Top Chef: Difference between revisions

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The show is hosted by Padma Lakshmi and features chef Tom Colicchio (Craft, Craftsteak, Wichcraft, etc.) as its head judge. Most seasons have also featured Gail Simmons as a regular judge, with Ted Allen, Toby Young, Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert also each judging regularly in some seasons, and various other famous chefs and critics coming in as guest judges.

* [[Compassionate Critic]]: Guest judge Anthony Bourdain qualifies. He is brutally honest and negative, which provides for some interesting commentary.

** Additionally, Anthony Bourdain also provides some of the most memorable lines whenever he appears.

'''Bourdain:''' Astro boy has balls. }}

* [[Confession Cam]]

* [[Conflict Ball]]: Seemingly hangs over the chefs of ''Top Chef: Just Desserts''. Literally every single episode has had some sort of argument break out between two or more chefs, with accusations of backstabbing or sabotage occasionally thrown in for good measure.

** At the beginning of the episode Antonia is asked for info about the upcoming Quickfire, to which she makes an offhand comment about Padma showing up in the chefs' apartment. Take a guess who walks through the door moments later.

** Immediately following the Elimination challenge, Antonia's mother makes a comment to her that she's hoping {{spoiler|all five chefs will go on to the finale. In the end, all of them do end up going on.}}

** Arguably anybody who volunteers to become a team leader in Restaurant Wars. The "head chef" always takes the fall for the losing team. [[Genre Savvy|This is even pointed out in later seasons by the cheftestants themselves during the confessionals]].

* [[Hey, It's That Guy!]]: Chef Nyesha Arrington from the Texas season won her current job as Wilshire's executive chef on Food Network's Chef Hunter.

* [[I'm Not Here to Make Friends]]: This line has been used by many throughout the show's history, most notably Tiffany (season 1), Marcel (season 2), Lisa (season 4), and Robin (season 6).

** Though, you could tell that Marcel said that after the head-shaving incident.

** Fabio again in Season 8 when he vehemently insists that Antonia's winning steamed mussels from "An Offer They Can't Refuse" is a French dish instead of an Italian one, and thereby it shouldn't have won because it didn't meet the parameters. Steamed mussels are part of Sicilian (read: Italian) cuisine, and the challenge wasn't about making Italian food... it was about making Italian-''American'' food, which Antonia did. Fabio's fundamental flaw (and undoing) as a competitor is that he just plain doesn't understand American-influenced food.

* [[I Take Offense to That Last One]]: In Season 2 of ''Just Desserts'':

** Eli in season 6 was a snarky little Jerkass troll, but his absolute standout moment of being a Jerkass came after Robin won a Quickfire Challenge in which chefs needed to prepare two dishes, representing their "inner angel and inner devil". Robin was one of few who understood the concept of the challenge (most others just taking an ingredient and cooking it two different ways), and took inspiration from her battle with cancer, in which she had to eat healthy food while ignoring the temptation to just indulge in the less healthy food she liked, namely sweets. She ended up serving a salad and a dessert, and the judges praised the flavors and execution of both dishes, awarding her the win. Cue others displaying sore loser attitude, but Eli taking it one step too far, by saying "That's a pretty good way to win a Quickfire, tell people you have fucking cancer".

*** Also from season 6, both Michaels (Voltaggio and Isabella).

** Almost everyone who lasted past 10th place in Season 2 were jerkasses.

** Heather from season 9. She was a bully, especially to Beverly. In one episode, she called Beverly's suggestions "too Asian", and went on a long rant at Judges' Table about her "work ethic" and how she wasn't contributing to the team despite that it was Heather herself who wouldn't really allow her to help.

* [[Laser-Guided Karma]]: Spike in season 4. Every time he won a quickfire challenge in the post immunity part of the game he would use his advantage to try to screw over the other cheftestants. In both episodes this landed him in the bottom for elimination. In Boxed Lunched he picked ingredients to prevent the others for using them and didn't think about making a good dish, and in High Steaks he picked scallops that were frozen and using them got him eliminated.

* [[Loads and Loads of Characters|Loads and Loads of Cheftestants]]: Season 9 introduced ''twenty-nine'' cheftestants. Guess they really do do everything bigger in Texas.

** Episode 4 of ''[[Top Chef]]: Just Desserts'' had two non-gameplay eliminations: first Seth was "evacuated" by the producers when (after several weeks of erratic behavior) he had a panic attack and collapsed during the prep for the Quick Fire challenge. Then Malika quit at Judges Table (while the guest judge was trying to tell her how much she enjoyed her dish!), saying that the stress from the competition was ruining her enjoyment of cooking.

* [[Oh Crap]]: Tiffany utters an audible "uh-oh" after tipping off the judges to problems on the line during season 8's Restaurant Wars.

* [[Once a Season]]: Restaurant Wars.

* [[One-Note Cook]]: Several chefs throughout the seasons were notorious for rarely cooking anything besides a particular food.

** Howie from season 3 rarely made anything that didn't involve pork in some way.

** Also from season 3, Brian was known as "the seafood guy" and on at least one Quickfire realized he needed to show some diversity, so he cooked with Spam.

** Jamie from season 5, the so-called "top scallop".

** Ilan (the winner of Season 2) always did Spanish food, and Fabio mostly stuck to Italian food (Italy being his native homeland) in Seasons 5 and 8. His misunderstanding of other cuisines (New Orleans and American comfort foods, respectively) got him the boot both times he was eliminated.

** Richard Blaise, runner-up in season 4 and Top Chef in Season 8, rarely did anything without liquid nitrogen during Season 8. He even tried to make a damn cookie with liquid nitrogen (and was called out for not actually making a cookie by the Cookie Monster himself). Also, in season 4, he cooked "Banana Scallops" THREE times.

** Connie in Season 1 of ''Top Chef: Canada'' made sausage in just about every challenge, to the point where the judges told her never to make sausage again. (She did it anyway.)

** It wasn't just the bad dessert, it was Restaurant Wars week and he was the executive chef of the losing team. Ergo, he got eliminated.

** Also Dale from Season 4. He had been consistently in the top. On that day, he had one bad dish, another chef made two. Most people thought Lisa would be sent packing, but team leader Dale had to take one for the team. This was the only decision that executive producer/head judge/voice of reason Tom wasn't around for.

*** Jennifer from the finale. Based solely on the judges' comments, they seemed to genuinely like both of Jennifer's dishes, even if one was a little too salty. Michael seemed to be in line for elimination, as he had clear problems with both his dishes.

** Tiffany from season 7. She had never been on the bottom of any elimination challenge prior to being eliminated, and in two previous episodes, she'd managed to win both the quickfire and elimination challenges.

[[Category:Reality TV]]

[[Category:Nonfiction Series]]

[[Category:TV Series]]