Top Chef

Top Chef is a reality television show on Bravo where chefs compete in a series of cooking challenges, after which their products are judged by public figures from the food and wine industry, a guest judge in each episode as well as celebrity chef Tom Colicchio, food critic Gail Simmons, and the show’s host, model and cookbook author Padma Lakshmi. The season starts with approximately 15 chefs, and in each episode there is a quickfire challenge based on a certain requirement and an elimination challenge, which also follows a certain theme. These can be ingredients, a style of food, a meal for a specific event or purpose, or any other category that the contestants’ food must adhere to. Some elimination challenges are team challenges, including the mid-season Restaurant Wars, which tests not only their cooking skills but also presentation, working with others, and acting as key roles in a restaurant. These continue until the finale, where the remaining two (or three) chefs prepare a multiple course dinner with the assistance of other chefs, whether they are celebrities or previously eliminated in the season, and from these meals, the judges choose a winner. The inner receives an editorial in Food and Wine Magazine, $125,000, and an appearance at the Food and Wine Classic in Aspen. The show has run for six seasons, based in a different city each time, and spawned spinoff Top Chef Masters, where world-renowned chefs as opposed to less experienced chefs compete. MORE