Top Chef

Gail Simmons on a break from breast-feeding grown men.

Marcel from season 2 was a total douche but what happened to him on the show was really shocking.

Seasons 6 and 8 were really great TV.

OP, I did. I believe Tom Colicchio wanted to quit after the first two seasons because the quality level of the chefs was so low. And then I think by the 3rd or 4th seasons, they started nabbing better chefs.

I lovedddd that red headed bitch from one of the earliest seasons. Whatever her name was.

R4, Tiffani?

The reunion for the first season was insane. Chefs were guzzling wine from the bottles, with some of their alcoholic tendencies revealed. Tiffany gets so drunk that her eyes become blood-shot and about to close, and she ends up walking off the set crying.

I watched Top Chef (loved it) Season 2 (Marcel), Season 3 (Hung), Season 4 (Stephanie and angry Dale, Antonia), Season 5 (Carla and Fabio), and Season 6 (Voltaggio brothers).

I liked Padma, even. She was actually articulate.

Padma was banging Salman Rushdie at the time.

Watched from the start, it turned me on to ranch dressing, which is a gift from the food gods

Chicago had the most all-around talent. Vegas had the most male talent. Except for Jennifer Carroll, the women were amazingly weak.

Where are they going to next? I have a feeling it's going to be Hawaii.

R11 Alaska

The best episode had Gronk talking about big sausages, and Gronk rebuffing Padma's advance.

Gail had Tom all to herself before Padma came along

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I watched all the early seasons. I found it pretty entertaining, but they had some of the most irritating contestants on any reality show. Stephen Asprinio, the sommelier from season 1, for example. I wanted to punch him through the TV screen.

Casey from Season 3 could have been Jennifer Aniston's photo double

I liked in Hung's interview when he was asked if he would date a man or a woman, he said "Both. Why not?"

How about Ty-Lor?

on the Texas reunion show,Ty-lor claimed that the photos of him were not meant to be sexual. But for my money, I'd take Yigit from Just Desserts.

I liked Travis from the New Orleans show.

Have watched every season, love this show

I recently started watching the earlier seasons on Hulu like OP. I think the talent in the first few seasons was laughable. Either they upped the requirements to participate or newer contestants have benefited from watching the program.

I hated Marcel, but hated Hung even more, and was pissed he got as far as he did.

I have watched and loved every season.

I liked Marcel, and Hung, and Stephen Asprinio.

I love that Hulu has the reunions and a one-off holiday show I'd never seen. Stephen was annoying during his season, but redeemed himself at the reunion where he was funny and got along with everyone.

I don't know how they manage to keep the location so secret these days. I would think they would be filming the current season already, no?

Do you guys remember steak sammich?

I know Marcel is short , but I think he's hot, LoL. Does he play for our team? He seems str8 if i'm being honest.

I cannot for the life of me figure out why something about Richard Blais bothers me .

Carla is my favorite of all the chefs as a person. Marcel is my favorite chef I think.

Marcel "The White Shrimp" gets married

R29 somehow I'd bet he still hasn't lost his virginity.

I do feel sorry for Marcel how he was pinned down, but his lame rapping and aping crip arm movements reveal his inherent douchebag nature.

He obviously has a Napoleon complex with his volumized 80s moussed hairdo.

Yeah, the pinning him down thing had to be terrifying as he was asleep and didn't know what the fuck was going on. He didn't deserve that.

But I can certainly understand why they hate him. I was glad he didn't win.

R28 For me Richard Blais (my least favorite chef) seems so desperate for attention and approval it feels like it reeks from his pores.

R32, what was the background of that incident? I am familiar that several contestants held him down and tried to shave his head but what was the reason?

R33 here. Actually those mean fat girls from the Texas season were my least favorite, but Richard Blais does make my skin crawl.

I can't believe anyone finds Marcel hot. He looks like a rat's fetus who doesn't wipe or wash properly down there. He looks like a wannabe Wolverine.

Richard Blais doesn't bother me and I was glad he won over that awful Mike.

One thing that Top Chef really enforces is that Chef's tend to be narcissistic megalomaniacs.

I also really hated Hung and Dale and wanted to see both humiliated.

R34 there really was no reason for it. They all just hated him and the crazy bitch Elia (sp) and Ilan decided to shave their heads and they thought it would be funny to do it to Marcel since he seemed to love his hair so much.

They didn't really show who came up with the idea but I think you can glean it was Ilan who came up with the idea and was really pushing for it to actually happen. I believe there's a scene where he's trying to encourage/bully Cliff to hold him down and Sam to do the actual shaving (I think Ilan says something like, "come on, he has him pinned down and now you're not gonna do it??")

It all seemed to much like Ilan was the one putting the pressure on for it to happen but he was trying to get everyone else to do the dirty work so his hands stayed clean.

I absolutely can't stand Marcel but he didn't deserve that. The look on his face as he's startled in the middle of the night, half asleep, was one of someone genuinely terrified.

Sam Talbot from Season 2 could be John Krasinski’s brother. Both have big dick faces.

*too much

R34 Because they didn't like him and it just reached a boiling point. Yes, he definitely did come off as an obnoxious dick, but this was above and beyond. The point nobody ever seems to mention is how everyone's beloved Sam Talbot also stood by and let it all happen with a Hogan's Heroes type "I saw nothing; I know nothing" complicit complacency. I would've kicked his ass out of there in a second.

Texas was the worst Top Chef since the demo-like first season.

That Mama Cass bitch who was the ring leader of the mean girls is my least favorite of all the contestants.

Chronic Waking and Resting Bitch Face Grayson "God put animals on this planet for one reason. To eat them" proved to be even more unlikeable when she returned a few seasons later all sour and half-assing it.

Texas winner Paul’s fall from the top.

Celebrating the life of Bravo Alum Fatima Ali

The season with the two brothers really pissed me off. There's no way that the one that won should have. Going by that last meal, they were more critical of the younger brother's meal and yet flipped at the last minute. That was one of the more obvious rigs on the show.

Michael and Brian Voltaggio are the King and Prince of Top Chef.

They have been brought back every season as Quickfire judges and make regular appearances.

The Texas bullies were fat Heather ( the ringleader) and Fat Sarah ( who went to the finals). Fat Heather was a bully, targeting Bev ( who outlasted her on the show), There was nothing about fat Heather that was pleasant - even the other contestants hated her, except her buddy, fat Sarah. I loved seeing Sarah so upset that she lost in the finals - she was a whiner, who never pulled her weight ( as much as it was) in the team challenges; she bossed, but never did anything. But the chef I hated most was the lesbian Jamie Lauren - on for two seasons. She thought no one was better than she was and let it be known.

Jamie's strategy of staying in the game by not cooking was brilliant!

Season 1 was probably the best in terms of cast - "I'm not your bitch, bitch" was the best line. Katie was wooden as hell but Padma...I just don't like her. The fact she still says hand up, utensils down bugs the shit out of me.

But, R48 the talent was really weak. It was almost like half of the were cooks at IHOP prior to competing.

I'm rewatching the Seasons on Hulu and I'm on the Texas season. I had forgotten how much I hate Grayson.

Fabio has always bugged me and I've heard from some who know him that he's a quiet Drumpf supporter.

I love Hugh Acheson and love that he trolls Jr.

Apparently a lot of people hated the TX season and say it's the season they won't go back and rewatch, mostly citing the bitches who bullied one of their competitors.

[quote]Other cast members observe that Kim was treated unfairly during the episode and, at the reunion, judge Tom Colicchio exclaims that he had never seen anything like Terhune’s treatment of Kim, in Top Chef history.

Heather complained that all Bev did was cook Asian, forgetting that her fuck buddy, fat Sarah, pretty much only cooked Italian. Here are the Pig Sisters

Sarah was all gum.

R54 that article above also slapped at those comments about Bev's cooking Asian.

[quote]In the final heat of these competitions, cast member Dakota Weiss comments, disparagingly, “Beverly cooked Asian again. Of course she did. That’s her style.” Note that by the time Weiss makes this observation, Kim had successfully gotten through all rounds that required that she cook other types of cuisine (against Nyesha Arrington using Mediterranean ingredients, and against Chris Crary in a lamb-chop-marshmallow showdown).

[quote]Kim points out, “If you’re an Italian-roots chef, you’re gonna cook Italian. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with that. All those negative opinions about myself are totally lies.” And she’s right. Fabio Viviani of Top Chef season five consistently cooked Italian food and was praised and adored for it.

All you need to do is watch Katie Joel for one second from the first season to come gasping for air from Padma in every other season.

There was a thread here along timg ago about celebrities you have hooked up with and someone swore he hooked up with Fabio

Dale Talde was hot but he's big as a house now.

Fabio and Stefan have that wild-n-crazy guy, over-the-top machismo that comes across as overcompensation for latent gayness.

They both were very juvenile and made stupid middle-school jokes.

Just watched the third episode of the Texas Season and that Sarah was throwing people under the bus like she was getting cash for it.

I hate people like her who pat themselves on the back for being subtle and she's nothing but obvious bitch.

It's surprising how many of the chefs reveal in their backstory that they lost a parent at a relatively young age.

True, R62, but it sort of makes sense because often in situations like that the kids have to get jobs at an early age and some of the only places that will hire under say, 16, are restaurants.

I wasn't surprised to hear that Heather from Texas ate her parents.

"I wasn't surprised to hear that Heather from Texas ate her parents."

[quote] Texas winner Paul’s fall from the top.

Sad to read. Cheffing is very unhealthy, low-paying, and stressful. I briefly considered it a very long time ago until I worked a summer in college as a waiter and saw all of the back-of-the-house drama. Long hours, physical labor on your feet, and you're dealing with lots of egos. I have respect for these chefs who make a successful career out of it though.

It's also -- strangely -- a very straight bros' club. Odd when you consider that the kitchen is almost universally considered the domain of wives/mothers..

I just got to the episode in the Texas season where Heather tries to throw Beverly under the bus on their team challenge by bringing up shit from the previous challenge. It seems apparent that most all the other contestants hated her.

In that same episode she muses that she's 40 and single because her career hasn't allowed her have enough time to have a relationship.

I love when miserable, disgusting, shrews say this as though they're fooling anyone .

I avidly watched Top Chef from Season 2 (Ilan / Marcel) through Season 10 (Seattle, Kristen Kish the winner). I somehow missed Season 1.

My favorite competitions were the basic knife skills contests. Hung was amazing (breaking down chickens at lightning speed, IIRC). Casey struggled to dice onions.

Dale Talde, I hated because of his bad temper. Years later, when he was a judge, he said he went to anger management classes & it changed him. I really respected him for that.

I liked Padma. Really beautiful but also really articulate about food. You can tell she really does love food.

I also hated Dale and laughed when he came back during the All-Star season and started crying about how much he had changed. He had no self-awareness because up until his elimination on All-Stars he showed he was exactly the same person as he was on his original season.

Padma is a much better host than Katie Lee, but she's awful to deal with. Tom apparently hates her.

When Dale did All-Stars, he was totally different. Very affable.

I disagree. He was still a shit talker who thought he was better than everyone else.

I like judge Gail Simmons as well as Padma. I think if the 2 of them walked into a bar, more men would gravitate to Gail.

I like Tom C. as a judge as well. On one episode, they talked about how Tom was an icon in the bear community.

R72 they talk about Tom being a Bear Lover's Dream in just about every reunion!

I like Gail too and prefer her over Padma.

Fabio made me laugh, especially when Jamie kept making scallops. (This is Top Chef, not Top Scallops.)

I liked it when Eric Ripert would appear. Talk about hot and sexy. Jamie was disrespectful to him. Something is wrong with Jamie. Eric Ripert is so polite to everybody.

Forgot to say, I have not heard that Fabio is a Trump supporter.

Jamie was convinced that she was the best chef ever created and that all of her competitors were inferior to her.

Which explains why she always avoided cooking, R76!

Padma was definitely hitting the vag when she said out of nowhere during the All-Stars reunion that she would date Elise, Casey and motorboat Antonia.

R77, or only cooked scallops,

Tom has a bear body type, but is surprisingly hairless and fair-skinned considering he's Italian.

I like that they sent Heather home the competition after her freak out on Bev. It seemed intentional as the pretty boy's dish was obviously the worst, but especially after Tom made the pointed comment that if she had known to use the pressure cooker like Bev had, she'd be safe... like Bev.

I also like that Bev didn't fake any sadness about her being booted off and didn't seemingly hug her goodbye.

Love this blog post about Heather's elimination:

But in the end, a bitch named karma reared her gorgeous head and sank her fangs into Heather. Heather’s stroganoff at least looked appetizing on screen — beef with spaetzle is always a delicious combo — but the meat was horrendously cooked because she couldn’t use the pressure cooker properly. Emeril could hardly even tell what animal or creature the meat came from. Patti guessed Bigfoot. I hereby nominate Patti for permanent judge in place of Hugh. Like Dakota last week, Heather made an inexcusably glaring mistake in execution and was sent packing. Beverly noted a sense of “personal satisfaction” from Heather’s elimination. I’m with her. I hope she enjoyed a nice, long maniacal laugh that night. God, I hope Nyesha creams Heather in Last Chance Kitchen.

I reveled in Heather's elimination, but was most pleased at the fate of Top Chef Just Desserts homophobic bully, Morgan, who called fellow contestants "girls" and "fairies" and kept letting everyone know that he was a real man. Well, once again, karma is a bitch.

Gay hottie Yigit with Morgan in the background.

I loved Just Desserts...wish they would bring it back. Morgan was a psycho though (and a pedo!!!)

I've heard whispers and rumors that the next Top Chef season is an all-stars season.

Yes, R86, it is.

R87, a full all-stars, or half all-stars with returning chefs competing against new ones?

Just got to the BBQ Challenge on the Tx season and I can't with these twats Sara and Lindsay.

Sara drones on that she thinks Ed is gross and untrustworthy because he told the truth about how her bestie Heather won two challenges using his recipe... she finds that "Dark" but it's okay for Heather to throw people under the bus left and right. I guess Sara really enjoyed eating Heather's fat pussy.

And then Lindsay cuntily says she doesn't want to be on Bev's team because all the team challenges that occur Bev is the reason for each team's downfall which was actually a blatant lie. It was Heather's dish that had them on them on the bottom and it was the steaks, not the shrimp Bev worked on in the other challenge that had them on the bottom.

These bitches are obviously just racist twats!

Also for all the shit the coven talked about Bev cooking Asian, Lindsay didn't mind using Asian influences in her BBQ challenge.

I don’t know why so many hate on the Texas season. So many bitches to root against!

Does anyone think that Lindsay and Michelle Bernstein were lesbian lovers at one time? They certainly acted as if they were.

"I've heard whispers and rumors that the next Top Chef season is an all-stars season."

Please, no more Marcel!

LIndsay had that undercurrent of bitchiness that I've always suspected is rampant at a Michelle Bernstein restaurant.

They're both mean girls.

I love how all those bitches from the TX season keep blaming everything on "editing."

You had to be a bitch 18 hours a day in order for them to get that much footage to "edit you" into a bitch.

What I remember about the TX season is how much all the "mean girls," bitched about Bev's cooking Asian and yet the fat one Heather, baked the same cake twice, Sara, the other fat one, made risotto at least 5 times and Lindsey seemed to only ever b able to make fish.

The producers and judges seemed to be on to them though and punished them accordingly. I remember when Lindsey finally won a quick challenge and Padma was quick to tell her she only won because Beverly hadn't plated everything and if she had, she would have won it by a mile.

Speaking of Drumpf supporters, that contestant Sam Talbot is also one.

I never understood why so many liked him.

Because he had smoldering hot looks, but zero personality.

I find nothing remotely hot about him.

Fat Heather doing her bullying.

R97, where did it come out that he's a Trumper?

"I find nothing remotely hot about him."

Had it been said he was a Warren supporter, you would have orgasmed

Speak for yourself, R102. Sorry you're so easily swayed.

I've never found anything hot about him. Further, I'm not a Warren supporter.

But good on you!

If there was any doubt that Fabio is a Drumpf supporter / Rethuglican one of his most recent posts was about what a hero and national treasure Rush Limbaugh is and if YOU don't understand that then you have no business representing the country and you're not a patriot.

First season was the best because of the evil red headed lesbian.

R104 I've always despised his clueless, greasy, wild-n-crazy guy Euro-trash machismo.

r104 that is funny given how much cock he likes.

Oh man, R104, I liked Fabio. He seemed like such a charming and charismatic guy. I wish I hadn't read that. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

R108 he's posted a lot of shit like that. It's usually always vague but always just as boot licking.

I don't follow him on social media, R108; I only knew him on Top Chef and he seemed like such a warm person. It sucks to know that he's a GOP supporter.

Just re-watched the season with Brooke and Shirley and there's no way that Brooke should have won. Throughout the dinner and the judging, there were more problems with Brooke's meal and Shirley received more praise. But this is how they seem to always do it on Top Chef (case in point, Voltagio (sp) Brothers).

Anyway, Shirley should have won but we already know that Brooke only agreed to come back if she was guaranteed the win.

I just saw Michael Voltaggio on a Food Network show. He looks painfully thin and sickly. Is there something wrong with him? He's much thinner than in this picture.

Both brothers have addiction issues, R112.

I watched from the beginning - it was a good show, but I remember thinking - who the fuck is Katie Lee Joel and why is she on this show?

Padma brought a sense of style and elegance to the show that was severely needed. She was a very successful model, wrote her own successful cookbook, and was with Salman Rushdie (!!) at the time. Plus she was a person of color, not some vapid blondie with implants.

She was a real catch. And now she's probably more famous than Salman Rushdie - that's gotta feel good.

I feel like Tom is given way too much credit - he could be replaced with any chef and have the same critiques. He's blah, his attitude sucks, and he doesn't provide much excitement or criticism. He's a dime a dozen, yet they seem to love his ass.

Gail Simmons is just a writer who likes to eat. She's taken those appearances and has run with it. Don't like her - she just reminds me of many young/middle-aged Jewish girls who think they know all about food and the better things in life. If she wasn't from Canada, I'd swear she'd fit in with some girls I know from Long Island.

Tom can't be replaced, he's the creator of the show.

And while Padma adds more than Katie Lee, she's often unnecessarily bitchy and she's a try hard with her innuendo. Also, some of the other chefs often look like they're rolling their eyes at her with their critique.

I like Gail Simmons. She's the only one I think is authentic and her critiques (and background) are more informed than Padma.

Also, having just watched the last season where Brooke won, the brief clip between her and Shirley seemed to indicate she knew Shirley should have won. I liked how generous she was with her words. to Shirley.

I felt bad for Marcel when he was anally raped on national television. He was annoying, bit he didn’t deserve to have his back hole cheery popped like that.

To be fair, R116, he styled his hair like he wanted it.

My dad and I are both huge Top Chef fans, and talk about it all the time when it’s on. We call the bit where Tom barges in during the Elimination Challenge prep and passive-aggressively bugs the chefs when they’re working their asses off the “peer and sneer”.

Tom urges you to call your Senators:

If you work in restaurants or care at all about the hard working individuals in the industry:

please call your Representative and your Senators. You can be connected to the capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121

Demand that we are part the federal stimulus plan

Padma cooking with her kids during quarantine

Top Chef Masters winner Floyd Cardoz dies of COVID-19

Is this the thread where we post about the new Top Chef All Stars?

I follow Padma, Tom and Gail on Instagram. Padma is all about being hot. Tom is a mensch...great guy, very liberal from what I can tell. Gail is cool, not that interesting but I like when she describes food, she makes me hungry.

It's amazing how much older some of the contestants on all-Stars look and how Padma, Gail, and Tom look like they did when the chefs were competing in their regular seasons.

Padma has the supermodel looks, but Gail seems cool and has killer tits that Padma doesn't like to be upstaged by.

R122, there is a thread about this season's Top Chef All Stars linked below.

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Scandals and behind the scenes look at some not so savory things.

Making sausage for Gronk

I don't see how they could shoot another season of this show for a couple years.