Top Chef's COLLAPSE is COMPLETE. Padma announces she is quitting the franchise.

I guess her Burrito Belly is getting too big.

No!!! We'll have to deal with dumb shit Gail.

She was a great host I thought. I can understand why she is leaving, of course. Twenty years at anything is probably time for some sort of big change. She has money enough not to have to hustle and float risky restaurant launches, etc.

Are they going to bring Katie Lee Joel back?

Are the runours of Padma being a lesbian and having had a relationship with Susan Sarandon true? A friend who works in the industry said it is " well known gossip"

Padma's been with some unattractive (physically) males. I like her, I think she's intelligent and beautiful, but she is a golddigger extraordinaire.

DL lesbian golddigger (targeting men) is a good combination. You don't really get emotionally attached to the man, eye$ on the prize.

This story was posted on Deadline at 9:22 a.m. What's your best guess as to what time Katie Lee called the Magical Elves offices?

Surprised people are still watching this.

If they replace her with Andy Cohen we should organize protests

R8, the show, the production value, and the level of chef talent has drastically improved.

Padma is a "golddigging clam-slammer" of the highest order. She always picks very wealthy mens to fuck her& make her babies.

Her late BF left her child almost 2 billion-it turned out Adam Dell was the bio daddy(brother to Michael Dell). She was yelling at Adam Dell in The Château Marmont when she was caught lying to him about paternity of his daughter. What a lying Dyke bitch Padma is?

According to her, paternity was between Dell and another guy. Dell is super-rich, of course. IIRC, she did a paternity test. Not sure why she wouldn't want Dell to be the father since he's so wealthy.

I love Padma. Her voice is sexy.

Kind of sexy, but she sounds like she just took Percocet.

To be honest, hardly surprising. I've been a devoted--nay, rabid-- fan since the series premiered. Of late, to be honest, I've grown tired of challenges that defy common sense and certainly strain the creativity of the chefs involved. "We'd like you to make us THREE Wellingtons, but you can only use food left behind in the refrigerators of students who flunked out of the London School of Economics. One of the Wellingtons must reflect the economic theme--pre-Brexit--and one of them must be ANIMATRONIC. You have fifteen minutes..GO!" It harkens back to some of the most outlandish challenges of the early days of series. I still shudder when I think of the challenge where they had to prepare a quick fire from food in the vending machines of a gas station. "I've prepared a Vienna sausage tartare, which I've presented on a bed of Lorna Doones, with a gastrique made from Red Bull and Sour Patch gummies. Please to enjoy."

To their credit, the producers seem to have been more proactive in recruiting chefs who both known their way around a kitchen and are generally likeable. Gone are the days--thank God-- of "I'm not your bitch, BITCH!" A friend who works in the industry (though not on Top Chef) has ventured the opinion that this is a result of the high favorability of chefs (bakers?) on shows such as The Great British Bakeoff. The chefs in the most recent series of TC seem to genuinely like each other and are supportive...with, of course, the exception of Tom Goetter, who they had to work very hard to keep from the "Villain Edit."

I've thoroughly enjoyed this cohort of chefs, and am generally okay with the final three, though I will miss Ali. Poor Gabri, whose back story is really compelling, seems to burn at least one dish every challenge, in much the same way that Dawn always ran out of time. Perhaps it's time that we all "pack our knives and go."

Awww ... did she get bored with all the travel, great food, getting drunk on fine wines (and a LOT of Vodka) and getting paid extremely well?

Can we begin the pity party now?

I never liked this cunt so good riddance.

I love this gal. Smart, fun, and drop-dead gorgeous.

I like Gail and I liked the spin-off she hosted w/Johnny Iuzzini (a pastry chef), Top Chef: Just Desserts.

It was always quite obvious Padma was drunk as a skunk on every show.

I love Padma. I think she's a terrific hostess with charm and natural charisma. Her voice does make her sound spacey though -- like she's on her second joint.

I was tired of her acting like an important person.

I never liked the haughty cunt. Nor do I like the ALSO insanely self-important Katie Lee. Thankfully, Tom is there to make it BEARable. He's fond of his gay following.

[quote] "I was tired of her acting like an important person."

Same, R22. The main reason I can't stand her.

[quote] To their credit, the producers seem to have been more proactive in recruiting chefs who both known their way around a kitchen and are generally likeable.

Yes! Those first few seasons, they had culinary school students and line cooks from Chili's competing!

Aww, bummer, but I get it. I was just thinking about this last night as I was watching this week’s episode. I believe she’s probably a terror IRL, but she is a very good host. I really do enjoy her on the show.

They should just give all her duties to Tom and Gail, and rotate out guest judges. I don’t want some newbie coming in on a regular basis.

Or, maybe they should just replace the panel with a soft butch sous chef.

I do not like Padma, who fancies herself a sexpot. She doesn't contribute anything but a monotone, RBF, and sour attitude.

How on earth have no queens done Padma for Snatch Game??? She's so distinctive.

Bravo is reportedly in talks with Hilaria Baldwin to replace her!

Her replacement will be a black woman. Bet on it.

[quote]I like Gail and I liked the spin-off she hosted w/Johnny Iuzzini (a pastry chef), Top Chef: Just Desserts.

The winner.

[quote] Her replacement will be a black woman. Bet on it.

And?

My money is on Giada.

Giada would be a good choice. She can be critical and a little bitchy, like Padma was.

Not Rachael Ray or someone like her, though. Ugh.

Gale is kind of rah-rah, but she is incisive, I think. Tom is definitely bitchy and grouchy.

I think it's going to be harder for TC to replace Padma than it was for Project Runway to replace Heidi Klum.

Because Heidi didn’t know what she was doing.

I told this story years ago. A friend was close with someone who work on PR. Told a story about Michael Kors and Nina howling about Heidi behind her back about how she has no thoughts, just reads whatever the producers would write for her on her cards. Can’t recall the exact dialogue but I could definitely hear Michael and Nina saying all of it.

Heidi's choice of red carpet looks is proof that she knows nothing about fashion.

I can't believe it's still on.

I watched the first two or three seasons. Some guy at work was obsessed with the show and he used to argue with people about eliminations based on how terrible their food was. He would describe in detail what was wrong with it taste and texturewise.

I was like, Justin, you can't taste or even smell their food. It's TV. You're repeating what other people say about this food but you say it as if you tasted it yourself.

And I realized what a crazy concept it is to watch shows like this and adopt opinions about things we have zero firsthand knowledge of. And I lost interest.

I cut my cable cord a year ago and I am glad I did. I can't believe how long some network shows have been airing. I just learned Grey's Anatomy is still on TV.

That's so crazy to me. I lost interest after a few seasons. So much onset drama with the blonde chick everyone hated, Isaiah Washington calling a costar a faggot, etc. And the silly hospital was always under attack with helicopters flying into it and bombs going off inside of it. A coworker of mine has watched every single season and I can't fathom remaining interested in any TV show, much less one that silly, for two full decades. Good lord.

I like Padma Lakshmi but yeah it's way past time to move on from biting things and going "mmm!" and ending every episode with "this was a hard decision, but someone has to go." What a job.

Agreed. Top Chef never worked for me because food is about taste, whereas a design competition allows us to judge along at home.

[quote] To their credit, the producers seem to have been more proactive in recruiting chefs who both known their way around a kitchen and are generally likeable. Gone are the days--thank God-- of "I'm not your bitch, BITCH!"

I haven't watched it in years, but I used to enjoy it precisely because there were so many love-to-hate-'em reality TV villains. Marcel, Stephen Aspirino, etc. That was when the show was fun.

Marcel was a victim!

I loved the early seasons (although I missed the Katie Lee season(s)) of Top Chef. I liked Hung Nguyen, etc.

My favorite competitions were the ones involving knife skills and other basic kitchen skills. Like dicing onions, breaking down chicken, etc. Remember Casey (looked like Jennifer Aniston)? Could not even dice onions very quickly.

Good luck on Bravo finding a thin, attractive female who not only loves food, but is knowledgeable about it, and won't gain tons of weight over several years...

A fat woman would certainly be less pleasant to look at, but she'd be more believable.

It's Bravo. They don't need a hot woman. They need hot guys and middle-aged to 60 year-old woman with a cut and pasted face and an alcohol addiction and terrible vocabulary for entertainment

“Top Chef” is a good series with great production values. They’ll be fine without Padma.

Top Chef needs more half-naked chefs, contestants and guest judges.

Andy Baraghani is available to host.

[quote]No!!! We'll have to deal with dumb shit Gail.

R2 Gail trained under Jean-Georges Vongerichten, she knows her shit.

[quote] lesbian golddigger (targeting men) is a good combination. You don't really get emotionally attached to the man, eye$ on the prize.

R6 I call that "the Amber Heard". Or maybe we should call it "the Padma"?

[quote]It was always quite obvious Padma was drunk as a skunk on every show.

R20 A contestant on one of the early seasons of Top Chef told me this. He referred to her as "Padma Licks Me" which was dumb but hilarious.

USA Today suggest five possible replacements. Or, Gail could move to host and one of these could take her place, although I don't see Action Bronson getting the job, nor Nadiya Hussein ( wrong show).

Hello, r42!

I'd like to see Kristen Kish as the host. Do you think they will offer it to Gail first and let her say yea or nay? If they cast that Action guy, they will have to bleep most of the show! I've watched F*ck, That's Delicious and he and his friends were good on it. But I know he just lost a lot of weight. I'm not sure he'd want to risk gaining much weight back.

They will offer it to Gail first. They won't offer it to a man.

I like Gail and I also like the spinoff just desserts mainly because all of the contestants on both seasons were the most batshit insane people I've ever seen on TV. Maybe it's all the sugar but they were all f****** crazy.

That reminds me of how also season 2 of top chef is my favorite again because by and large every contestant on that season was insane especially the finalists.

Gail doesn't have what it takes to be the Top Chef host, being a good host is a certain skillset. You need Padma's presence, and she lacks that. She works great in her supporting role as a judge, not for the main attraction.

I stopped watching years ago, but I fondly remember one of my favorite DL quotes about one of the contestants in one of the earlier seasons - some fat dude with sausage fingers, "he looks like his balls smell like hamburgers"

[quote]That reminds me of how also season 2 of top chef is my favorite again because by and large every contestant on that season was insane especially the finalists.

I think Season 2 is still possibly the best season, even though Tom & Magical Elves have made very commendable efforts to dramatically increase the caliber of the cheftestants over time. That's when they really hit their stride with the show's formula, and because there were a wider array of chefs with more diverse skillsets they had more raw material to edit things for dramatic effect. Also, the show hadn't been on long enough for everyone to become a homogenized "I'm just here to win"-type, and every Quickfire wasn't worth $20k or whatever. The show wasn't popular or prestigious enough yet that every guest judge wasn't some random James Beard Award-winner that everyone pretended to pee their pants over.

Also, Season 2 had Marcel's immortal cringe-inducing rooftop freestyle rap.

R25, I had a brief encounter with Padma at the London Hotel about a month ago. We were both waiting in the lobby (me for a friend, not sure why she was there) and I had some takeout food with me. She commented on how wonderful it smelled. We chatted for a few minutes about nothing important and she couldn't have been sweeter, friendlier or more lovely.

Take that for what it's worth.

If they choose Brooke Williamson, i will pack my knives and go.

The thrill of the last 3 seasons of Fieri's Tournament of Champions has been watching 2-time loser BW get beat. She wasn't even on this last season! Maneet Chowhan beat her in ToC II, she got beat in her first match in ToC III by someone whose name I can remember; Tiffani Faison was the winner that season, and she wasn't in ToC IV when Mei Lin won.

Brooke always looks like she's about to cry. Resting cry face.

I'm very experienced at hosting........... and available.

Not only am I a model, but unlike most models, I know a thing or two about food!

Can't stand Padma. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Yeah, the season with Marcel was a good season. Was Antonia on that season, too? I liked Antonia.

Antonia was on the Chicago series.

Thanks, R65. I see Dale in that Chicago TC photo. Dale was on a TC All-Stars show and he seemed like a changed person. IIRC, he said he went to anger management classes. Good for him.

Season Two had arguably the worst winner of all seasons - Ilan Hall.

Las Vegas had the most lopsided cast, with the men being very good and only one woman , Jen Carroll, being competitive.

Yeah, Ilan was a pain. He used smoked paprika on everything.

That said, I love smoked paprika.

LGB contestants.

I liked the season with Fabio. There was a female contestant who kept using scallops. Fabio said, “This is Top Chef, not Top Scallop.”

Speaking of scallops, Richard Blais invented his banana “scallop” and then recycled that idea in a finale.

I must respectfully disagree, R67. Season 5’s Hosea “Thumbhead” Rosenberg was the worst. The only reason he won is because they over-gimmicked the final challenge while not requiring a dessert course.

[quote]I liked the season with Fabio. There was a female contestant who kept using scallops. Fabio said, “This is Top Chef, not Top Scallop.”

That was Jamie Lauren, the contestant that I hated most. She was always pissed that she didn't win and kept openly criticizing the others' dishes, although not to their faces. On All-Stars, she didn't cook for two episodes, yet was not eliminated.

Podcasters speculate replacement:

[quote]On their Ringer podcast The Watch, fellow Top Chef superfans Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan threw out Season 14 winner Brooke Williamson and Season 16 finalist Eric Adjepong as potential within-the-family options, and wildcards Samin Nosrat, Gigi Hadid, and Chrissy Teigen (“who low key might just get the job,” Greenwald predicted) from outside the tent.

You want to end the show? Get Chrissy Tiegen to host.

^Teigen, or whatever the fuck her name is.

Thanks, R73. I remember Jamie getting under Eric Ripert's skin. They went to his restaurant, Le Bernadin, and the challenge was to recreate some of the dishes on the menu there. Jamie bitched about it, how it was old-fashioned, irrelevant, and then did a bad job of recreating her assigned dish.

Eric Ripert is usually so polite and calm.

I do not care for Richard Blais. He's one of those people who speaks with his tongue always behind his teeth.

Earlier I stated that I hated Jamie the most until I realized that I had forgotten fat Heather and fat Sarah from the Texas show. They were bullies and despicable. The object of their hate, Beverly, ended up with a James Beard Award, so fuck them.

Fat Sarah told Emeril to " Fuck off" after she lost the final.

Anyway, Andy asked, “I heard from someone in production that you actually told a judge in the heat of the moment to f off.”

“I don’t believe that,” Sarah said, and then Tom Colicchio cringed, as in, uh oh, she’s lying. Andy pushed her: “You were there.”

“I did not say that. I was really emotional and really sad but I don’t remember saying that, and if I said that I didn’t mean that at all, and I think that it’s really shitty that it’s being brought up now,” Sarah said, crying.

Wow, Emeril is one of the nicer guys, IMO. She should just own it and apologize for it.

[quote]Good luck on Bravo finding a thin, attractive female who not only loves food, but is knowledgeable about it, and won't gain tons of weight over several years...

Another vote for Kristen Kish from me (LOVE her) or, of course, Melissa King. Both meet the criteria above, and both are past TC winners. KK has also already proven she can handle a TV series hosting gig. Twice. And MK is hugely likeable.

I'm choosing to believe (hope?) the producers would never go for stunt casting by hiring Chrissy Tiegen.

Can never see her without recalling somebody's joke that "Padma" is Hindi for "gold-digger."

What do you think she talked about at dinner when Salman Rushdie would have people like Don DeLillo over?

R71, Fabio was a hypocrite. He made gnocchi every chance he could. But Jamie really did overdo the scallop thing. Plus she was an emo whiner.

Jamie was amazingly self-centered. Remember the All-Stars when she convinced the other two chefs on her team to use and apple theme and each do different dishes because she said neither of the other chefs were as good and the judges would easily see that she was the best cook. Of course, one of her teammates was Carla Hall. She was always whining that she didn't win anything, because she was the best of all of them, even though she weasled her way out of not cooking for two episodes.

THIS is going to be the new host? Please, say," NO!"

Towards the end of this season it occurred to me who Sara reminds me of. It's Gail Simmons. She looks like she ate Gail Simmons.

Wasn't Chrissy Teigen canceled for telling a teenager to go kill him/herself?

Julia Roberts had Miss Teigen's number.

R81, funny I just discovered Kristen's show on NatGeo (I think?) where she travels to off the beaten path restaurants. She is great TV. Attractive. Funny. Smart. Well spoken. And a lez to boot.

I'd be totally fine with it being her.

Anyone else notice the correlation between the rising number of cooking and baking shows, and all the new weight loss pharmaceuticals?

Kristen Kish is the new Top Chef host.

This is one where the internet nailed the casting, everyone could see she was the obvious pick.

However Season 21 is taking place in WISCONSIN (!)?

No, r90. Somehow I don't think Big Pharma is in some weird plot with TV execs, who long ago realized the cost-savings of Reality TV.

Kish.

[quote] . IIRC, he said he went to anger management classes.

Pretty much half of all the chefs who reach this level of success in their careers probably need anger management.

Melissa King is busy making a voodoo doll of Kristen Kish as we speak...

Kristen Kish has much more experience being in front of camera r95, she has been on TV a lot recently.

A host doesn't cook, their only job is to have the charisma to keep people watching.

Her being a former winner of Top Chef gives her a credibility that Padma didn't have. Whenever I heard Padma give a critique, I wondered if she knew what she was talking about. Also, Kristen has a relationship with Tom and Gail, which will make the transition much easier.

I have no strong feelings about Kristen as a host (haven't seen any of her other shows), but it's not Richard Blais, Brooke Williamson or Chrissy Teigen so I'm happy.

Who is your chef crush? Some former Top Chef contestants and judges respond. Of course, some chefs have been canceled.

Will there be a Snack Purse challenge this season?

R98, Ain't that the truth!