveness in a man dominated profession, pre me too movement that taking down many chefs including many Top Chef associates. She was okay as a team player. People openly called her an asshole. None ALSO WANT TO WORK with her. To the point, people thought that her partners may have sabotage her in the final. She reaps what she sows. But but but like Maria, Gabriel, I also think Tiffani Faison is a complex person. They all has things I like. They owned themselves (Maria didn't make an excuse for her failure this episode, she didn't mentioned the lack of equipment or spaces to the judges. She was just completely down for what she thought failing the people she feeding). . I guess I am more tolerate of people in general. I tolerate Jamie's quirk. I don't think Sara as being fake like Uproxxx. So on and so forth. The only thing this tell me is nothing about Maria to Gabriel. Beside whatever feelings Maria has to Gabriel, it should be more valid than whatever you have since they at least interact multiple times in real life. All this tell me is your bias against Maria, because from that same episode. The people who already bias against Gabriel (the podcast people) didn't really like the fact that Gabriel throw his food into Sara's fryers after she refused him the first time (and that they think it could contaminating Sara's food). That is more noticeable to them because they dislike Gabriel just like Maria's comment is noticeable to you because you dislike her, hence Gabriel's action completely flew under your radar. While for me, who is okay with him can be totally charitable to Gabriel. Because he said he just want to share the fryer and it may have seem Sara is okay with it. . Secondly, Why would she wants Gabriel back as opposed to Nelson who she like (and Gabriel called him the perfect gentleman). Or Jamie, who is universally like by the cast (not on here). Gabriel in specific is quite a threat. His cooking of the tatertot was probably one of his rare downfall. Gabriel consistently do very very well, even when he eliminated, he cooked his part of the dish extremely well. That meant anyone but Gabriel would give Maria and everyone else left on the show a better chance of winning (Hence none of the 3 talking head said they want Gabriel to come back in one way or another). . Man, love this cast. I was somewhat ding Dawn on her reaction to Jamie on the first episode (even if it was Jamie's fault). But every single episode including the first one, there is something about her to love. And I think she maybe my favorite contestant this season by this episode. There are plenty more entertaining and stronger personalities. But Dawn gave me plenty to root for.

Like usual, a lot of self projection of the posters on the people on screen. But then again, even the most lovable people like Shirley Chung had her own haters (for the weirdest of reasons) so of course that magnify 20x for someone like Gabriel. One thing is for sure, without him, there would be way less tension in the first few episodes. In season past, there are seasons where everyone are lovely (probably molded by the backlashes of other contestants in season past), and some viewers had complained how boring those seasons were. We are in the 18th seasons. Gone are the contestants that said "I am not here to make friends." People, by now, know winning isn't everything. Asked Hosea, Nicholas Elmi and the likes. And losing isn't all that bad. Ask Carla, Fabio, and the likes. But the image on screen is everything. Tiffani Faison and Dale Talde learned it the hard way. The things you see on screen is but a fraction of the overall time a contestant spent on this competition. And the competition is but a very tiny fraction of their overall resume and personal stories. The only thing that is constant is that we are always prejudices as h***. But now, there is even a new breed who rambling about it all about personality now and not the cooking (see a post above). The same sort of folks who think Dawn shouldn't have won in the pan African challenge and Brittanny shouldn't have gone home for the same challenge. These same critics are so blinded by their own identity politics to the point not knowing their very own personal opinion is colored by their own bias. Maybe, just maybe, Dawn did make the best dish of the night. And why should there be any doubt of that when she is consistently making wonderful food even when the challenges aren't even in her wheel house? REALLY REALLY loving this season so far. There is a moment in this episode where I got nervous. In which someone ask the host about how they would prefer a dish layout would be. But the host correctly pointing out that the contestants are chefs and they should do whatever they need to do to honor the food. And I am glad for that. Or else, many of the dishes tonight would not have worked out well. The best thing about this season is that there isn’t one or a few dominant. Almost everyone shine at one point or another. Feeling like Avishar maybe the best performed contestant that worked with Wylie Dufresne. Even Wylie, himself, didn’t do all that hot on Top Chef Master.

hmm being an Asian American and being an Asian (and that term is a rather broad) are two different experiences (and since I went through both experiences). Especially someone who is older like Shirley Chung. Even I am who isn't as old as her, who didn't stay in my country (which belong in the sinosphere culture) as long as she did (but a good 12 years of my life). Such thing as filial piety. Such thing as ancestor worshiping. You comparing your own chinese-ness with her chinese-ness. Totally two separate experiences. That goes with Melisa King. She can go ahead and try to be a lesbian in Asia, and that would be a different experiences. My former country is more liberal than most Asian countries, and I am a gay person myself. But being a gay Asian growing up in Asia in the 90s. Is a different experience than that of Melissa King or say Kristen Kish. I ask. So you said you are chinese, do you every year, light up incenses for your deceased elders? Like I do, like my mom do, like my grandma do? Do you know what it like to know all of your neighbors like the way the villages set up back in the Asia of old?? (Something even the young chineses in China may not experience themselves consider the 1 child policy really destroy the large family structure). Even my elderly grandma, who seemed to not cope with the time and feel like she limited her own self worth, by thinking the only thing she can shower people with affection is through her own cooking. She too is a flaw person, both selflessly cooking for others, and yet selfishly when non grandkids eating them. She is too affected by her own time, living on this earth since prior to WW2. So why do you pretend to be superior to Shirley Chung. Each people experience life differently. Your is authentic just as her, but just as different. Like mine is. So good for you, when your family was never weighed into your decision. But mine was, when I pursuit and get into pharmacy school, just as well as the weight of it all, when I drop all of that to join the military. Good for you, to never have that disappointment weighted so heavily on your own shoulders. When Sylva talks about his dad, I understood. My mom and I escaped poverty, violence, and some of the most degrading things that she had to endure. How proud she was when I get into a doctorate program, and how much time she had to come to term with when I dropped all of that to join the military due to my own life struggle, or the guilt that I had for that decision. Good for you, I supposed, but don't pretend like your own experience, and more importantly your standard and taste is what everyone else should thrive for. Having been watching top chef since season 3, and since then watching every season except the latter half of season 13, I feel like some comments on some contestants are just really weird. Like the huge controversy when Travis Masar get eliminate when he had a tomato based sauce in a vietnamese dish. Guess what, I had ate a Vietnamese tomato based sauce dish, multiple of time. 2nd generation Asian Americans or Eurasians are sometimes strange with their identity. I have encountered some who would totally offended at being called Asians. And that being Asian Americans is their own unique identity. So in this case, we got Eddie Huang, a Taiwanese, born in the USA, claiming expertise in Vietnamese cuisine (this was said of the guy, "the reviewer for the New York Times awarded the restaurant zero (out of four) stars, and wrote that "if Mr. Huang spent even a third of the time cooking that he does writing funny blog posts and wry Twitter updates, posting hip-hop videos and responding to Internet friends, rivals, critics and customers, Xiao Ye might be one of the more interesting restaurants to open in New York City in the last few months"). If Travis Masar made a bad dish, so be it. But blatantly dismiss a guy who had healthy or unhealthy interest in certain regions of the world and had been there probably multiple times (and not in touristy areas either), as pretentious because he is white. Then I guess I am too but a Viet pretender in this American culture. But I would trust Hung Huynh's opinion on French cuisine since he trained in it over some American who is quarter French and has no background in such food. Just as I trust an American manga enthusiast on their opinion about Japanese manga, over a native born japanese who don't have those interest and or a Thai American who think because that she is an Asian therefore is an expert on everything ranging from yoga, to Fillipinos cuisine, to what is sensitive or not cultural sensitive toward Mongolians, to Japanese art of origami. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I returned to Top Chef, since I am currently stationed in Charleston. This season cast has been good, out side of Emily. Even Katsuji has been an entertaining villain. Brooke and Shirley by far are among some of the best female contestants (based on their records of both seasons that they are on) on top chef among the likes of Stephanie Izard, Mei Lin, Kristen Kish, and Nina Compton (all of whom I would love to see competing on a true all stars season of top tier top chef contestant males or females). I guess a notch below are Carla Hall, Antonia Lofaso, Tiffani Faison, Jennifer Carrol, and (as much as I don't care for her) Sarah Grueneberg.

O__________________O "Normally, the entirety of the judges table is TWO TO THREE HOURS of standing there. They go through everybody's dish. They'll punch a hole in some of the best dishes and they'll praise some of the worst. What you do learn is what the judges like in particular and how they're judging the competition." http://www.nola.com/dining/index.ssf/2016/01/top_chef_competitor_isaac_toup_1.html

This was an old post of mine (2 years old) so opinions may change. For season 12, only the final 3 of Mei, Greg, and Doug are considered. I posted this on the av club, and I remember getting into a debate with people who dismiss my champion season with a simple statement of "Nyesha or gtfo." EDIT:just realize I made the post prior to Nick win season 12. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fantasy CHAMPION season (not all star), the number doesn't reflect on the favorite or strength of the chefs. 19 is the number of contestant in season 11. 1-2-3) Paul Qui, Michael Voltaggio, and Richard Blais. These 3 are usually debated among the Top Chef fans as the best of all time. People dislike Blais for keep saying he choke, Michael V. because he an asshole, and Paul Qui because some felt he is too boring. But I love all three of them. Of the three, Paul Qui has a James Beard. Richard Blais is the best molecular gastronomist on top chef and is a competitor at heart. While Michael Voltaggio is super artistic with his plating and Tom certainly dig his modernist palate. 4-5) Stephanie Izard and Kristen Kish- Well people don't usually mentioned female winners as the best of the best. Why is that? I don't know. Stephanie Izard is among the most successful chef post Top Chef. Like Paul Qui, she is one of the only 2 James Beard winners from the Top Chef regular season. I think she can best the like of Paul Qui, Michael V, and Blais on any of her good days. Kristen Kish is another accomplished chef. I am not sure how well she will fare against the Top Chef elites but she had more than proven herself in season 10. Though, it does seem she is really young in this crowd. 6-7) Bryan Voltaggio and Kevin Gillespie- Is season 6 really over represented here? But then again, how can you have a champion season without these 2. Bryan Voltaggio made the final twice and rank 2nd each time. If he can placed 2nd against the Top Chef Masters, then hell, he is more accomplished than half of the regular Top Chef winners. Then there is Kevin Gillespie. In term of top chef record, he is the most successful Top Chef contestant by winning the most challenges in a short amount of time. Though this record can only rival with another person (Shirley Chung). In a season with 2 Volt bros and Jennifer Carroll, Kevin G still dominated the competition. That spoke more volume than winning the title of Top Chef from some weaker seasons. 8-9-10) Brooke Williamson, Shirley Chung, and Nina Compton- Top Chef is very much a boy club until season 10 and 11. Even Stephanie Izard did not dominate her season. But the trend changed in season 10, as Kristen and Brooke destroyed their competitors. And in season 11, Nina and Shirley are so far ahead of their male counterparts. Brooke Williamson probably the only person that can boast she was never eliminated from season 10, something that even the winner Kristen cannot claim. Shirley, on the other hand, stay away from the bottom for the longest record time. Lastly, there is Nina who took season 11 with a whirlwind and dominated this season early on. Couple of time when things doesn't go her way, she transformed potential losing dishes into top performance dishes at the nick of time (I count at least 2 times). 11) Hung Huynh- He was the reason why I watched Top Chef in the first place and he is still among my favorite contestant. Season 3, however, is relatively weak season; CJ, Dale L, Casey, and Tre didn't do so well in their second go. Hence, I don't feel season 3 need two people in this champion round. Hung, himself, has a very mix record. He kinda slack off due to the lack of competition. But he is a competitive person, and with this crowd, it would ignite his fire. He is certainly not the favorite, because technique wise he will lose to some people on the list. Even for his forte of French cuisine, he got competition like Kristen and Shirley. On Asian cuisine, there are a lot of masters in this round too. Hung should really step up. But there is no doubt he is among the most talented competitors of all time. 12-13) Antonia Lofaso and Sarah Grueneberg- Antonia is awesome, not only she make the finale in two of the roughest season, she also did extremely well in both. She never was the favorite both times around because people felt that her dishes are kinda safe and not exciting. But her record is hard to dismiss. Then there is Sarah, who I don't really care for. But no one can deny her ability, and she had always been the second best chef in season 9. 14) Harold Dieterle- There is a case to be made that Harold doesn't deserve to be here. There are so many non winners that could easily win in season 1 (the weakest season of all time). Harold had been quiet and away from the spot light since his win. But it is nostalgic to see how well he will go up against his predecessors. In his season, he does seemed to be the third strongest chef after Tiffani Faison and Lee Anne Wong. The rest of the spots are hard to decide. Only one of the two should be chosen. 15) Mike Isabella OR Dale Talde- I can't decide who to leave out. Mike I had come really far in two extremely tough seasons. But for both times, he kinda skates by for the most part. Mike I 2.0 in the finale of season 8 however is quite something. Then there is Dale Talde who placed 6th both times on the show. When he came back for All Stars, people felt that he is not worthy because he wasn't a finalist. But both time in the show, Dale dominated early on more so than the like of Tre Wilcox, Kenny Gilbert, John Tesar, etc. The dude won so many challenges when there are many competitors around unlike Mike I who only thrive when the herd thin down. But when Dale made mistake, he fell right down to the bottom. 16) Ilan Hall or Sam Talbot- People felt that Sam should have won season 2. But throughout the season, Ilan had always about the same level at him. Ilan Hall probably is the most undeserving winner. Not only that he cooked one type of cuisine, he just executed recipes from the restaurant he worked for (or so Mario Batali said). So there wasn't much originality from him but hey he is Top Chef season 2. Though is it me or he had the worst resume coming to Top Chef of all the winners. The dude was a line cook. Then again, Marcel Vigneron is pretty impressive on Next Iron Chef. 17) Kevin Sbraga or Ed Cotton- Remember how no one wanted Ilan Hall as their sous chef in season 7. So here we are in season 7, Kevin Sbraga is the worst Top Chef winner in term of record. He was on the bottom as many times as he was on top. But Kevin Sbraga can be argued as a better chef than Ilan, plus his final meal on Top Chef was exceptionally good (how much of that is credit to Michael V, we will never know). While Ed Cotton had quite the resume before entering season 7 but it didn't translate to how well he did. In the beginning of season 7, the dude struggled so much until he became a force to reckon with later in the season. By all account, he could have been the winner of season 7. 18) Angelo Sosa or Sheldon Simeon or Eddward Lee- the last of the season 7 trio is Angelo Sosa, tremendously talented and also a weirdo/creep (depend who you ask). I like Angelo a lot so never mind. All 3 are both masters of Asian cuisine and had done extremely well in their Top Chef run. Eddward Lee is 3 times James Beard finalist for the South East, a resume that only Paul Qui and Stephanie Izard beats. 19) Hosea Rosenberg or Carla Hall- Then we came to the last of the Top Chef winner, Hosea. Tom said Hosea would have placed 5th in season 6 and Stefan his biggest competitor placed 6th in season 10. So I don't know how good Hosea is. Like Ilan, Hosea is one of the two most loathe Top Chef winners/contestants for his on television cheating. In term of cooking, he didn't really stand out all that much in a relatively weak season. Then there is Carla Hall, who is quite a dark horse. She made the finale 2 times. Although, she is inconsistent but she sure can give people a run for money when the challenges are in her wheel house. I eliminated Stefan altogether considering how poorly he did in season 10. I meant even Joshua the breakfast dude kick Stefan's ass in couple of episodes. (Edit: after finding out that Stefan had like 5 restaurants and is a millionaire. hmmm... Stefan ftw) Other contenders: Kelly Liken, Dale Levitski, Lee Anne Wong, John Tesar, Lindsay Autry, Jennifer Carroll, Marcel Vigneron, Stephanie Cmar, Carlos Gaytan, Tre Wilcox, Stefan Richter, and Nick Elmi.

Ranking based on wiki and or the format of the challenge is unfair. For example, as I pointed out one of Hosea so called win is when everyone was collectively did bad. His dish happed to be the best out of suckfest and wouldn't have win like say any of the episode in season 12 so far. Another win wasn't even important enough to announce in the episode (the thanksgiving episode). Micheal V for example wasn't on "high" in the first episode of season 6, while most of the judge praised his dish so much. If you didn't watch the episode, you would think he rank 5th in that episode. But that wasn't true. The reason is the format of the episode. People were divided into group and only the winner of that group can be listed as high. Kevin G was in the same group as Micheal V. and also had the winning dish of the evening. While other people was in much much weaker group. So Micheal V could have the 2nd best dish of the evening. Or the classic Nick, Stephanie, and Shirley episode where Stephanie was eliminated eventhough she cook a great dish and co-cook the best dish of the evening. If you don't have the back story, then those data is flawed. Also you have to consider, the lows as well as the highs. Just by number alone, Hung is not the bottom 2 of the winners. His stats are way better than Hosea.

Well to be fair, the tea challenge was fun. I have seen an Iron Chef episode focus on tea and I never thought tea has to do with cooking. They tried to tie it in to Boston. But even if they didn't mentioned the city, it is a fine challenge. Also with the foul mouths complain, I hearing this every season (for example Nina last season). Do people actually look at the audience warning and see that it is TV14 which is only second to TV MA (which is equipvalent to people running nude on the show without sensor). This show isn't scripted people. People are free to say what they want. And sure as heck, they will filmed when chefs argue with each others. I just don't get these complains at all. Top Chef was never advertise at young kids friendly since season 1. And it isn't like there is a lack of tv shows about food either on tv that is without parental guidance. I supposed, a fair criticism is whether the foul language actual impede one's enjoyment of the show. I don't think it got to that level yet, nor do I think this season is somehow exception compare to the past seasons in this regard. *kinda responding to very common criticisms of the show I saw on facebook page.

-----Katsuji actually trying to be nice when he blew up and started yelling?---- RealityGal beats me to it. But yeah, everything RealityGal saying is what I observed of the episode. Something about Katsuji is offputting to me since episode 1 and was pleasantly surprise that he portrayed himself decently in episode 2. I must said I like mostly all the contestants even Ron the one that just went home. As for those who are drama queen at the moments, I just hope it played up the tension for future sudden death challenges. Because they basically seemed to incorporate last chance kitchen to the main show (and eliminate last chance kitchen altogether). Even knowing the result, the sudden death quickfire this time around is quite intense since I know more about the chefs and actually has investment on whether they got kick out or not. This whole immediate feedback thing make it easy to know where everyone stand. The Great 1) Gregory Gourdet 2-3) Melissa King and Katie Weinner The Good 4) Doug Adams- probably had the 4th best dish, Hugh spoke quite fondly of his dish 5) Stacy Cogswell 6) Rebecca LaMalfa- Rebecca is flying really low under the radar. The compliment to her dish is rather mild as if there is no flaw to it but there aren't much standout either. Hugh doesn't even mentioned her in his blog. Even the dishes that screw up the protein had more praises on other components of the dish. Looking back, I don't think she did anything worthy. Her dish wasn't among the dishes that were compliment. Even last week when she was part of the winning team, nothing was said about the components she did. In comparision, Katie also did vegetable components and were praised for that while Rebecca get like zero feedback. The imperfect 7) Aaron Grissom- nice presentation and some flavor but has some texture issue 8 and 9) Mei Lin and Adam Harvey- the good components are good. The proteins are horrible. Adam Harvey's fish is hammered. And Tom did used the word "horrible to describe Mei Lin's protein. The bad 10) James Rigato- Dennis Eckersley did say he can't continue after a few bites 11) Katsuji Tanabe- Ron wasn't impressed with the dish when he interview by Blais, but the judge did say it was better than Keriann. So I guess her rib must be that tough. 12) Keriann Von Raesfeld 13) Ron Eyester As for the blogs, I wished Gail was in this episode because at least her blog post can fill me in some of the details on the dishes rather than the gameplay (Richard) and or just humors (Hugh). The four frontrunners at this point is Greg, and I gonna put Mellisa and Dougie before Mei Lin.

Top Chef is sexist??? part 2 (season 5 to 7) part 3- the rise of female chefs (season 8 to 9) part 4- when female demolish their Competitors (season 10 to 11) Season 5- this season did gave us a bunch of memorable female casts compare to past season. I supposed this is true at least for me. Ariane Duarte stumble early on and then prove herself for the next few episodes only to be eliminated by the team up of Hosea and Leah. But she really did screw up in that episode. I supposed I would like that she survive a few more episodes to see how the dynamic play out. She is by no meant a Robin Leventhal (season 6). But then again who know, season 6 is notorious tough while season 5 is one of the weaker season. Radhika Desai is an interesting chef. Her record is pretty worthy in that season. I supposed she was a finalist material until she is undone by restaurant wars. Which is no foul play really consider the number of great contenders that went home during restaurant wars. Then we got Jamie Lauren, who was a rather competent chef but not necessarily infallible. By the time she went home, she was technically the second best chef to Stefan only because Carla is just picking up steam. The last two had the opposite storyline, Leah Cohen who had a strong start then falling off the radar and start to appear on the bottom more often. Maybe Hosea knew exactly what he is doing by cheating with Leah. By the time she was eliminated, we were sort of done with her anyhow. In contrast, Carla Hall was sort of like season 6 Robin. She was pretty much bottom of pretty much every ranking. This is partly because she didn’t shine that much early on. But more so because of the weirdness side to her, the same sort of weirdness that she almost eliminated herself in season 8 by wasting way too much time decorating a table. But when Carla pick up steams, she picked up steams and impressed some very famous chefs with her refine French techniques (rather than her homey soulful food). This is kinda like Hung except Carla doesn’t do this on purpose. She doesn’t really play the game but rather try her best days in and days out. The finale of season 5 had 4 guys (Jeff, Fabio, Hosea, and Stefan) to one woman, so the odd of a guy win isn’t necessary out of the blue. We all knew Carla bombed the finale by listening to Casey. And the title was down to between Stefan and Hosea. In the end Hosea won it, and this I supposed really play into the credential of Top Chef. They really are non bias in their judging. Stefan dominated the whole season long. While Hosea just suck and suck and suck. One of the two elimination wins that Hosea had was when everybody was collectively bad. Even his winning dish was meh and not “winning material” except it happened to be better than everyone else. The other winning dish was in a team challenge, and they didn’t even aired that he win that challenge. It is just Thanksgiving food and not even notable enough for them to give the time to say he won. And his last win, a quickfire win was over a non cooking challenge (naming ingredients from sauces or something). If they had to pick a “white man” to win, it was so obvious that they could have pick Stefan and Stefan did cook the best dish of the night. But they didn’t. Tom was underwhelmed with season 5, and said the winner (Hosea) would place 5th in season 6 below even Jen Carrol. But really, what the hell did Hosea cook all season outside of the finale to rank even 5th in season 6? At best he is just about mid pack because season 6 had quite many chefs with great resume that were eliminated early on. Season 6- To say a female should have win season 6, meaning that there was a female contestant that can outshine the volt bros and Kevin G. If the question was phrase as such then we don’t have to discuss about other female contestants outside of Jen Carrol. And to her credit, Jen did lead the pack early on and is one of the toughest female contestants to date. But by midseason, she started to have confident issues and fell into the bottoms more often. We kinda have an idea of this when during her famous meltdown in season 8 episode 2. We sort of having an idea that this must have started in her home and something to do with her dad, I guess. At this time in season 6, it was clear that she was a distance 4th. And up course, she didn’t make it to the last challenge. Since there are only 3 men left standing, it was obvious the winner was going to be a man. A white man, I may added. So very sexist. Season 7- To be honest, I didn’t really watch season 7. It was clear that they want a black Top Chef winner so badly and included 5 out of the 17 contestants are blacks (7 minorities overall). I think this kind of debunk the whole racist myth because the season sucks due to this. The inclusion of the minorities for minorities sake because Obama was the president just doesn’t work out. Outside Tiffany (whose attitude was grating to me in season 8), who else is actually likeable among the other black contestants? Kenny Gilbert and his whole I am the biggest dog (or beast) in the kitchen is annoying as hell. If you want to include more minorities, then include a Carla Hall, or Tre Wilcox, or Nina Compton , or Gregory Gourdet (season 12). Even for other seasons, there are black contestants that eliminated early on are way more likeable than the cast of season 7 (Season 6 Ron Duprat was funny, Season 9 Nyesha Arrington and Keith Rhodes as examples). Even when Kevin Sbraga won, people was confused whether he is black or latino. Why?? Because race should not be matter in the kitchen, diversity should not be just for the sake of diversity. Diversity with a purpose maybe better. If there is a minority that is qualified or have an interesting point of view in food, then sure. But geez. So let talk about the 2 chefs that actually worth talking about. Tiffany Derry who was never on the bottom until they eliminated her. Tiffany Derry was a good cook. I have read some reviews on season 7, and even when she was at the top of the food chain, they don’t think she have much of a culinary voice. And what I saw in season 8 kinda confirmed that. If she had won season 7, I guess I don’t mind consider I don’t really care for season 7. And I supposed she can be comparable to the weaker Top Chef winners like Hosea or Ilan. This is what skillet doux had to say about the dish that eliminated her. “But looking at her elimination dish, it isn't hard to understand why. Seared halibut over rice, some sautéed vegetables and a canned Thai curry that's punched up with some fresh aromatics really shouldn't cut it at this stage. It's one of those dishes that looks sort of Thai without actually being Thai, which is a problem when the plain old actual Thai dish would have been better. It may still have been a perfectly tasty dish, but it's not hard to see how it came up short against this crowd.” So I could assume there is no foul play here since skillet doux knew more about food than I am. Compare to Tiffany Derry, Kelly Liken had a way better resume which include two time James Beard semifinalist. Of course, this is something that Richard Blais bragged about post Top Chef. But Kelly Liken is already an accomplish chef going into Top Chef season 7. Kelly Liken distinguished herself early on whereas Tiffany projected up to the apex around mid season. Kelly Liken didn’t make it to the last challenge. By all meant Angelo and Ed had dominated the first half and the latter half of season 7 (respectively) (while Tiffany Derry dominated the middle part), while Kevin S did spent the entire break honing his skill. So I am not surprise that Kelly Liken came up short (see Mike Isabella as an example). When it came down to the finale, it was between 3 men, so that is the story. But to be honest, do you really want Tiffany as a winner?? It is already bad that we have some really weak winners already, but I don’t want to add to that list really.

Top Chef is sexist??? Part 1 (season 1 to 4) I often hear that Top Chef is sexist and or racist. But let tackle one thing at a time, let see if the claim that Top Chef is sexist hold up. This arise mainly because of the stat that only 2 out of the last 11 winners are women (discounting other spin off or international editions). I usually wonder why don't people have that same view about Amazing race when it take 17 seasons for a female-female team to win. And even for the male-female teams, it seemed that the men usually carried most of the weight (especially in earlier seasons). The answer is rather obvious, Amazing Race is clear cut while Top Chef is depend on the judging. Usually the claim that Top Chef is sexist is rather boil down to Tom Colicchio is sexist. I will analyzed to see if it was coincident that the stat is this way, and that people won on talents (or the result of the final meal) vs Tom is consciously choose "white males" as winner (a totally untrue claim). In term of male to female ratio, we usually have about an even number of each and or one more man than woman per season. The exception being season 8 (10 men to 8 women) and season 11 (12 men to 7 women). Season 11, up course, was notorious example of this sentiment since Nick won over Nina or Shirley. Season 1- Of the 6 women, only Tiffani Faison and Lee Anne Wong really deserved the title. I am under the opinion that they are better than their male counterpart. However, they were not dominance over the men as seen in season 10 (Kristen and Brooke) or season 11 (Shirley and Nina). I don't recall any foul play when Lee Anne was eliminated. The show valued her enough to hire her as part of the Top Chef crew. Tiffani Faison was for the most part Tom's favorite. I do think he wants to give the title to her so badly, but up course she fell on her own sword for double up on everything. Her teammates ratting her out to the judge didn't help either (if I recall one of the dish the judges really really like belong to Dave). Tiffani up course came back couple time for special episodes and usually did extremely well. She helped her team won against season 2. And she won Top Chef Holiday Special. Then recently she barely lost out to CJ in Top Chef Duel. I wouldn't have mind if she had won but I don't see "sexism involved with the process." In term of Tiffani's perspective, I think she is now glad that she didn't win because of that her whole attitude change. Winning would vindicate her behaviors all along. In which I don't really mind, I like passionate people over mediocre people really. Season 2- I don't think there are any great female chefs from season 2. I don't really care for season 2 chefs overall anyhow. Betty won a few challenges, but she has just as many bad dishes as there are good dishes. All I remember is that she is really annoying even more so than Marcel and Ilan. And didn't she put extra sugar or calories for the kids at fat camp? Anyhow, even her winning dishes, lol, can they be compare to Lee Anne or Tiffani or more capable chefs in later season? We got Josie, who think she is better than what she really is. She came back and beat Jeff in season 5 for some sort of all-star episode. But we remember her as the one they had trouble getting rid of in season 10. Season 10 is all you need to know about her talent level. Then there is Mia who chose to quit on her own (but her record is pretty bad as well). Lastly is Elia, well in that season, Cliff, Sam, Ilan, and even Marcel seemed to be better chef than her. She won one challenge with some sort of a mushroom soup. Can that even compare to Dale Talde's grill cheese and tomato soup? People can't believe that Dale win with a tomato soup until they look at the recipe and they can't believe he made such complicated soup in Target. But yeah, actually if a woman win in this season, I would really need to examine Tom. Season 3- The two women that went the farthest is Sara Mair and Casey Thompson. Sara Mair is yeah kinda meh. She won one challenge during Restaurant War. Funny how people complained that Hung isn’t a team player, and yet every time, he was in a team. He was so supportive. Sara Mair made more bad dishes than there were good dishes. And I remember one of the guest judge called her an amateur. Unlike Sara, Casey actually was a rather strong contender. After Tre’s elimination, Casey was the only real opponent of Hung until Dale L 2.0. But in comparison to the best of the female chefs across all season. Casey is not comparable to say Jen Carrol, or Shirley Chung, or Nina Compton, or Antonio, etc. Her specialty seemed to be either Texan food or Asian food. Yes, she is specialize in Asian food. I wonder why Chef Tom don’t question on the soulfulness of her food. Up course, she was the one that gave up the legendary chicken legs that no one eat in season 8. It was clear in the finale that she is a distance 3rd. So I don’t think there is any sexism at play at all in season 3. Season 4- Umm, should I skipped this season? 3 of the 4 finalists are women (Antonio, Stephanie, and Lisa). And would people said it is sexist of Tom to kept Lisa or Josie (season 10) around when better chefs went home? And yet they said that about Nick. Certainly Dale Talde or Andrew D'Ambrosi are more deserving of that spot than Lisa. Anyhow, we got our first female winner here. And Stephanie rightly deserve it. She has more claimed than Casey or Sara Mair or Betty or Josie or Elia. I will continue in part 2. But up until season 4, a person may look at this and said. Really, females made up of almost half of the contestant field and only a quarter of the winners. This must be evidences for sexism. Yeah, I don’t think so. Even if Tifanni Faison is a derserving winner if she had won, people would have been outrage at the time considering her attitude. But outside of Tiffani Faison, Lee Anne Wong, and Stephanie Izard, I don't see other worthy female winners. Antonia doesn't come into her own until season 8. And Casey is kinda meh to be honest.

To MangoFed, the top tier of previous Top Chef contestants in my mind are: --->Richard Blais, hate him or love him, his two runs on two of the most competitive seasons of Top Chef is quite an accomplishment. --->Paul Qui, by season 9, Tom did said that Qui is his favorite of all the winners thus far. Richard Blais can talk about being a James Beard nominee but only 2 on this list can brag about being a James Beard winner. Qui is one of them. --->Stephanie Izard- speaking of James Beard winner and Top Chef winner, there is Izard. And for the record she deserved to win season 4. --->Michael Voltaggio- winner of one of the toughest season of Top Chef (season 8 then season 6 then season 4). Most of those associated with him ended up having a long run or became winners such as Marcel, Hung, Kevin S. I would imagine that Mike Isabella learn a trick or two from both Voltaggio during season 8 break and came back to give Blais a run for his money. Let see, if this trend continue with Mei Lin. --->Bryan Voltaggio- his run on both Top Chef Master and during season 6 solidified him among the very best. --->Kevin Gillespie- for the longest time and I still think he held the most wins record of all contestants: 5 elimination wins that he doesn't share with anyone else, 3 quickfire wins, and 1 quickfire team win. In later season, there are more challenges than the usual 14 episodes. And season 9 had some really weird format that is like half of all contestants can "win" or that ridiculous episode where Beverly eliminated where 3 of the 4 contestants "win." Giving season 6 is full of heavy hitter, this is not an easy accomplishment. Speaking of Wolfgang Puck bashing of Top Chef contestants lately, well, Puck remember liking Kevin G alot and what he had cooked. I guess that count for something right? So I guess those 6 are the gold standards. Let talk about other contenders that should be ranking up there with them. --->Shirley Chung- This girl really really challenge Kevin G for his most wins record. She got 4 elimination wins that she didn't share with anybody, 4 quickfire wins. Then we have to take into the account of the episode where Stephanie Cmar get eliminated because Nick failed so badly. She and Stephanie cooked the best dish of the night. Wouldn't that brought her total up to 9 wins?? After season 6, the field of chefs that compete on Top Chef had massive resume compare to pre season 6 (though season 4 is a notable exception). Even lackluster season 7 filled with James Beard nominee and etc. People complained about season 9, 10, or 11 talents level but geez, when I look at these chefs' biography, all I was seeing chefs that work in Michelin restaurants, James Beard nominee (or in the case of Paul Qui, James Beard winner shortly after his TC win), or Michelin restaurant owner (like Carlos). So getting 9 wins in season 11 is quite a record. I realized I type way way too much, I may continue later but Nina Compton, Brooke Williamson, Kristen Kris, Angelo Sosa, Dale Talde, Hung Huynh, Tiffani Faison, and Antonia Lofaso are among the best chefs in this show. Though, I may take out Hung (even though he is one of my favorite). Hung played the game way way too much and just skate by the middle when he want to. In earlier seasons, there really no incentives to win elimination challenges since there are no prizes. Hung, I think, didn't try that hard for couple of challenges. Top Contenders per each season Season 01---- 1) Tiffani Faison-----2) Lee Anne Wong-------3) Harold Dieterle Season 02---- 1) Sam Talbot--------2) Ilan Hall----------------3) Cliff Crooks Season 03---- 1) Hung Huynh------2) Tre Wilcox-------------3) Casey Thompson/Dale Levitski Season 04---- 1) Stephanie Izard and Richard Blais--------3) Dale Talde----------------------4) Antonia Lofaso Season 05---- 1) Stefan Richter----2) Carla Hall---------------3) Jamie Lauren------------------4) Hosea Rosenberg Season 06---- 1) Michael Voltaggio, Bryan Voltaggio, Kevin Gillespie-------------------------4) Jennifer Carroll Season 07---- 1) Angelo Sosa and Ed Cotton------------------3) Kevin Sbraga------------------4) Kelly Liken/Tiffany Derry Season 08---- 1) Richard Blais-----2) Dale Talde-------------3) Antonia Lofaso, Angelo Sosa, Mike Isabella Season 09---- 1) Paul Qui-----------2) Sarah Grueneberg----3) Lindsay Autry/Edward Lee Season 10---- 1) Kristen Kish and Brooke Williamson------3) Sheldon Simeon--------------4) John Tesar/Elizabeth Binder Season 11---- 1) Nina Compton and Shirley Chung-----------3) Nicholas Elmi/Carlos Gaytan