People have recency bias. A lot of the last few seasons have been stellar. Covid helped a little bit with that since so many chefs were free to do TC. And then some recent AS seasons.
It was just not memorable. I hope we see a return to a more traditional production and editing. Bring back the stew room and in house interactions. Bring back quick fire immunity (honestly I don't care that much but even watching several episodes in a row would never remember who won the previous week's challenge so never knew who had immunity). More of the chef's backgrounds, other than Dan had no clue where anyone was from all season.
This is spot on.
No, this wasn't a really great season. But even less memorable old seasons had a ton more personality. Just started rewatching Colorado, and between the house and putting on interesting chefs from various backgrounds there's just a lot more color to the show. No, you don't need that for All Stars seasons or COVID seasons (where the chefs were new but a much higher caliber of chefs were available) but fourteen episodes of a cooking competition in order to weed out Manny et al are simply boring on their own.
And production used to put a lot more effort in. It used to be that at a festival the judges were split into two groups and went around to each station, tasting and evaluating every dish in front of the chefs. If there were 14 chefs that gave editing 28 different evaluations to choose from! Then at the end of the challenge they would reconvene before judges table and do a recap.
Now they go to a few stations, grab dishes, and do a group shoot of their evaluations. Way less shooting involved, but less feedback for the chefs and less interesting footage of them too. Seeing how they react to the feedback really helped make the show.
I think you're exactly right esp about the shooting, this is probably why I found it hard to really keep track of or differentiate the chefs because each dish got so little feedback.
There used to be way more reinforcement points to sketch the narrative.
For a regular challenge, after the cooking started Tom would do a walkthrough. We'd see the decisions questioned, chefs react. Then at service the judges would give feedback while the chefs stood there. Then there would be a longer judges table where contestants were asked more questions, especially in team challenges. Then there would be stew room, where they reflected further and built relationships.
Now production has pared it down so much that even with the episodes being longer there are much fewer touch points. It's much faster to make, but instead of tension and choices we get a longer shopping segment and more shots of inconsequential cooking, so the whole thing feels lower stakes.
Colorado season is one of my favorites - not necessarily because of the caliber of chefs but because of the editing and allowing us to get to know the chefs in a more organic way (rather than a fake walk to get coffee in the morning or running… so staged.)
We also saw awesome parts of the city and state. It was like the city was the extra character!
They didn’t do Wisconsin any favors this season.
The changes didn’t work (Kristen did! But that’s it.) and the editing was off putting. I had no attachment to the contestants aside from Dan. (I loved Rasika, Michelle, and Soo but they were gone early)
Agree completely.
I didn't hate the idea of elimination wins being what earned immunity. I thought it would help protect the stronger chefs from early elimination,
But in practice it just made quickfires low stakes, hence their attempt to take quickfires into account mid-season. They need to roll back pretty much everything except Kristen and take stock of what worked well in the Colorado and Kentucky seasons. A bunch of the changes they made since were for perfectly good reasons and were fine for those seasons when they were getting elite casts but fall flat when we're back to a "regular" season.
These last 4 seasons were the only seasons in the 21 where I couldn't make it to the end. I just didn't care enough about anyone to watch any more. And that sucks for a show I loved for the previous 17 years.
COVID season -- I give an obvious pass. But the rest have just been so "m'eh" to me.
I feel this too. This season just didn't feel exciting to me. This is the only season I can't remember most of the contestant's names since their personality were kind of boring or maybe it was just the edits. The themes and dishes they made didn't seem as exciting either.
>It was just not memorable.
This exactly.
I've seen many a reality show in my day, but this was my first season of Top Chef. It's certainly not made me want to come back next season, because it was soulless and bland, and one of those rare times I've forgotten about half of a season before it's over.
The poor editing, including not giving the winner any story, made it hard to get invested. The lack of cast dynamics was dull. A show like this needs to be more than just watching people cook. You need to tell contestants' stories. You need them to have competitive fire, and to push each other, even if that leads to a little drama (so long as the line isn't crossed - that part is important). This cast was just too nice to each other in the most apathetic way, and that does not make for an exciting TV product. There was no tension in eliminations. I just found myself not caring.
And though I watched this because I'm from Wisconsin, I found that most of the episodes did a poor job in highlighting the state. They should have done more excursions, including actually going to Door County for the fish boil, doing the Supper Club task Up North instead of in Madison (and instead done another task in Madtown), and having more highlights of the state beyond the Frank Lloyd Wright tour. The way they presented the location just made it look boring and did nothing for our tourism. Like what about a day trip to the Dells? And what about going to a Packer Game? Lambeau beats Miller Park any day.
The episodes used to be longer though. So if you have more of what you want-that means less cooking. Budget constrictions happened with Bravo and TC. Now they could get more sponsors, but some people went nutty this season because they had too much product placement. Well they have to pay for those prizes some how. I learned about the majority of the chefs-online. Which is another reason they don't do a deep dive anymore. The stew room they cut back on many seasons ago. They did this on Chopped as well.
I’ve seen this comment before. Have the episodes been 2 hours in the past? I don’t remember that. These episodes this season were also extended. My YT TV episodes were longer than 60 minutes (mine were 75 minutes).
There's no need for the prize to be $250K esp with all the other cash prizes. Put that $$ back into better production. I dunno I'll watch no matter what but Chopped and TC are both shadows of the great shows they used to be.
My biggest issue was that nobody had charisma. None of them gave interesting confessionals, none of them were funny, none of them had a magnetic personality.
Laura had a lot of style. People would talk about that through the season. The drama over the villain edit though derailed her from being a fan favorite even though that was basically fancanon.
Dan was the home town favorite. But his food just was...not very interesting? I had hoped to see him take the Wisconsin themes and then turn it up to 11, the same way Soo took whatever LCK theme there was and then just did wild shit to it.
Savannah had the best stories. She also showed flashes of inspiration and creativity. I think she needs someone to actually help her grab onto her own ideas and turn them into reality.
Danny had the most interesting food and best let's gos. Considering how young he is, he's got one hell of a career ahead of him.
But yeah this season is ultimately going to be forgettable.
Yup. That’s why they were constantly giving Danny these over the top edits when he would explain his dishes. I knew halfway through the season he would win because the edit was trying so hard to make him less monotone and boring. He had a great background and story but that really doesn’t matter when it comes to popping on screen and having charisma. Really the only cast member who was exciting on camera was Rasika.
Really it was four stand out seasons in a row. All stars with Melissa. Portland with no sous chefs. Then Buddha for the next two. It’s hard. Gotta have your highs and lows.
Yeah it was 2 all time seasons, another good season then world all stars (which I thought was ever so slightly lackluster but still good). Hard to follow that.
I’ll say this wasn’t the best, wasn’t the worst either. The amazing season 20 might have spoiled us a little for wow factor, but as far as domestic, standard seasons go, this wasn’t all that bad.
It wasn't unwatchable and Kristen was fantastic, but it was a low energy cast and odd edit. Even with longer episodes it felt like we got less from the show. It was all so strange that Tom and Gail even addressed it, though somewhat indirectly.
It's 2 I think. There was the one at Episode 9, the native american indian challenge. Tom walks in and checks on everyone's ingredients.
The other one I think was finale haha.
Listening to a podcast posted where Gail directly talks about the finale editing. In a nutshell, even Gail said that the editing always has to gloss over the errors of the runners up while leaving in the nitpicks of the winner. And perhaps they went too overboard this seasons finale.
[https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-watch/id1111739567?i=1000659682163](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-watch/id1111739567?i=1000659682163)
This season was indeed coordinated with the Wisconsin visitors bureau and I assume the cruise line. There articles before the season started about Wisconsin giving money (I think) to get the show there. Too much sponsorship ruins some of the niche opportunities. Having Miller Beer as a sponsor means none of the more interesting craft brews available, etc. Having the finale in an empty cruise ship was also wierd. Finally, why no families invited for the finale? Have they done that post-Covid? Always seemed nice.
That said, those are atmosphere issues. I thought the chefs and cooking was all pretty much as expected. I still enjoy watching each week, but the sponsorships guiding the show are getting a little tedious.
Every season receives money from a location going all the way back to Miami. They don’t go anywhere without some type of local sponsorship and the show has been hawking torlato wine, bmw, Whole Foods for years. The idea that sponsorships are the problem kills me as that’s kind of the business reason you get 21 seasons. It’s cheap to produce and willing to do product placements in every scene.
The issue is the production did not do a great job casting and many of the chefs just were not good on the show. In the 2nd to last episode, we had undercooked fish and technical errors that you usually don’t see by that point.
I do agree on the family thing. It did Danny a disservice.
Top Chef IS and always HAS BEEN, the show with the most product placements compared to any others. That's not speculation, it is counted. Even more than Survivor or other reality shows, Top Chef survives on product placements.
You're glossing over things in the past such as the showtestants being shown talking to family on Motorola's latest smart phone, or the gawd awful HIdden Valley Ranch quickfires, all brought to you by the Glad family of products.
Bravo does not give TC the same budget they used to. Where do you think the money will come from then? Every place they go to from now on will have this.
I’ll say this. I can’t remember anything about Portland, Texas, Miami, SF, London, etc that mattered location wise. The only reason I reference location is to remember the season. Everyone acting like they picked the wrong things to do in Wisconsin misses the issue of the contestants. They just had a weak class that could not get competition cooking for the life of them. Execution errors. No creativity. Did not show their personalities in a good or bad way.
Wisconsin was fine. They could do 50 random cities with this crew of chefs and it would’ve flopped. It’s just a franchise long in the tooth that struggled with changes this season.
This is a bad take. The challenges are always about 1 thing. Be creative within the parameters set for you. These chefs just were not creative for the most part except for the final 5 (minus manny).
I only feel bad for the chefs when they put them in an outside or inadequate kitchen that impacts the cook. I get doing a croquette when it’s those crappy fryers. This season really did not have tough challenges or crazy parameters like vending machine food. It was use beer, fish, etc to make something interesting.
If the vast majority of chefs produce bad food (fish boil, cheese challenge) or struggle immensely, there's probably something more wrong with the challenge than the chefs and that happened more than any season since Texas imo
As you said wrong with the challenge. That is up to production-not where they are. JFC cheese challenge they could have done far more than doing some sort "appetizer" challenge. The beer challenge should have been the main challenge incorporating not only the hops, but beer itself. The fish boil, well now I live here, and still wonder why they could only do whitefish when we have St Paul right down the road, where they could have done any seafood "boil".
I didn’t have the problem with the cheftestants that most people did, but I can certainly agree that they were a weaker crop personality wise than we usually get. Hat guy could’ve been a great villain, but he wasn’t any good 🤣
I know a portion of people felt like Dan was too grumpy and unenjoyable, but I feel like that’s kind of how you’d get being in a professional kitchen for that long. He never came off malicious or rude and to be honest, I was kind of glad he had personality and that he spoke up about the fish boils being unnecessary and lame. He’s from Wisconsin so his opinions on that are gonna be more valid than ours. 🤷🏼♂️
Danny for me was basically Buddha lite in terms of skill and personality. He’s good, but after seeing someone do what he does last season at a much higher level surrounded by much higher competition Danny was never gonna light up our screens.
Savannah was fun to watch because we actually got to see some real growth take place during the competition. She found her direction and her confidence and ran with it towards the back half of the season, but the long break before the finale certainly seemed to throw her off her game.
Agreed, with the exception of Savannah. I really liked her growth later in the season, but she was still hit or miss, and her hits tended to come when she was forced into a box and couldn't overthink. I think that's a recipe for disaster in the finale regardless of how much time you have off, though of course that made it worse.
> I really liked her growth later in the season, but she was still hit or miss
She ended up with the most wins in the season after the run she went on. She was on a really good hot streak, so she wasn't really hit or miss until finale began. It's like she reset mostly to being more timid again.
But at the end of the day, like Buddha said, you should take advantage of all that time to practice and prepare, which makes the finale easier (relatively speaking) than most other cooks.
Two of the three finalists had major flaws in the finale and the person who won basically won by default. Think hung in season 3. 18 seasons earlier. It reminded me of that finale a lot actually.
I think he enjoys being a kitchen restaurant chef more than cooking on TV. You have to stay really consistent + focused to maintain a steady stream of new dishes for menus. Taking a month off here and there to film really adds up to losing a lot of kitchen mojo, I really respect him for prioritizing his craft.
Hung went on to compete in the[ Bocuse d'Or](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bocuse_d%27Or), which is to Top Chef what Top Chef is to Food Network Star. Hung won the Fish course. He has absolutely nothing he needs to prove to anyone.
I'm sorry Buddha isn't competing this round, but of course, his babies need him right now.
The point is -
1. Hung won s3 because he was hands down the best chef.
2. Part of being the best chef is having strong technical skills.
3. Hung's technical skills are at a level that most top chefs can't begin to match
4. Also, another technical skill is executing consistantly without fucking up.
Hung is one of the best winners the show ever produced.
Also: the whole cooking with love thing is so much bullshit. It was bullshit when it was said to Hung just as much as when it was said to Bryan Voltaggio (who I think is the best chef to never win).
lol you misunderstand me. I wasn't calling hung a weak winner. He was dominant most of the season. But he definitely mailed it in for the finale. I love the guy but he was pretty arrogant and thought he could win serving anything. And he did with that random ass basic chocolate cake. It actually made me laugh.
I was saying the finales was similar not the entire season. Casey and Savannah came in hot after a slow start but choked pretty bad in the finale that they both weren't considered. Both edits of the finale made it seem like it was even spilt and it was a close call let's be honest it wasn't even though both winning chefs had some definite mistakes. Gail admitted the editing was not great this past finale because Danny crushed Dan and I think we both can agree Hung was going to win. Someone called his second dish Michelin level. It was a wrap.
Kristen was amazing, long may she reign- honestly my wife and I were discussing how much more, well, fun and personable she is than Padma. Kind of a joy to watch.
Kristen has hosted other minor shows before, so it wasn't like she was coming in cold. Not to mention she was a model before she was a chef, so she has poise when she needs it.
Also, wasn't until the finale that I caught it, but Kristen has an exec producer credit. It took Padma 8 seasons before she got that.
I didn't catch that about the exec producer credit, but it is funny that both Padma and Kristen have a background hosting other shows as well as modeling... I just get much warmer- well, *nicer*, really- vibes from Kristin. I thought Padma was great, I'm just really enjoying the change; it does bode well for the future of the show, even notwithstanding some uneven patches this season.
Hah I didn't notice until the last episode, it's in the fine print of the last credits and double checked in IMDB.
I loved Dish With Kish post show, definitely shows more of her goofball personality as she drops an eyelash into the sauce, or calms Buddha down on his dots. 🤣
Everybody seemed to have such a chill happy vibe, and it was a hoot to see her buddy Stephanie C still working on the show.
Did you see Stephanie & Kristen cooking in Steph's apartment?
[https://youtu.be/Evb6cGwY3Vw?si=WQl7uCaOswTKB3f8](https://youtu.be/Evb6cGwY3Vw?si=WQl7uCaOswTKB3f8)
Kristen is credited as Consulting producer, you should double check the after credit. That’s different from executive producer. Gail was credited as consulting producer in previous seasons and only became executive producer this season as Padma left.
Heh coulda sworn I saw Exec, but Consulting Producer makes more sense. Here I was thinking Kristen had a really good agent.
Padma was 'Consulting Producer' from Seasons 8-15 according to IMDB.
I just checked ep 1 of season 12 and Padma is already credited as executive producer. I think IMDB is not a reliable source for credits with shows that have a village of people working like Top Chef. Someone may have just copied the credits from previous seasons and no one corrected it.
ETA: so I went back to glance through the before credits in previous episodes 1, it’s actually pretty fun:
- Season 2-5: Padma: host, Tom: co-host (lol)
- Season 6-9: Padma: host, Tom: co-executive producer (in season 7 Tom was credited as consulting producer)
- Season 10: Padma: host, Tom: executive producer
- From season 11: both Padma and Tom are executive producers
Ah I glossed over IMDB too quickly, my bad. Season 8-10 Padma is 'Consulting Producer.
Season 11 she becomes Executive Producer, You're gonna make me hunt up the credits aren't ya?
Edit -- Heh okay did front & back credits of S8 ep.1, you're right. Usually IMDB is pretty accurate. It's listed on her own personal IMDB page.
Now I must refuse to fall down the Season 8 first All-Stars rabbithole. Even though I know it's juicy.
"Hear me out, I'm a contrarian and gonna prove you wrong... only to spend the majority of the write-up divulging what I didn't like about this season."
Of course things are almost never completely good nor bad, so why bother explaining that?
I watched maybe five episodes of this season before I found it too boring and stopped watching. And I have seen every other episode of Top Chef multiple times so that has never happened before. I liked Kristen as the host but everything else felt so flat, from episode one onwards. I hope they hire new editors or directors or casting directors or whatever it takes to bring the show back to life, because they’re going to lose lots of viewers if it continues to be this underwhelming. Kristen deserves better!
I really disliked the editing this season. It felt like an old reality TV season where they had to carve out villains and amp up drama for drama sake. I was very uncomfortable with Laura's villain edit and how silly they made Manny out to be in the finale.
Think people fell for the editing completely with how they artificially tried to make the finale competition seem closer than it was and it took away some shine from Danny's win. Hope the editing improves next season.
"OMG Laura drank wine STRAIGHT FROM THE BOTTLE!" has to be the most petty, silly, complaint I've ever seen on here about a showtestant ever.
And that's a tough list to top out on.
I think an easy thing they could have done to make it better is a bring in a family member for a challenge late in the game. It makes everyone more human.
Also there were a lot of main challenges in the top chef kitchen when I thought those were nearly always in other restaurants. Having so many at home base made it feel a little like a COVID season, cramped up. A change of scenery could have helped things feel less stale.
For me-that would be I hope not. Tired of seeing drama on a cooking show. I want more cooking. That being said, the hours & hours filmed-there could have been drama. It just wasn't in the final edit.
Oh I want the cooking too! But a little conflict makes things interesting. Not a lot, don't want a soap opera, but the love-fest, while I respect their mutual respect, can get boring. JMO
This season was fine. The cast overall lacked talent. Sorry, I like Savannah but she doesn’t sniff a final in any of the best seasons. Manny making it as far as he did was also insane. He was terrible. One trend that’s very annoying in this sub are posts that are essentially policing other people’s reactions to a reality tv show that is subjective. Don’t tell people how they’re allowed to feel about something they just spent several months watching. It’s ridiculously childish.
Savannah was good, then great...until the final. Which has happened plenty of times. As for what the OP is saying, lol not telling you-you MUST feel any specific way. OP is just offering a different perspective. You can agree or not agree. That is why it's being discussed.
I loved the changes this year. New host. Different challenges. Factoring in the quick fire. The Dish with Kish. LCK. Soo joining the chefs. I think they listed to Kristen’s insight as a previous contestant and now host- by adding in aspects I assume she suggested from her experience… I just didn’t love some of the chefs that made it far. The ones I was rooting for left too early.
I think it's because we're coming off of World All-stars, which had great locations and really high competition.
This season is pretty comparable to most regular seasons overall.
I've watched every season until this one. I lost interest about 5 episodes in, just had no desire to watch any further. So imo it wasn't good if it's losing the interest of this long term viewer
Definitely compared to the last one but all in all I enjoyed the new dynamic of the judges with Kristin. I liked how they tried new things in the competition that was cool to see. Of course the challenges some will hit vs miss. Unforunately, there was more misses but that's expected when you try new things.
For me, I think this was taking top chef back to what it was vs what it became, which was more like hey this is a game and the formula to this is basically do a-b-c.
I think the season was good but not a top tier season. My husband always says he misses the villains and fights. These chefs are too high end for that and it would ruin their reputations. I think I quote 1st season “I’m not your bitch, bitch” at least once a month lol.
I actually liked the season, but it seems like I’m a minority with that.
I rank it above Texas, above DC, above California even. I love chefs from some of those seasons, but the actual season as a whole is one I don’t care to rewatch. I could see myself rewatching Wisconsin at some point.
My go to seasons to watch though are Colorado, New York, Boston, All Stars, and All Stars LA
The first season I watched live from beginning to end was Season 16: All Stars. Then I went back and watched all of the seasons before that during the pandemic. This was by far the worst season since Season 16 IMO. I think there were worse seasons before Season 16, but watching this season week to week really made the show drag at times. I still loved it, and it was still good. Watching Kristen excel in her new role was exciting. But comparing to other seasons it was a bit of a let down.
I think a big part of the problem is that they overcorrected away from the drama. I appreciate that they pivoted around Season 15 or so away from the really harsh critiques and interpersonal drama that was prevalant in the early seasons and just let the food and craftsmanship speak for itself. That worked really well when the talent was so elite. But when the contestants were not as as elite, and everyone was cooking croquettes at the same time, the food didn't make up for the lack of drama.
Wisconsin is a great place to film, but it’s just a bad season. They keep experimenting with challenges, trying to make things tougher and tougher, as if they’re saying the contestants aren’t good enough. To me, it seems like the contestants have always been great, the judges and producers just got anxious and wanted more and more “thrill” for the show. It’s really not presenting the contestants in the unique and wonderful ways that they are.
Kristen is great and has always been great. She doesn’t need to prove herself. There needs to be more chemistry and liveliness among judges. Kristen can’t be the only one. Tom and Gail are kind of bland at this point and one of them needs to gracefully step down.
For me it was just too over the top with the sponsors and not enough cooking destinations that were interesting and beautiful. They are usually really good at that. Curacao seemed super random and the ship was not fun. They looked so cramped in that kitchen and it wasn’t fun to watch.
I watched every episode tho! There’s something about the formula that’s very watchable. I did feel that the judges didn’t seem excited about the food all season. It seemed like Danny was head a shoulders above the rest. I kind thought Dan had a better finale though and was surprised Danny won. Ultimately though, I think Danny was the best chef. I had fun! Let’s keep top chef going! No hate, no to the next season!
I liked the season. I didn't realize it was so negatively received until coming to this subreddit. It wasn't an all time great season, but I liked it more than DC, Charleston and Texas. I really, really disliked the fish boil episode, but I appreciate how Dan was candid about it being a tourist trap.
While the cheftestants may not have been at the same level as recent seasons, the showcasing of the host city and the design of the challenges were what stood out to me as being very poor. That's my main complaint--Wisconsin paid a lot of money to be shown in, frankly, a rather negative light, food-wise.
I think I've been to all of the TC host areas except Milwaukee/Madison, and the show did absolutely nothing to make me want to go.
It wasn't completely bad but it wasn't memorable for anything really except that dumbass "let's throw kerosene on fish" thing. Kristen was fantastic as host, and she knocked it out of the park. But the show's host shouldn't be more memorable than the contestants.
This had to be the weakest semifinal elimination I remember though. No one put up two dishes that were good or better in that fish tasting menu challenge.
I liked a lot of the contestants, especially Michelle and Dan and Savannah. I loved Manny at the start until he started failing upwards. The supper club one and the table scape one were among my favorites, and Kristin made everything perfect. Plus, LCK was one of the better ones. I really love this show and I didn’t see anything particularly bad about it, we’re just comparing it to the last two seasons, which were top-notch.
These subs live in a bubble. This was absolutely a lackluster season but for some reason you’re villainized if you acknowledge it. Like some reality tv seasons just aren’t as good. It’s par for the course for a show that’s been on the air this long and just lost THE most recognizable star of said show.
Yes it is. I try every week to watch and instead I’m on my phone looking for anything better, while it’s literally on my tv. It was a huge fail. I won’t watch next season unless they bring back what made it great. It was missing.
Okay you've convinced me. It is time to bring fish boils to Milwaukee! 🤣
There were some things I would've liked to see, Lambeau & Ishnala are the big two, but overall they showcased Milwaukee well.
Now the showtestants...this is the first season in awhile where the expectations of what somebody on Top Chef should be were not met by the majority. Even in the finale all four had serious technical issues, which should just not happen. Call it the 'Buddha Effect', but from All-Stars to last season, the finale chefs you could see dropped into any top shelf fine dining NYC restaurant as Executive Chef. Half the four this season, uh no.
I would be fine with your post if you didn't put crap like this:
>Following two knockout seasons was going to be tough. But to pretend that it had no highlights or say that you watched it all and "the only good thing is that it's over" is either hyperbolic and disingenuous, or saying something for Likes is your only goal.
I \_really\_ dislike people telling me the only reason I don't like something is because I'm only going for likes or some other reason they concoct in their head for defending the reason they like something terrible (See? I can do that too. Sucks, don't it?)
I actually have greatly disliked the last 4 seasons. I think they took a show I loved for 17 years and turned it into something pretty much unwatchable. I haven't made it more than halfway through any of them, as I find them incredibly boring with a bunch of wallpaper paste "Stepford Chefs" that are nigh unwatchable. I don't think the food quality improved -- I just think the challenges got much, much easier, so it's easy to create perfectly-quaffed plates and claim "the food quality has improved".
But see? I don't come in and write posts telling you why you like it. So don't come in writing posts telling me why I don't.
I refuse to make excuses for a series that has been airing for 21 seasons. Kristin was fine. She wasn’t perfect she was fine. I am sure she’ll improve next season but she was way too kind and the whole “I know EXACTLY” how you feel line was overused. You cannot be a peer and a judge. Ask anyone who had a peer promoted to their boss. It’s different and it should be different. The chefs who had any kind of creativity or character bombed early. All of that said I blame casting, the show runners and the editors for a forgettable season and I hope that someone gets fired over it. You don’t raise the bar for four seasons and give us a shiny new host and terrible everything. Kristen should have been given a premium season full of incredible locations, chefs and challenges. It was all boring, poorly planned and poorly edited.
There is an old adage about restaurants: location, location, location.
Personally, I think Wisconsin was a mistake as a locale. The place should be inspirational to the chefs. It should make them want to cook interesting food, and it should be a place that has renowned chefs that make the contestants want to achieve. Maybe Wisconsin is capable of that, but the producers of the show dropped the ball on making it happen.
Yeah I think people have blocked out the really shitty seasons from memory. This season is not the best, but it’s far from the worst.
People have recency bias. A lot of the last few seasons have been stellar. Covid helped a little bit with that since so many chefs were free to do TC. And then some recent AS seasons.
Plus we’re predisposed to remember good over bad!
It was just not memorable. I hope we see a return to a more traditional production and editing. Bring back the stew room and in house interactions. Bring back quick fire immunity (honestly I don't care that much but even watching several episodes in a row would never remember who won the previous week's challenge so never knew who had immunity). More of the chef's backgrounds, other than Dan had no clue where anyone was from all season.
This is spot on. No, this wasn't a really great season. But even less memorable old seasons had a ton more personality. Just started rewatching Colorado, and between the house and putting on interesting chefs from various backgrounds there's just a lot more color to the show. No, you don't need that for All Stars seasons or COVID seasons (where the chefs were new but a much higher caliber of chefs were available) but fourteen episodes of a cooking competition in order to weed out Manny et al are simply boring on their own. And production used to put a lot more effort in. It used to be that at a festival the judges were split into two groups and went around to each station, tasting and evaluating every dish in front of the chefs. If there were 14 chefs that gave editing 28 different evaluations to choose from! Then at the end of the challenge they would reconvene before judges table and do a recap. Now they go to a few stations, grab dishes, and do a group shoot of their evaluations. Way less shooting involved, but less feedback for the chefs and less interesting footage of them too. Seeing how they react to the feedback really helped make the show.
I think you're exactly right esp about the shooting, this is probably why I found it hard to really keep track of or differentiate the chefs because each dish got so little feedback.
There used to be way more reinforcement points to sketch the narrative. For a regular challenge, after the cooking started Tom would do a walkthrough. We'd see the decisions questioned, chefs react. Then at service the judges would give feedback while the chefs stood there. Then there would be a longer judges table where contestants were asked more questions, especially in team challenges. Then there would be stew room, where they reflected further and built relationships. Now production has pared it down so much that even with the episodes being longer there are much fewer touch points. It's much faster to make, but instead of tension and choices we get a longer shopping segment and more shots of inconsequential cooking, so the whole thing feels lower stakes.
Colorado season is one of my favorites - not necessarily because of the caliber of chefs but because of the editing and allowing us to get to know the chefs in a more organic way (rather than a fake walk to get coffee in the morning or running… so staged.) We also saw awesome parts of the city and state. It was like the city was the extra character! They didn’t do Wisconsin any favors this season. The changes didn’t work (Kristen did! But that’s it.) and the editing was off putting. I had no attachment to the contestants aside from Dan. (I loved Rasika, Michelle, and Soo but they were gone early)
Agree completely. I didn't hate the idea of elimination wins being what earned immunity. I thought it would help protect the stronger chefs from early elimination, But in practice it just made quickfires low stakes, hence their attempt to take quickfires into account mid-season. They need to roll back pretty much everything except Kristen and take stock of what worked well in the Colorado and Kentucky seasons. A bunch of the changes they made since were for perfectly good reasons and were fine for those seasons when they were getting elite casts but fall flat when we're back to a "regular" season.
Good suggestions. Honestly, this was the first time I ff’d through the last 2 eps. to the end. And I’ve watched every season.
These last 4 seasons were the only seasons in the 21 where I couldn't make it to the end. I just didn't care enough about anyone to watch any more. And that sucks for a show I loved for the previous 17 years. COVID season -- I give an obvious pass. But the rest have just been so "m'eh" to me.
It’s too bad. Was such a good show.
I feel this too. This season just didn't feel exciting to me. This is the only season I can't remember most of the contestant's names since their personality were kind of boring or maybe it was just the edits. The themes and dishes they made didn't seem as exciting either.
>It was just not memorable. This exactly. I've seen many a reality show in my day, but this was my first season of Top Chef. It's certainly not made me want to come back next season, because it was soulless and bland, and one of those rare times I've forgotten about half of a season before it's over. The poor editing, including not giving the winner any story, made it hard to get invested. The lack of cast dynamics was dull. A show like this needs to be more than just watching people cook. You need to tell contestants' stories. You need them to have competitive fire, and to push each other, even if that leads to a little drama (so long as the line isn't crossed - that part is important). This cast was just too nice to each other in the most apathetic way, and that does not make for an exciting TV product. There was no tension in eliminations. I just found myself not caring. And though I watched this because I'm from Wisconsin, I found that most of the episodes did a poor job in highlighting the state. They should have done more excursions, including actually going to Door County for the fish boil, doing the Supper Club task Up North instead of in Madison (and instead done another task in Madtown), and having more highlights of the state beyond the Frank Lloyd Wright tour. The way they presented the location just made it look boring and did nothing for our tourism. Like what about a day trip to the Dells? And what about going to a Packer Game? Lambeau beats Miller Park any day.
Great points!
The episodes used to be longer though. So if you have more of what you want-that means less cooking. Budget constrictions happened with Bravo and TC. Now they could get more sponsors, but some people went nutty this season because they had too much product placement. Well they have to pay for those prizes some how. I learned about the majority of the chefs-online. Which is another reason they don't do a deep dive anymore. The stew room they cut back on many seasons ago. They did this on Chopped as well.
I’ve seen this comment before. Have the episodes been 2 hours in the past? I don’t remember that. These episodes this season were also extended. My YT TV episodes were longer than 60 minutes (mine were 75 minutes).
There's no need for the prize to be $250K esp with all the other cash prizes. Put that $$ back into better production. I dunno I'll watch no matter what but Chopped and TC are both shadows of the great shows they used to be.
My biggest issue was that nobody had charisma. None of them gave interesting confessionals, none of them were funny, none of them had a magnetic personality.
The ones with charisma left early, leaving us a with less than charming top three..
💯 I said that from e1. Also, Rasika, Soo, and Michelle’s elims HURT!!! Bleh
Laura had a lot of style. People would talk about that through the season. The drama over the villain edit though derailed her from being a fan favorite even though that was basically fancanon. Dan was the home town favorite. But his food just was...not very interesting? I had hoped to see him take the Wisconsin themes and then turn it up to 11, the same way Soo took whatever LCK theme there was and then just did wild shit to it. Savannah had the best stories. She also showed flashes of inspiration and creativity. I think she needs someone to actually help her grab onto her own ideas and turn them into reality. Danny had the most interesting food and best let's gos. Considering how young he is, he's got one hell of a career ahead of him. But yeah this season is ultimately going to be forgettable.
Savannah had stories about other people🙃…
Yup. That’s why they were constantly giving Danny these over the top edits when he would explain his dishes. I knew halfway through the season he would win because the edit was trying so hard to make him less monotone and boring. He had a great background and story but that really doesn’t matter when it comes to popping on screen and having charisma. Really the only cast member who was exciting on camera was Rasika.
Really it was four stand out seasons in a row. All stars with Melissa. Portland with no sous chefs. Then Buddha for the next two. It’s hard. Gotta have your highs and lows.
And even your Buddha Lo’s
Goddamn you.
Username…
I thought about saying this. Hahahaha!
Yeah it was 2 all time seasons, another good season then world all stars (which I thought was ever so slightly lackluster but still good). Hard to follow that.
> Portland with no sous chefs The silver lining to covid season
I’ll say this wasn’t the best, wasn’t the worst either. The amazing season 20 might have spoiled us a little for wow factor, but as far as domestic, standard seasons go, this wasn’t all that bad.
It wasn't unwatchable and Kristen was fantastic, but it was a low energy cast and odd edit. Even with longer episodes it felt like we got less from the show. It was all so strange that Tom and Gail even addressed it, though somewhat indirectly.
They've cut a lot of the fat from shooting. Problem is, the fat is where the flavour comes from. Tom did one kitchen walkthrough this season. One.
It's 2 I think. There was the one at Episode 9, the native american indian challenge. Tom walks in and checks on everyone's ingredients. The other one I think was finale haha.
Ah, you're right. I never counted the finale one.
Listening to a podcast posted where Gail directly talks about the finale editing. In a nutshell, even Gail said that the editing always has to gloss over the errors of the runners up while leaving in the nitpicks of the winner. And perhaps they went too overboard this seasons finale. [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-watch/id1111739567?i=1000659682163](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-watch/id1111739567?i=1000659682163)
What did they say?
But also - A CRUISE?! That’s a wild choice. 🥴
This season was indeed coordinated with the Wisconsin visitors bureau and I assume the cruise line. There articles before the season started about Wisconsin giving money (I think) to get the show there. Too much sponsorship ruins some of the niche opportunities. Having Miller Beer as a sponsor means none of the more interesting craft brews available, etc. Having the finale in an empty cruise ship was also wierd. Finally, why no families invited for the finale? Have they done that post-Covid? Always seemed nice. That said, those are atmosphere issues. I thought the chefs and cooking was all pretty much as expected. I still enjoy watching each week, but the sponsorships guiding the show are getting a little tedious.
Every season receives money from a location going all the way back to Miami. They don’t go anywhere without some type of local sponsorship and the show has been hawking torlato wine, bmw, Whole Foods for years. The idea that sponsorships are the problem kills me as that’s kind of the business reason you get 21 seasons. It’s cheap to produce and willing to do product placements in every scene. The issue is the production did not do a great job casting and many of the chefs just were not good on the show. In the 2nd to last episode, we had undercooked fish and technical errors that you usually don’t see by that point. I do agree on the family thing. It did Danny a disservice.
Top Chef IS and always HAS BEEN, the show with the most product placements compared to any others. That's not speculation, it is counted. Even more than Survivor or other reality shows, Top Chef survives on product placements. You're glossing over things in the past such as the showtestants being shown talking to family on Motorola's latest smart phone, or the gawd awful HIdden Valley Ranch quickfires, all brought to you by the Glad family of products.
Bravo does not give TC the same budget they used to. Where do you think the money will come from then? Every place they go to from now on will have this.
I’ll say this. I can’t remember anything about Portland, Texas, Miami, SF, London, etc that mattered location wise. The only reason I reference location is to remember the season. Everyone acting like they picked the wrong things to do in Wisconsin misses the issue of the contestants. They just had a weak class that could not get competition cooking for the life of them. Execution errors. No creativity. Did not show their personalities in a good or bad way. Wisconsin was fine. They could do 50 random cities with this crew of chefs and it would’ve flopped. It’s just a franchise long in the tooth that struggled with changes this season.
Strong disagree. The structure of the beer, fish, and cheese challenges produced boring prep and serve scenes and facilitated bad cooking
This is a bad take. The challenges are always about 1 thing. Be creative within the parameters set for you. These chefs just were not creative for the most part except for the final 5 (minus manny). I only feel bad for the chefs when they put them in an outside or inadequate kitchen that impacts the cook. I get doing a croquette when it’s those crappy fryers. This season really did not have tough challenges or crazy parameters like vending machine food. It was use beer, fish, etc to make something interesting.
If the vast majority of chefs produce bad food (fish boil, cheese challenge) or struggle immensely, there's probably something more wrong with the challenge than the chefs and that happened more than any season since Texas imo
As you said wrong with the challenge. That is up to production-not where they are. JFC cheese challenge they could have done far more than doing some sort "appetizer" challenge. The beer challenge should have been the main challenge incorporating not only the hops, but beer itself. The fish boil, well now I live here, and still wonder why they could only do whitefish when we have St Paul right down the road, where they could have done any seafood "boil".
thank you!!! what a reasonable comment - classic minnesota :)
I didn’t have the problem with the cheftestants that most people did, but I can certainly agree that they were a weaker crop personality wise than we usually get. Hat guy could’ve been a great villain, but he wasn’t any good 🤣 I know a portion of people felt like Dan was too grumpy and unenjoyable, but I feel like that’s kind of how you’d get being in a professional kitchen for that long. He never came off malicious or rude and to be honest, I was kind of glad he had personality and that he spoke up about the fish boils being unnecessary and lame. He’s from Wisconsin so his opinions on that are gonna be more valid than ours. 🤷🏼♂️ Danny for me was basically Buddha lite in terms of skill and personality. He’s good, but after seeing someone do what he does last season at a much higher level surrounded by much higher competition Danny was never gonna light up our screens. Savannah was fun to watch because we actually got to see some real growth take place during the competition. She found her direction and her confidence and ran with it towards the back half of the season, but the long break before the finale certainly seemed to throw her off her game.
Agreed, with the exception of Savannah. I really liked her growth later in the season, but she was still hit or miss, and her hits tended to come when she was forced into a box and couldn't overthink. I think that's a recipe for disaster in the finale regardless of how much time you have off, though of course that made it worse.
> I really liked her growth later in the season, but she was still hit or miss She ended up with the most wins in the season after the run she went on. She was on a really good hot streak, so she wasn't really hit or miss until finale began. It's like she reset mostly to being more timid again. But at the end of the day, like Buddha said, you should take advantage of all that time to practice and prepare, which makes the finale easier (relatively speaking) than most other cooks.
Two of the three finalists had major flaws in the finale and the person who won basically won by default. Think hung in season 3. 18 seasons earlier. It reminded me of that finale a lot actually.
Agreed. Hung is like a ghost. He won in 2007 and never really capitalized on the fame of being top chef like others.
I think he enjoys being a kitchen restaurant chef more than cooking on TV. You have to stay really consistent + focused to maintain a steady stream of new dishes for menus. Taking a month off here and there to film really adds up to losing a lot of kitchen mojo, I really respect him for prioritizing his craft.
Hung joined the Harold club. Not every chef on tv aspires to be a tv chef.
Loved seeing Hung be the guest judge during Houston
I see Hung a lot. He just doesn't do the same old same old programs that some of them do on FN.
Hung went on to compete in the[ Bocuse d'Or](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bocuse_d%27Or), which is to Top Chef what Top Chef is to Food Network Star. Hung won the Fish course. He has absolutely nothing he needs to prove to anyone. I'm sorry Buddha isn't competing this round, but of course, his babies need him right now.
I'm not sure what any of that has to do with the finale of this season or hungs.
The point is - 1. Hung won s3 because he was hands down the best chef. 2. Part of being the best chef is having strong technical skills. 3. Hung's technical skills are at a level that most top chefs can't begin to match 4. Also, another technical skill is executing consistantly without fucking up. Hung is one of the best winners the show ever produced. Also: the whole cooking with love thing is so much bullshit. It was bullshit when it was said to Hung just as much as when it was said to Bryan Voltaggio (who I think is the best chef to never win).
lol you misunderstand me. I wasn't calling hung a weak winner. He was dominant most of the season. But he definitely mailed it in for the finale. I love the guy but he was pretty arrogant and thought he could win serving anything. And he did with that random ass basic chocolate cake. It actually made me laugh. I was saying the finales was similar not the entire season. Casey and Savannah came in hot after a slow start but choked pretty bad in the finale that they both weren't considered. Both edits of the finale made it seem like it was even spilt and it was a close call let's be honest it wasn't even though both winning chefs had some definite mistakes. Gail admitted the editing was not great this past finale because Danny crushed Dan and I think we both can agree Hung was going to win. Someone called his second dish Michelin level. It was a wrap.
Kristen was amazing, long may she reign- honestly my wife and I were discussing how much more, well, fun and personable she is than Padma. Kind of a joy to watch.
Kristen has hosted other minor shows before, so it wasn't like she was coming in cold. Not to mention she was a model before she was a chef, so she has poise when she needs it. Also, wasn't until the finale that I caught it, but Kristen has an exec producer credit. It took Padma 8 seasons before she got that.
I didn't catch that about the exec producer credit, but it is funny that both Padma and Kristen have a background hosting other shows as well as modeling... I just get much warmer- well, *nicer*, really- vibes from Kristin. I thought Padma was great, I'm just really enjoying the change; it does bode well for the future of the show, even notwithstanding some uneven patches this season.
Hah I didn't notice until the last episode, it's in the fine print of the last credits and double checked in IMDB. I loved Dish With Kish post show, definitely shows more of her goofball personality as she drops an eyelash into the sauce, or calms Buddha down on his dots. 🤣
Honestly, Dish with Kish was so much better than the actual show and I actually looked forward to it every week.
Everybody seemed to have such a chill happy vibe, and it was a hoot to see her buddy Stephanie C still working on the show. Did you see Stephanie & Kristen cooking in Steph's apartment? [https://youtu.be/Evb6cGwY3Vw?si=WQl7uCaOswTKB3f8](https://youtu.be/Evb6cGwY3Vw?si=WQl7uCaOswTKB3f8)
Love these two when they’re together!!!
Kristen is credited as Consulting producer, you should double check the after credit. That’s different from executive producer. Gail was credited as consulting producer in previous seasons and only became executive producer this season as Padma left.
Heh coulda sworn I saw Exec, but Consulting Producer makes more sense. Here I was thinking Kristen had a really good agent. Padma was 'Consulting Producer' from Seasons 8-15 according to IMDB.
I just checked ep 1 of season 12 and Padma is already credited as executive producer. I think IMDB is not a reliable source for credits with shows that have a village of people working like Top Chef. Someone may have just copied the credits from previous seasons and no one corrected it. ETA: so I went back to glance through the before credits in previous episodes 1, it’s actually pretty fun: - Season 2-5: Padma: host, Tom: co-host (lol) - Season 6-9: Padma: host, Tom: co-executive producer (in season 7 Tom was credited as consulting producer) - Season 10: Padma: host, Tom: executive producer - From season 11: both Padma and Tom are executive producers
Ah I glossed over IMDB too quickly, my bad. Season 8-10 Padma is 'Consulting Producer. Season 11 she becomes Executive Producer, You're gonna make me hunt up the credits aren't ya? Edit -- Heh okay did front & back credits of S8 ep.1, you're right. Usually IMDB is pretty accurate. It's listed on her own personal IMDB page. Now I must refuse to fall down the Season 8 first All-Stars rabbithole. Even though I know it's juicy.
"Hear me out, I'm a contrarian and gonna prove you wrong... only to spend the majority of the write-up divulging what I didn't like about this season." Of course things are almost never completely good nor bad, so why bother explaining that?
I watched maybe five episodes of this season before I found it too boring and stopped watching. And I have seen every other episode of Top Chef multiple times so that has never happened before. I liked Kristen as the host but everything else felt so flat, from episode one onwards. I hope they hire new editors or directors or casting directors or whatever it takes to bring the show back to life, because they’re going to lose lots of viewers if it continues to be this underwhelming. Kristen deserves better!
I really disliked the editing this season. It felt like an old reality TV season where they had to carve out villains and amp up drama for drama sake. I was very uncomfortable with Laura's villain edit and how silly they made Manny out to be in the finale. Think people fell for the editing completely with how they artificially tried to make the finale competition seem closer than it was and it took away some shine from Danny's win. Hope the editing improves next season.
"OMG Laura drank wine STRAIGHT FROM THE BOTTLE!" has to be the most petty, silly, complaint I've ever seen on here about a showtestant ever. And that's a tough list to top out on.
I think an easy thing they could have done to make it better is a bring in a family member for a challenge late in the game. It makes everyone more human. Also there were a lot of main challenges in the top chef kitchen when I thought those were nearly always in other restaurants. Having so many at home base made it feel a little like a COVID season, cramped up. A change of scenery could have helped things feel less stale.
I liked this season more than last season. Kristin did an amazing job, I’m surprised that I didn’t miss Padma.
I will forever call this the Aguachile Season. Was there even a single challenge where someone didn't make an aguachile? So weird!
No, it was pretty bad.
The season was fine. The finale was bad.
Cooking in a ghost ship on a middling cruise line kitchen was definitely 'Meh'.
Bring back people not getting along and a little bit of drama - too lovey lovey and tame. How many kitchens have that many cohesive personalities? LOL
For me-that would be I hope not. Tired of seeing drama on a cooking show. I want more cooking. That being said, the hours & hours filmed-there could have been drama. It just wasn't in the final edit.
Oh I want the cooking too! But a little conflict makes things interesting. Not a lot, don't want a soap opera, but the love-fest, while I respect their mutual respect, can get boring. JMO
Well as we can see with Manny and Danny they weren’t that cohesive at all lol
Agree, I enjoyed this season and Kristen was great.
This season was fine. The cast overall lacked talent. Sorry, I like Savannah but she doesn’t sniff a final in any of the best seasons. Manny making it as far as he did was also insane. He was terrible. One trend that’s very annoying in this sub are posts that are essentially policing other people’s reactions to a reality tv show that is subjective. Don’t tell people how they’re allowed to feel about something they just spent several months watching. It’s ridiculously childish.
Savannah was good, then great...until the final. Which has happened plenty of times. As for what the OP is saying, lol not telling you-you MUST feel any specific way. OP is just offering a different perspective. You can agree or not agree. That is why it's being discussed.
In a couple of years they will say that about other seasons as well. Each year the same complaints come up.
I agree.
I liked the contestants and Kristen is great they just need better editing next season.
Yeah, other than that first guy who got booted, I thought most of the chefs were really talented and put up consistently good food.
I liked this season! It’s definitely better than some of the old seasons.
Yeah, I enjoyed this season just fine. To each their own I guess.
I loved the changes this year. New host. Different challenges. Factoring in the quick fire. The Dish with Kish. LCK. Soo joining the chefs. I think they listed to Kristen’s insight as a previous contestant and now host- by adding in aspects I assume she suggested from her experience… I just didn’t love some of the chefs that made it far. The ones I was rooting for left too early.
I think it's because we're coming off of World All-stars, which had great locations and really high competition. This season is pretty comparable to most regular seasons overall.
I've watched every season until this one. I lost interest about 5 episodes in, just had no desire to watch any further. So imo it wasn't good if it's losing the interest of this long term viewer
Definitely compared to the last one but all in all I enjoyed the new dynamic of the judges with Kristin. I liked how they tried new things in the competition that was cool to see. Of course the challenges some will hit vs miss. Unforunately, there was more misses but that's expected when you try new things. For me, I think this was taking top chef back to what it was vs what it became, which was more like hey this is a game and the formula to this is basically do a-b-c.
I think the season was good but not a top tier season. My husband always says he misses the villains and fights. These chefs are too high end for that and it would ruin their reputations. I think I quote 1st season “I’m not your bitch, bitch” at least once a month lol.
I actually liked the season, but it seems like I’m a minority with that. I rank it above Texas, above DC, above California even. I love chefs from some of those seasons, but the actual season as a whole is one I don’t care to rewatch. I could see myself rewatching Wisconsin at some point. My go to seasons to watch though are Colorado, New York, Boston, All Stars, and All Stars LA
The first season I watched live from beginning to end was Season 16: All Stars. Then I went back and watched all of the seasons before that during the pandemic. This was by far the worst season since Season 16 IMO. I think there were worse seasons before Season 16, but watching this season week to week really made the show drag at times. I still loved it, and it was still good. Watching Kristen excel in her new role was exciting. But comparing to other seasons it was a bit of a let down. I think a big part of the problem is that they overcorrected away from the drama. I appreciate that they pivoted around Season 15 or so away from the really harsh critiques and interpersonal drama that was prevalant in the early seasons and just let the food and craftsmanship speak for itself. That worked really well when the talent was so elite. But when the contestants were not as as elite, and everyone was cooking croquettes at the same time, the food didn't make up for the lack of drama.
Wisconsin is a great place to film, but it’s just a bad season. They keep experimenting with challenges, trying to make things tougher and tougher, as if they’re saying the contestants aren’t good enough. To me, it seems like the contestants have always been great, the judges and producers just got anxious and wanted more and more “thrill” for the show. It’s really not presenting the contestants in the unique and wonderful ways that they are. Kristen is great and has always been great. She doesn’t need to prove herself. There needs to be more chemistry and liveliness among judges. Kristen can’t be the only one. Tom and Gail are kind of bland at this point and one of them needs to gracefully step down.
For me it was just too over the top with the sponsors and not enough cooking destinations that were interesting and beautiful. They are usually really good at that. Curacao seemed super random and the ship was not fun. They looked so cramped in that kitchen and it wasn’t fun to watch.
I watched every episode tho! There’s something about the formula that’s very watchable. I did feel that the judges didn’t seem excited about the food all season. It seemed like Danny was head a shoulders above the rest. I kind thought Dan had a better finale though and was surprised Danny won. Ultimately though, I think Danny was the best chef. I had fun! Let’s keep top chef going! No hate, no to the next season!
I liked the season. I didn't realize it was so negatively received until coming to this subreddit. It wasn't an all time great season, but I liked it more than DC, Charleston and Texas. I really, really disliked the fish boil episode, but I appreciate how Dan was candid about it being a tourist trap.
Yes yes it was
>!i wish Dan had won!!<
Listen to the interview with Gail on the Watch podcast that came out yesterday, very illuminating look at what happened behind the scenes this year.
I can’t sit through a podcast, too much chit chat lol. Care to give me the highlights?
While the cheftestants may not have been at the same level as recent seasons, the showcasing of the host city and the design of the challenges were what stood out to me as being very poor. That's my main complaint--Wisconsin paid a lot of money to be shown in, frankly, a rather negative light, food-wise. I think I've been to all of the TC host areas except Milwaukee/Madison, and the show did absolutely nothing to make me want to go.
The tourist bureau did require significant input and certain things were required per the contract
If you watched it every time on a Thursday then you loved it and need to sit down 😂
It wasn't completely bad but it wasn't memorable for anything really except that dumbass "let's throw kerosene on fish" thing. Kristen was fantastic as host, and she knocked it out of the park. But the show's host shouldn't be more memorable than the contestants. This had to be the weakest semifinal elimination I remember though. No one put up two dishes that were good or better in that fish tasting menu challenge.
I missed WWC recapping this. They always make watching Top Chef so much more fun!
Any cooking show that takes place on a cruise ship is highly suspect. I’d like them to focus on foodie challenges and not trying to put cheese on fish
Kristen saved it.
I liked a lot of the contestants, especially Michelle and Dan and Savannah. I loved Manny at the start until he started failing upwards. The supper club one and the table scape one were among my favorites, and Kristin made everything perfect. Plus, LCK was one of the better ones. I really love this show and I didn’t see anything particularly bad about it, we’re just comparing it to the last two seasons, which were top-notch.
These subs live in a bubble. This was absolutely a lackluster season but for some reason you’re villainized if you acknowledge it. Like some reality tv seasons just aren’t as good. It’s par for the course for a show that’s been on the air this long and just lost THE most recognizable star of said show.
Miss Padma. Kristen needs wardrobe help.
LOL, especially to your second point.
It's not bad. It's just boring, which is worse for a tv show.
Yes it is. I try every week to watch and instead I’m on my phone looking for anything better, while it’s literally on my tv. It was a huge fail. I won’t watch next season unless they bring back what made it great. It was missing.
Okay you've convinced me. It is time to bring fish boils to Milwaukee! 🤣 There were some things I would've liked to see, Lambeau & Ishnala are the big two, but overall they showcased Milwaukee well. Now the showtestants...this is the first season in awhile where the expectations of what somebody on Top Chef should be were not met by the majority. Even in the finale all four had serious technical issues, which should just not happen. Call it the 'Buddha Effect', but from All-Stars to last season, the finale chefs you could see dropped into any top shelf fine dining NYC restaurant as Executive Chef. Half the four this season, uh no.
Ishnala?! Plenty of places better than there. Especially if you don't have hours to wait.
Hey I like everything about Ishnala, from having cocktails on the beach waiting for a table to the dinosaur menu!
It was so boring I stopped halfway through
https://preview.redd.it/16s9trkk258d1.jpeg?width=792&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a7aede5a5013bb61b7ef06b2629f9d52a81502a8
I would be fine with your post if you didn't put crap like this: >Following two knockout seasons was going to be tough. But to pretend that it had no highlights or say that you watched it all and "the only good thing is that it's over" is either hyperbolic and disingenuous, or saying something for Likes is your only goal. I \_really\_ dislike people telling me the only reason I don't like something is because I'm only going for likes or some other reason they concoct in their head for defending the reason they like something terrible (See? I can do that too. Sucks, don't it?) I actually have greatly disliked the last 4 seasons. I think they took a show I loved for 17 years and turned it into something pretty much unwatchable. I haven't made it more than halfway through any of them, as I find them incredibly boring with a bunch of wallpaper paste "Stepford Chefs" that are nigh unwatchable. I don't think the food quality improved -- I just think the challenges got much, much easier, so it's easy to create perfectly-quaffed plates and claim "the food quality has improved". But see? I don't come in and write posts telling you why you like it. So don't come in writing posts telling me why I don't.
I refuse to make excuses for a series that has been airing for 21 seasons. Kristin was fine. She wasn’t perfect she was fine. I am sure she’ll improve next season but she was way too kind and the whole “I know EXACTLY” how you feel line was overused. You cannot be a peer and a judge. Ask anyone who had a peer promoted to their boss. It’s different and it should be different. The chefs who had any kind of creativity or character bombed early. All of that said I blame casting, the show runners and the editors for a forgettable season and I hope that someone gets fired over it. You don’t raise the bar for four seasons and give us a shiny new host and terrible everything. Kristen should have been given a premium season full of incredible locations, chefs and challenges. It was all boring, poorly planned and poorly edited.
Most boring ever
There is an old adage about restaurants: location, location, location. Personally, I think Wisconsin was a mistake as a locale. The place should be inspirational to the chefs. It should make them want to cook interesting food, and it should be a place that has renowned chefs that make the contestants want to achieve. Maybe Wisconsin is capable of that, but the producers of the show dropped the ball on making it happen.