Top Chef in the Media

[mlp]

Good for Guy!  I couldn't find the price but I'm sure the cost plus airfare is way more than I can afford.  I'd love to go though and meet everyone except Hunter.  Justin is one of the good guys so it's been heartwarming to see all the support he's received from all over.

[Bastet]

Did he seriously list his son as one of America's ten greatest chefs?!

[Irlandesa]

4 minutes ago, Bastet said:

Did he seriously list his son as one of America's ten greatest chefs?!

Ha.  Maybe he's including himself which would make it 11 chefs--10 of them great.

I was trying to figure out why so many Food Network people were involved. I had forgotten he did the tournament of champions.  Or chefs.  Or whatever it is that Guy does.

[FormerMod-a1]

Yes, Justin has done Tournament of Champions, and Guys Grocery Games, and I recently saw him on something else - I think Kitchen Crash.  

[FormerMod-a1]

12 minutes ago, mlp said:

I couldn't find the price

It's $5,000 per ticket.  Like I said really expensive.

[MerBearHou]

19 hours ago, aquarian1 said:

Guy Fieri is doind a fundraiser for Justin, and it looks incredible!  Wish I could go.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cgh7b73pk4J/

It's expensive of all get out, but look at the lineup! 

Wish I could go too.  Wonderful wonderful effort by Justin's friends and colleagues.  Hope they raise plenty for Justin's medical expenses (and much loss of income).

[NowVoyager]

On 7/5/2022 at 10:57 PM, Thumper said:

Here’s a link to a GoFundMe for him.  The comments are really sweet.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/chefjustinsutherland-medical-recovery-fund?utm_campaign=m_pd+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer

Wow. Even the Go Fund Me people contributed. I've never seen that before.

[NowVoyager]

On 7/27/2022 at 11:09 PM, aquarian1 said:

It's $5,000 per ticket.  Like I said really expensive.

This. Sounds. Awesome! I hope we get to see some pictures & the menu. I bet Guy Fieri's house is gorgeous.

[hula-la]

Top Chef just announced their next All-Stars season—based in London featuring chefs from Top Chefs around the world. 

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CguJ_7gp_qF/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Edited August 1, 2022 by hula-la
Added All Stars

[LizDC]

[marybennet]

I'll certainly watch this; no doubt about it.  And I hope it will be good.  But I gotta confess that it feels too soon to me for another all-stars season, like the show is entering its baroque late phase and heading towards an all all-stars, all the time era--the beginning of the end. 

Edited August 1, 2022 by marybennet

[dleighg]

^I think this won't quite feel like an all-stars, since most of the chefs will be unfamiliar to most audiences, since they'll be from other versions of the show.

[Daisychain]

I agree.  I would love to see some international Top Chef All-Stars compete - even though I won't have seen them before.  New perspectives.  I was able to watch a season of Top Chef Canada and loved it (I think on YouTube? it might not have been kosher), but for the life of me I can't pick it up anywhere on the streamers.  There was a profound focus on regional cooking, game, and foraging.  Very very interesting and I wanted to eat everything.  Does anyone else have an international Top Chef recommendation and where to watch it?

[marybennet]

https://dc.eater.com/2022/8/22/23316342/top-chef-marjorie-meek-bradley-downtown-hotspot-shoto-dress-code-shoes

Marjorie Meek Bradley was denied entry to a sushi restaurant with pretensions in DC because she was wearing bright yellow Birkenstocks (that the restaurant called "flip-flops").  Fashion magazines have been featuring bright Birkenstocks for a while now, so it feels to me as if the restaurant has gotten this wrong, especially since they seem fine with ball caps and sneakers on men.  The restaurant spokesman seems unpleasant in the article--grumpy that MMB and her two (acceptable) friends commented on social media.  According to him, I guess, she was supposed to accept her dismissal passively, maybe (forgive me) meekly.  Grrr.

[dleighg]

Those Birkenstocks are kinda cute. My "dressy" summer shoes are slightly bedazzled Naot sandals which aren't fundamentally that different. I would never consider them "flip flops" but this restaurant would probably consider them so.

[Bastet]

There is no rational world in which those Birkenstock sandals are flip flops.  I love her friend posting a photo of himself that night, saying the restaurant was fine with him coming in looking like he'd just come from the kitchen, but wanted her (who was wearing a dress or skirt) to go change her shoes.  I also like the article pointing out that a hockey player in sweats was hunky dory.

Can you imagine how obnoxious that place must be, that the dress code gets communicated three times per reservation?

[caitmcg]

Honestly, acting as if classic Birkenstock Arizonas are shower shoes just because they’re rendered in bright and synthetic material shows that the restaurant isn’t as hip as it aspires to be.

[marybennet]

https://www.mashed.com/986583/brooke-williamson-on-her-ziploc-partnership-and-how-lifes-changed-since-top-chef-exclusive-interview/

An interview with Brooke Williamson, in relation to her product sponsorship.  Lots about the product, but then some questions about Top Chef and its relation to her life/career.  She mostly seems to want to be diplomatic and avoid answering questions about people or personalities.  "That's tough" is a big answer to questions.  Seems like, as in the case of other cheftestants, her career has become more about television than anything else or than she probably anticipated.  Also a Covid byproduct, I suspect.

[Bastet]

8 minutes ago, marybennet said:

Seems like, as in the case of other cheftestants, her career has become more about television than anything else or than she probably anticipated.  Also a Covid byproduct, I suspect.

Yeah, she lost three of her four restaurants as 2020 wore on (mostly due to lost business but partly because she, in spite of that, kept paying the employees who'd been with her for years and years). 

Unlike so many others in the same boat, she had this additional revenue stream from competing and judging to fall back on once TV production could pick back up.

When she competed on season two of Tournament of Champions in early 2021 (coming in second, when she'd won the previous year), the two finalists were allotted $10k to donate to a chef whose restaurant was suffering due to the pandemic, and she gave hers to Shirley Chung's Ms. Chi (Shirley being the one who came in second when Brooke won season 14 of TC, Charleston; they remain friends).

From that article:

Quote

Competition cooking [is] something that I can't seem to get away from, probably because I actually love it so much.

I'm not surprised.  She's a fantastically good chef (I've had a fair bit of her food), but she is also an astoundingly good "chefestant", one of the best I've ever seen.  Top Chef and Tournament of Champions put the best of the best against each other, and of her four appearances - two on each series - she's won twice and come in second twice.  That's a particular skill.

[marybennet]

21 hours ago, Bastet said:

she, in spite of that, kept paying the employees who'd been with her for years and years). 

What a good thing for her to have done. Thanks for passing on that information. I envy you the eating opportunities, Bastet. 

[Vermicious Knid]

Top Chef was filming when the Queen's funeral procession went by

Quote

Simmons also shared a video to her Story of herself, Colicchio and more climbing over the property's fence to get a better view. "You do what you have to do to get the view," she wrote.

Simmons then posted a clip of the Queen's hearse driving past her. Onlookers cheered and threw flowers along the road.

[marybennet]

I put this link in the cheftestants thread but probably should have put it here.  Sorry to repeat!

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/07/books/review/savor-fatima-ali.html  

A review in The New York Times of the book Fatima Ali had begun to work on with a co-author before she died. Still sad.

But this is new (value added?):  there's also a story about Kwame Onwuachi in their regular feature about how people spend their Sundays.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/08/nyregion/kwame-onwuachi-tatiana.html

[xaxat]

[stewedsquash]

Any update on when Top Chef is coming back? I miss it starting mid fall  to keep me company and with the holiday breaks it made it not seem like a chore to watch. When it starts after a new year and is still going on in May it seems to lose its charm. I also liked when it was a summer show. 

[LizDC]

 

[ProudMary]

Meet the All-Star Chefs Competing in Season 20 of Top Chef

Several familiar names (Buddha, Amar, Sara Bradley, Dawn Burrell) and lots of winners and finalists from Top Chef  competitions around the world.

[Vermicious Knid]

But has Dawn finally learned how to manage her time?

I remember nothing about Amar. 

[Irlandesa]

Yeah.  I love Dawn but she gave me so much anxiety.

[Souris]

Interesting that Buddha competed back-to-back.

[Bastet]

I was already excited for this -- just to have Top Chef back is enough, but I like the international concept (and I love London, so look forward to seeing if I've eaten anywhere they go) -- and now to learn Dawn is competing?  YES!  She's one of my favorites. 

And, yes, I look forward to seeing if she's been practicing for timed competitions.  I really want to eat her food someday, as I can only imagine how fantastic it is that even with some dishes not coming out exactly as she'd planned due to running out of time, the judges raved.

[CrazyInAlabama]

https://www.foodandwine.com/top-chef-all-stars-season-20-premiere-date-7098988#:~:text=Padma Lakshmi is back to,Thursday%2C March 9%2C 2023.

Back on Thursday 9 March.    Grand prize is $250,000. 

[buttersister]

Interesting group! 

[Fukui San]

I came across this video from three years ago, so I think after his Top Chef appearance, but here's Joe Sasto playing the cooking game Overcooked. 

 

[LizDC]

 

[meep.meep]

There's a yacht chef!  My Bravo worlds are colliding!

Admittedly, he sounds like the best yacht chef on the planet.

[Daisychain]

So this starts day after tomorrow, right?  What a nice surprise.  Unforch, the show is not showing up on my "scheduled" programs on Bravo (via YoutubeTV).  It is Bravo on Thurs. nights, right?  This may well be operator error, but I do love this show and am looking forward to the season 20 premiere. Yay!

[Maverick]

Are they still not doing the second showing later in the evening this season?

[Salacious Kitty]

5 minutes ago, Maverick said:

Are they still not doing the second showing later in the evening this season?

They are, at least for the first episode.

[Lamb18]

9 hours ago, Daisychain said:

So this starts day after tomorrow, right?  What a nice surprise.  Unforch, the show is not showing up on my "scheduled" programs on Bravo (via YoutubeTV).  It is Bravo on Thurs. nights, right?  This may well be operator error, but I do love this show and am looking forward to the season 20 premiere. Yay!

It is on at 8:00 central. Looks like it is around 90 minutes, maybe 75, then the repeat airs. 

[Daisychain]

Thanks @Lamb18.  My children and I are in 2 time zones and we are trying to group-watch at the same time.  I think my streaming service is ok then.  It looks from the previews that Dawn Burrell and Buddha are both back in the competition for North America?  Couldn't quite tell.  I hope they have a lot of the Canadian and Mexican chefs too.

[ProudMary]

3 hours ago, Lamb18 said:

It is on at 8:00 central. Looks like it is around 90 minutes, maybe 75, then the repeat airs. 

According to my TV schedule (Comcast, which owns Bravo, so it should be correct), Episode 1 is airing from 9:00 p.m. tp 10:45 p.m. Eastern. The replay is listed as 10:45 p.m. to 12:00 midnight Eastern. This, to me, would indicate that the episode itself runs for 75 minutes (9-10:15) and that Bravo, as it sometimes does, is tacking on an unannounced, Top Chef  centric episode of Watch What Happens Live for the final 30 minutes of the Premiere. 

[CrazyInAlabama]

Sara from the Kentucky season is a contestant also. 

[LizDC]

 

[Bastet]

I left the TV on Bravo after the premiere, which is an episode of Watch What Happens Live with Padma.  I just came back in the room to hear Andy Cohen ask if anyone has ever hit on her on TC, and she said yes, but not a contestant, a guest judge.  It was during her first season, and they were both married at the time, so it was gross, and she made sure he was never asked back.  Good for her standing up for herself, especially at that stage in her career.

[Bastet]

Hm, maybe I should have watched the whole thing; there's some good stuff.  I walked in again to see Padma asked her top five hardest times telling someone to pack their knives and go:

5. Melissa
4. Beverly
3. Kwame
2. Gregory (both times)
1. Nina

[Daisychain]

1 hour ago, Bastet said:

I left the TV on Bravo after the premiere, which is an episode of Watch What Happens Live with Padma.  I just came back in the room to hear Andy Cohen ask if anyone has ever hit on her on TC, and she said yes, but not a contestant, a guest judge.  It was during her first season, and they were both married at the time, so it was gross, and she made sure he was never asked back.  Good for her standing up for herself, especially at that stage in her career.

Agreed @Bastet about Padma making her own way on this show, which she's been doing for many years.  Pruriently, I was trying to recall who it was -- I just told my kids not to bother watching this season (although they are), but now I can't ask them.  Andy seemed to get who.  Consolation: season 20 seems to be getting off to a wonderful start.

[LizDC]

 

[buttersister]

If you want to read that NYTimes piece, here it is without a paywall (my subscription allows "gifts" of articles;-)

Top Chef Season 20: Global reach of cooking television

 

[ML89]

16 hours ago, Bastet said:

I left the TV on Bravo after the premiere, which is an episode of Watch What Happens Live with Padma.  I just came back in the room to hear Andy Cohen ask if anyone has ever hit on her on TC, and she said yes, but not a contestant, a guest judge.  It was during her first season, and they were both married at the time, so it was gross, and she made sure he was never asked back.  Good for her standing up for herself, especially at that stage in her career.

So has anyone "done the math" as to who it was?

[rlc]

16 hours ago, Bastet said:

I left the TV on Bravo after the premiere, which is an episode of Watch What Happens Live with Padma.  I just came back in the room to hear Andy Cohen ask if anyone has ever hit on her on TC, and she said yes, but not a contestant, a guest judge.  It was during her first season, and they were both married at the time, so it was gross, and she made sure he was never asked back.  Good for her standing up for herself, especially at that stage in her career.

I have been trying to figure out who it was! So far my best guess is Geoffrey Zakarian.