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Top Chef in the Media

Bella

By Bella
in Top Chef

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susannot
susannot

Re Mike Isabella: anyone who invested in his restaurant empire should have watched Top Chef.  It is 100% obvious that he is a gross sexist pig and probable sexual harasser.  I can't count the number o

akr
akr

Re podcasts vs synopses:  I'm always going to prefer a 3-minute read to a 45-minute listen, but I've pretty much given up on anybody putting such things in writing anymore.  Podcasts are easier for th

Rambler
Rambler

There was a reddit thread the other day titled “People that have been on a cooking show, what does the viewer not see? Are the time limits legit? Does the food go straight to the judges? Any behind th

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spankydoll

spankydoll

On 6/13/2018 at 9:35 AM, Totale said:

http://www.lex18.com/story/38407513/bravos-top-chef-filmed-at-rupp-arena

It was so much fun! I'm not sure what will end up on the show because it taped for four hours. The chefs are so calm and collected while they work - it always looks like a shitshow once it's edited.  It's going to interesting to compare the final cut of the show with what happened in the arena as there was a ton of hysterical shenanigans  

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spankydoll

spankydoll

9 hours ago, Sew Sumi said:

I assume it had a basketball theme?

I don't want to spoil any part of it. There is a FB group Top Chef Kentucky where people blab everything and smuggled in cameras to take photos, etc. 

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cooksdelight

cooksdelight

23 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

According to Padma’s social media they are done filming in Kentucky. No word on if the finale was already filmed or when and where it will filmed.

Really? Last Tuesday, June 12, they were filming in Lexington with 10 contestants still in the mix. Look it up on their local news station. That means they’d have eliminated someone each day in order to get it down to three or four finalists. Wow.... that’s really a fast way to run a competition.

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biakbiak

biakbiak

Yep she did a farewell IG post and made hot chicken in her NYC place. Perhaps they are doing a larger finale than normal since they were very public about where and when they were filming.

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spankydoll

spankydoll

(edited)

 It was down to six contestants on June 12th. There were the contestants there but only six of them were still in the game. 

On 6/22/2018 at 1:37 AM, cooksdelight said:

Really? Last Tuesday, June 12, they were filming in Lexington with 10 contestants still in the mix. Look it up on their local news station. That means they’d have eliminated someone each day in order to get it down to three or four finalists. Wow.... that’s really a fast way to run a competition.

Edited by spankydoll
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biakbiak

biakbiak

9 minutes ago, spankydoll said:

There were ten contestants at the event but only six were still in the competition. I was there so scout 's honor!

It makes sense to have decoys with that many people in attendance. 

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dleighg

dleighg

3 hours ago, spankydoll said:

There were ten contestants at the event but only six were still in the competition. I was there so scout 's honor!

So I assume it's a mystery to the spectators who the real six are? They told you there were only six left? And I assume if the first question is correct, that the chefs (and crew) do a good job making it seem like "each one matters"?

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spankydoll

spankydoll

On 7/1/2018 at 5:11 AM, dleighg said:

So I assume it's a mystery to the spectators who the real six are? They told you there were only six left? And I assume if the first question is correct, that the chefs (and crew) do a good job making it seem like "each one matters"?

It wasn't a mystery. Each of the six prepared and presented their dishes to be judged by the panel. Simple as a dimple!

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emcmac87

emcmac87

I’m don’t want to post a spoiler, and don’t really know how to do the spoiler option. But the finale destination is officially out there, and just filmed within the week. 

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hendersonrocks

hendersonrocks

The Ringer ranked the top 100 tv episodes of the century - so far, obvs - and the infamous head shaving episode of Top Chef (season 2, episode 11) came in at #55. Immediately after the entry for that episode, The Ringer's "resident food critic" (whatever that means) ranks the 15 best finale dishes of the series. Mei's octopus from season 12 tops the list.

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Rambler

Rambler

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There was a reddit thread the other day titled “People that have been on a cooking show, what does the viewer not see? Are the time limits legit? Does the food go straight to the judges? Any behind the scenes info to share?”

In the thread, there was a poster who said he had worked on the Vegas season of Top Chef. I’ll post a few of his more interesting quotes, and if you want to read the whole thread here is the link.
 

Quote

I worked a season on Top Chef. Since there’s a cash prize, they are very strict about rules. They assemble all the chefs before a challenge, read about a page worth of rules and all chefs have to raise their hands to show that they understand the rules to the challenge. It is filmed.

The time limits are legit. They would usually prepare 6 dishes, 4 for the judges, an exec producer would get one to eat and would consult with the judges, and the 6th would go to a little b-roll station for nice video of the finished dish. Nobody else on the crew was allowed to taste any of the food.

The part where all the chefs stand before the judges and take about the dishes takes HOURS to film. They talk SO MUCH to each contestant. Tom C was always a really smart, helpful guy that acts as a mentor/sage for everyone on the show. All the contestants love him, all the crew love him, he’s an awesome guy. Padma is surprisingly cool too and very knowledgeable when it comes to food.

The grocery store trips are also legit. We’d hold them to the time limit, all their food would go into coolers which were then taped and Saran wrapped shut to prevent any sort of tampering.

There’s an amazing team of culinary producers (a few of which I’ve actually seen pop up as contestants on other shows!) that conceive the challenges and stock the pantries/fridges. My season had a team full of awesome women.

PAs were the dishwashers and were working constantly. The amount of pots and pans and plates that had to be cleaned was staggering.

Because the chefs were working so fast and stressed, there were a ton of sliced fingers. The on-set medic worked a lot. He also would nap on set. He ruled.

The season I worked on made it seem like the kitchen was in a hotel but in reality it was built from scratch in essentially a warehouse. Still, it was the most tricked out kitchen I’ve ever seen. Once a challenge is up and running the whole place smells unbelievable.

The house they had them staying in was 40 minutes from the challenge kitchen and contestants weren’t allowed to talk in the van, the producers called it a “tv time out.” The show is very grueling on contestants. An entire season is shot in about 22 days and there’s like 1 or 2 days off. The rest is 16-18 hour days of stress, cooking and waiting around.

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Q: Why couldn’t they talk in the van?

A: From what I could tell it was basically “saving it for the cameras”

Q: That must've changed I guess? They talk a lot in the cars/SUVs now..

A: That’s different than what I’m referring to. If we were driving them from Whole Foods back to the kitchen in a Toyota Venza, then yeah we’d have a camera guy sitting shotgun and they could talk.

But at the very start/end of the day after all the judging and stuff we’d have to drive them back to the house in a big 16 passenger van. We’d rarely have a camera guy in there for that. That was quiet time.

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Q: Thats really good to hear about Padma and Tom. I don't watch Top Chef but Padma's episode on Hotones is one of my favorites. Tom's episode on Hotones was not bad as well.

A: She’s very chill for how hot and “high society” she is.

We also had Natalie Portman on as a guest judge and her and her team could not have been more stoked to be in the kitchen. She was EXTREMELY cool to the crew. And tiny.

Since it was in Vegas we had a wide range of super accomplished and respected chefs (Boulud, Robuchon, Thomas Keller, Wolfgang Puck, etc) and they were all super cool except for ONE: Tyler Florence, the former fucking Applebee’s spokesman. He was a fucking dickbag.

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Q: How accurate are quick fire challenges? Like on the show it feels like they have 10 seconds to come up with a recipe and grab their ingredients if it’s say, something like a mystery ingredient challenge. Do the contestants have any actual time to contemplate what they plan to do?

A: Nope, it’s very much how you see it on the show. That’s why the culinary team is so good, they were able to anticipate and stock whatever the contestants might have needed.

Also, the chefs that make it to Top Chef are all extremely talented, it really is an art.

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Oh also, everyone on the crew referred to Michael Voltaggio as “Tony Hawk” which still makes me laugh because it’s dead-on.

Q: Padma is sultry all the time, but to me it looked a lot like something was going on between one of the Voltaggio brothers and Padma. Any rumblings about that?

A: I’m not sure about after the show was filming but definitely not during. They have very little interaction outside of the parts you see filmed. Plus at the time Padma was dating some older millionaire guy that would fly out on a private jet to visit her.

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Q: Does it seem weird to anyone else that a producer would eat and have input?

Answer from a different poster: I've worked on reality shows.

So, judges know food, but the producer knows TV. Often, the producer needs to help judges craft their statements so they're TV friendly. For example, the judge might go on a five minutes ramble and the reproducer would have to tell him to get his point across in a more concise manner. The producer needs to have tasted the food first so he can understand what the judges are trying to say and craft it for them.

Other times, a chef will not say something because it seems obvious. For example, he might not say that the steak is perfectly done. To a professional chef, that's just normal. But the audience needs to know because otherwise how would they know the contestant did something right? So the producer has to taste the food, identify that, and then ask the judges to fill in the gaps in their criticism.

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hula-la

hula-la

On 2018-08-02 at 12:18 PM, Rambler said:

There was a reddit thread the other day titled “People that have been on a cooking show, what does the viewer not see? Are the time limits legit? Does the food go straight to the judges? Any behind the scenes info to share?”

In the thread, there was a poster who said he had worked on the Vegas season of Top Chef. I’ll post a few of his more interesting quotes, and if you want to read the whole thread here is the link.
 

I'm not sure I should thank you @Rambler, or curse you. I've spent the past hour reading this reddit post, and keep reading bits of it out to Mr. Hula-la.

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biakbiak

biakbiak

3 minutes ago, Vermicious Knid said:

There's a 30 minute sneak peek of the new season Saturday at 10am that's popped up on the DVR.

Interesting I wonder if they are going to premiere earlier this year because the have been starting at the end of Nov. so it seems early for a preview.

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biakbiak

biakbiak

18 hours ago, Vermicious Knid said:

There's a 30 minute sneak peek of the new season Saturday at 10am that's popped up on the DVR.

Just watched this and it was actually a preview for Top Chef Jr that already aired this summer.

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biakbiak

biakbiak

(edited)
9 minutes ago, Sew Sumi said:

No, those were the Season 2 kids. New season starts tonight.

Yes, I am aware they were thee season 2 kids. They aired this preview of the season 2 kids in early August on whatever channel that airs Top Chef Jr., there was discussion of it in the TCjr thread when it aired.

Edited by biakbiak
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Quilt Fairy

Quilt Fairy

On ‎10‎/‎19‎/‎2018 at 4:30 PM, pally said:

Show premieres on Dec 6

I know shows can run any time these days, but when did December become the new September?  That's three shows now that I watch that are all premiering in early December.  Isn't that the one month where they're guaranteed competition with all the Christmas shows?  

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Spaceman Spiff

Spaceman Spiff

16 hours ago, Nutjob said:

Brother Luck, Jim Smith, and Carrie Baird are competing in LCK to get a spot back on the show for Season 16. Those are surprisingly good, non-annoying picks?

I agree with @cooksdelight that Brother came off as a bit of an ass the first time around, more so in LCK IIRC. I really liked Carrie a lot, and to be honest, don't remember Jim all that much. How far did he make it in his season?

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Nutjob

Nutjob

Brother didn't bother me, but to each their own. :) Jim was out fairly early, I think something like 6th, but he went out in a sudden death Quickfire. I always felt like he should've gone farther.

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LeighLeigh

LeighLeigh

Jim Smith was so funny and knowledgeable on the different podcasts he appeared on while season 15 was airing. 

Dont believe the negativity. Brother was given a bad edit. Enough contestants defended him after LCK aired. He said it himself on Facebook. “The editors did him dirty.” I believe this extra chance is Bravo’s, or Tom’s, attempt at an apology. 

If they really wanted to bring someone back just to get us talking, wouldn’t it be the sneering Mexican lady with the awful black lipstick (I forget her name)?

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MarylandGirl

MarylandGirl

6 hours ago, LeighLeigh said:

Jim Smith was so funny and knowledgeable on the different podcasts he appeared on while season 15 was airing. 

Dont believe the negativity. Brother was given a bad edit. Enough contestants defended him after LCK aired. He said it himself on Facebook. “The editors did him dirty.” I believe this extra chance is Bravo’s, or Tom’s, attempt at an apology. 

If they really wanted to bring someone back just to get us talking, wouldn’t it be the sneering Mexican lady with the awful black lipstick (I forget her name)?

I always liked Brother and felt he got a bad edit. Hope he makes it back! Liked Carrie, too. Don't really recall Jim, but maybe he didn't have enough time to make an impression?

I think I blocked out the black-lipstick-woman's name...

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JTMacc99

JTMacc99

On 11/29/2018 at 12:12 PM, Nutjob said:

Brother didn't bother me, but to each their own. :) Jim was out fairly early, I think something like 6th, but he went out in a sudden death Quickfire. I always felt like he should've gone farther.

I agree with both of those thoughts, and I'll tack on that I loved Carrie. She did some crazy shit that made me and all of the chefs around her say "that's nuts" and then the judges would be all "Wow, this is great!" 

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