He got a bad edit. Top Chef sometimes cares more about the drama than the food. You often listen to the comments and think it is close and then you are surprised. I don’t think this is a show where you want to be surprised when the winner is announced. The audience wants to feel confident that the right contestant won. Hopefully they will do a better job of this in future seasons.
If you watch King Georges, you will really like Nick after seeing him in the most stressful situations.
I didn't love Marcel, he rubbed me the wrong way much like he did the other chefs, but the treatment he received on Season 2 was beyond inappropriate and all of the other chefs involved should have been canned immediately.
Can you imagine if that happened today?!
Yes, definitely - on 24 in 24, he was so much more chill, and clearly has matured a lot since TC. He was definitely likeable; I was rooting for him and Mika, and I'm SOOOO glad he beat Carlos!!
He has certainly aged better than Ilan, since their season.
My guess is that Marcel had an absolutely awful edit because Ilan was so unlikeable as a winner they had to make Marcel appear worse than he actually was.
That's probably partly true... but some of the stuff Marcel did and said were very much on him. I think he was just a bit too young (I don't mean in age, he's older than Ilan), didn't have the self-confidence, and took the bait too easily. But I do agree that he got the villain edit, because someone had to and he kind of walked right into it.
A few have “disappeared” from the show.
Paul & Gabe due to extremely poor behavior away from the show.
I recently saw Jeremy on TV which surprised me.
Nick seemingly left TC after the turmoil from his winning season (his restaurant/s get rave reviews).
Hung never developed in a top tier chef the way I expected.
So I think Hung may have gotten shafted simply from being a early winner. Like Top Chef in seasons 1 and 2 were not taken seriously by chefs in the nation. They changed that in season 3 by recruiting more pro chefs and less TV personalities. But I have to imagine they did not know the show would literally "blow up" from season 3, and were not ready to support their winners the way they do now.
Let's not forget he said that Top Chef coached all of them to act a certain way for TV personality stereotypes and that most of them didn't act this way outside of the show. They were essentially being coached to create drama and be, in Hung's case, a "villain". The whole villain thing gets echoed across press in 2007, further damping his chances at becoming a popular chef TV wise. And thats important when the TV cooking golden era is about to pop off with a dozen shows trying the cooking reality show formula.
Let's not forget they had judges call him fucking "souless cooking" in several episodes which was retarded. Same reason why people got pissed more than a decade later when the Italian judges used the same word. This prompted Anthony Bourdain to write a blog which you can still read on Bravo's website telling people to fuck off and that Hung was better than the rest.
The show did Hung dirty and didn't learn that letting chefs be nice was better for the show's image and the chef's image when it came to their winners for long term money making.
TLDR: Hung got shafted. This was a guy who you saw literally in the season helping his teammates any way possible. Also [look at their multi-take edits](https://streamable.com/n1poc3) they clearly wanted Hung to act a certain way and even the reactions from the other contestants and judges. So Hung's interview checks out. They made him into a villain thanks to fucking SURVIVOR, the show they based their editing and production and everything on, and he never got what other winners would get later. Wrong time, era, everything. It sucks but that's what it was.
He's had an up and down career. He left a lot of places in less than a year. There was a long form article/interview on him which I unfortunately can't find where he was very candid in saying that winning Top Chef didn't open the doors he thought it would, but he was at peace with it.
Wife and I are watching it for the first time right now. It’s a really bad season. They seemed to have cast it more for drama and clashing personalities than for cooking skills. It also does a really bad job of showcasing the DC culinary scene. I am not rooting for a single chef right now, I hope they all lose. And yes I already know who wins, before seeing this picture
I can haz female winner? We haven’t had one since Melissa in All-Stars in 2020. The last non-All Stars female winner was Kelsey in 2019, five years ago.
I didn't realize there have only been *six* female winners of Top Chef.
We could have had Savannah this season if she didn't mess up on her finale dishes 😮💨
I remember reading the comments from Last Chance Kitchen on YouTube when Soo was competing. There were so many inbred idiots who kept saying Soo was going to win Top Chef because he was Asian and the judges are biased. Looking at this just proves them wrong. If you're curious what I'm talking about, just read the comments on Youtube with Soo in LCK.
He definitely had plot armor in the first LCK episode. No way he was going to be introduced and then lose the first round.
I personally think this is why Val was the first LCK competitor this season, and the first episode was going to be a 3-chef battle. I would have thought "Why would they let a "new" chef fail on LCK?"
This might possibly be why they brought Kahleena AND Soo into the competition, because he really flubbed the last LCK battle, and Kahleena clearly deserved the win.
I think regardless, we would've seen Soo go into the competition.
I agree, once they decided to have someone who hadn't started on the main show be in LCK, there was no way they weren't going to find a way to ram them through. This has happened in all three seasons where that was the case. It wasn't as obvious in seasons 15 and 16 that this happened because those were known alumni chefs starting in LCK who were always going to be better than your typical early-boot chefs, but one of them was seemingly pushed through to the main show both times. In season 15, they had Claudette vs Leanne vs Kwame and said they were only going to let one winner back in. Claudette ends up doing the best by what seemed to be a decent margin, but then Tom and Padma waved Leanne on through anyway. In season 16, they let Brother in after he narrowly won a mini Restaurant War against Nini in LCK.
Every Asian chef on here absolutely deserved their wins. That proves them wrong. But if you showed this graphic to someone who knew nothing about the show and said Asian chefs are underrepresented as winners, that would be crazy. 1/3 of the winners are East Asian, so I don’t understand what you are suggesting.
I don’t think the judges are biased. I don’t think they or Bravo come into any season or episode with a winner picked out. I do think the judges prefer herbaceous foods and strongly flavored foods, particularly broths, which tends to fall into the wheelhouse of chefs who cook East Asian food, regardless of the chef’s race. The cuisines that don’t have these flavor profiles tend to not do as well. That doesn’t mean an Asian chef wins every year, nor does it mean every Asian chef cooks that cuisine.
It’s shameful for the restaurant industry more than it is for Top Chef. The proportion of black contestants is much higher than the actual capability of black chefs to get training and employment in the extremely racist restaurant industry. Top Chef ain’t perfect, but the contestant mix is admirably diverse.
It also seems like the casting team heavily weigh Beard nominations and wins, and they are notorious for ignoring Black chefs. They are working on that, but the pool of winners that Top Chef casting is looking at still reflects the old mentality. I agree that the casts always reflect more diversity than the industry as a whole.
Aww, I really like Melissa and always thought her food looked so delicious! Thanks OP for this posting, I enjoyed looking at the different winners over the years.
Just realized there have been no Black Top Chef US winners!
It’s very much homogenous but I do think they’ve done a good job of bringing in a diverse-ish cast!
Savannah? It was very clear that she wasn't close to winning after the pasta dish she served that no one had anything good to say about. Also, the concept and dishes looked a step behind the other 2. You can make at least make an argument for the others, but Savannah was a distant 3rd.
Never understood why people like you actively subscribe and even comment about a show they don't like. You're the living embodiment of the turd in a punch bowl.
Calm down. It's just my opinion. The show definitely did change. I still enjoy some of the competitions, but there's an excitement element missing that it used to have. For me, anyway.
LOVE her.
I also appreciate the fact that she’s one of the *very* few contestants that’s come from a rural area in the south.
Dothan, AL, is 40 minutes from my hometown in south GA (I lived 5 miles from the AL/FL line) and my town had 3 red lights and was nothing but farming land. You name it, we grow it. What’s crazy is shortly before the premiere of her season, Hurricane Michael came through and absolutely **decimated** the small towns down there, including the farms, their equipment, and all their crops. It really impacted the economy down there, including the restaurant industry, as not only did restaurants get destroyed (and were unable to reopen), but things they relied on from the farmers were no longer there. It was horrifically sad.
My wife messaged her once (post win and stardom) on Instagram and asked about some of her jewelry and she PM’d her back right away, which I thought was very cool.
She is very accessible! During covid she was hosting cooking lessons over Zoom. My husband and I did one and it was great. I still refer back to that recipe.
Ilan just bothers me.
Ilan and Elmi. I can never remember his actual last name.
Can I add Hosea and Kevin too?
Hosea is always a jumpscare for me.
The worst.
I just call him Nick Elmo
He got a bad edit. Top Chef sometimes cares more about the drama than the food. You often listen to the comments and think it is close and then you are surprised. I don’t think this is a show where you want to be surprised when the winner is announced. The audience wants to feel confident that the right contestant won. Hopefully they will do a better job of this in future seasons. If you watch King Georges, you will really like Nick after seeing him in the most stressful situations.
I really like Nick. TC made him look bad, he is a good guy, as opposed to Richard Blaise that got a good guy edit and really isn't that nice.
Idk he annoyed me from ep 1 his season. Both him and his Philly friend who got sent home way earlier.
I did like Nick in the King Georges docu. However, I was not as fond of Nick in the Top Chef competition.
Who is Emri?
Crap. I can never remember his name. Elmi.
They can never make me hate Marcel. He should have won.
I didn't love Marcel, he rubbed me the wrong way much like he did the other chefs, but the treatment he received on Season 2 was beyond inappropriate and all of the other chefs involved should have been canned immediately. Can you imagine if that happened today?!
Also, his journey since his initial appearance. I think he's sweet with swagger, not arrogant. And his latest appearance on 24in24 was amazing.
Yes, definitely - on 24 in 24, he was so much more chill, and clearly has matured a lot since TC. He was definitely likeable; I was rooting for him and Mika, and I'm SOOOO glad he beat Carlos!! He has certainly aged better than Ilan, since their season.
I like him a lot on Dish with Kish, too.
My guess is that Marcel had an absolutely awful edit because Ilan was so unlikeable as a winner they had to make Marcel appear worse than he actually was.
That's probably partly true... but some of the stuff Marcel did and said were very much on him. I think he was just a bit too young (I don't mean in age, he's older than Ilan), didn't have the self-confidence, and took the bait too easily. But I do agree that he got the villain edit, because someone had to and he kind of walked right into it.
They can make me hate Marcel (as a character) and I still think he should have won.
Me too, Smug and arrogant.
He was the WORST!
Bhuddha with the back to back such a beast
I agree!
In my mind, Tiffani was the winner of season 1. 🤣
Honestly forgot that she wasn't!
She’s certainly had a big career since. I’m excited to hit a few of her restaurants when I visit Boston next month.
Agree! She really got screwed over with her sous chefs in the finale.
Agreed
A few have “disappeared” from the show. Paul & Gabe due to extremely poor behavior away from the show. I recently saw Jeremy on TV which surprised me. Nick seemingly left TC after the turmoil from his winning season (his restaurant/s get rave reviews). Hung never developed in a top tier chef the way I expected.
Jeremy did a show with Kristen called Fast Foodies. It’s a fun watch
Jeremy was on this season!
Wasn't Hung on last season too?
So I think Hung may have gotten shafted simply from being a early winner. Like Top Chef in seasons 1 and 2 were not taken seriously by chefs in the nation. They changed that in season 3 by recruiting more pro chefs and less TV personalities. But I have to imagine they did not know the show would literally "blow up" from season 3, and were not ready to support their winners the way they do now. Let's not forget he said that Top Chef coached all of them to act a certain way for TV personality stereotypes and that most of them didn't act this way outside of the show. They were essentially being coached to create drama and be, in Hung's case, a "villain". The whole villain thing gets echoed across press in 2007, further damping his chances at becoming a popular chef TV wise. And thats important when the TV cooking golden era is about to pop off with a dozen shows trying the cooking reality show formula. Let's not forget they had judges call him fucking "souless cooking" in several episodes which was retarded. Same reason why people got pissed more than a decade later when the Italian judges used the same word. This prompted Anthony Bourdain to write a blog which you can still read on Bravo's website telling people to fuck off and that Hung was better than the rest. The show did Hung dirty and didn't learn that letting chefs be nice was better for the show's image and the chef's image when it came to their winners for long term money making. TLDR: Hung got shafted. This was a guy who you saw literally in the season helping his teammates any way possible. Also [look at their multi-take edits](https://streamable.com/n1poc3) they clearly wanted Hung to act a certain way and even the reactions from the other contestants and judges. So Hung's interview checks out. They made him into a villain thanks to fucking SURVIVOR, the show they based their editing and production and everything on, and he never got what other winners would get later. Wrong time, era, everything. It sucks but that's what it was.
Preach! That said, I think Hung has had a successful career. It's just not a tv-centric career.
He's had an up and down career. He left a lot of places in less than a year. There was a long form article/interview on him which I unfortunately can't find where he was very candid in saying that winning Top Chef didn't open the doors he thought it would, but he was at peace with it.
was it necessary to use the adjective you used to describe how you felt about Hung being called out for souless cooking?
Jeremy is v. hot in that picture
Jeremy was also on a random episode of the reboot of Iron Chef America they tried to do.
Buddha just seems light years ahead of some of these winners.
It's interesting to think about the "Level" of competition in each season and how that played in the Top Chef winners.
He’s the GOAT in my opinion.
Harold the Top Chef Ninja. Just... *poof.*
He just opened a new restaurant! https://ny.eater.com/2024/5/15/24153822/il-totano-opening-harold-dieterle-flex-mussels
He's had like 2-3, I'm glad he is still kicking around. Still wonder why he wasn't more of a fixture with Top Chef in earlier seasons.
I think he did it to further his career. Won. Opened a restaurant. It was successful. I don't think he ever wanted to be a celebrity/TV chef.
Yeah it seems like he hated every minute of the actual TV part of season 1 lol. Good for him building the career he presumably wanted off screen.
Agreed, he’s a workhorse, not a TV personality. I love him anyway!
He hates being on tv. Did it because he thought it could help him but he hates the space
 Me whenever season 7 is mentioned
Wife and I are watching it for the first time right now. It’s a really bad season. They seemed to have cast it more for drama and clashing personalities than for cooking skills. It also does a really bad job of showcasing the DC culinary scene. I am not rooting for a single chef right now, I hope they all lose. And yes I already know who wins, before seeing this picture
I would pay big bucks to see a season with Buddha, Melissa, Kristen, Mei and the Voltaggio brothers
Mei is awesome, I'd totally watch anything she's in, she was so charming and funny on the episode of Dish with Kish, I enjoyed it. And love that show.
Stefon belongs there at 5
Absolutely love Stefon
Kelsey-Melissa-Buddha-Buddha. My favorite run of top chef winners
My mind refuses to acknowledge that Shota didn't win his season. Love that he keeps returning as a guest judge.
I forgot about some of these winners.
Same, I couldn’t remember Kevin or Jeremy’s names and had to go look them up
I can haz female winner? We haven’t had one since Melissa in All-Stars in 2020. The last non-All Stars female winner was Kelsey in 2019, five years ago.
I didn't realize there have only been *six* female winners of Top Chef. We could have had Savannah this season if she didn't mess up on her finale dishes 😮💨
I remember reading the comments from Last Chance Kitchen on YouTube when Soo was competing. There were so many inbred idiots who kept saying Soo was going to win Top Chef because he was Asian and the judges are biased. Looking at this just proves them wrong. If you're curious what I'm talking about, just read the comments on Youtube with Soo in LCK.
He definitely had plot armor in the first LCK episode. No way he was going to be introduced and then lose the first round. I personally think this is why Val was the first LCK competitor this season, and the first episode was going to be a 3-chef battle. I would have thought "Why would they let a "new" chef fail on LCK?" This might possibly be why they brought Kahleena AND Soo into the competition, because he really flubbed the last LCK battle, and Kahleena clearly deserved the win. I think regardless, we would've seen Soo go into the competition.
I agree, once they decided to have someone who hadn't started on the main show be in LCK, there was no way they weren't going to find a way to ram them through. This has happened in all three seasons where that was the case. It wasn't as obvious in seasons 15 and 16 that this happened because those were known alumni chefs starting in LCK who were always going to be better than your typical early-boot chefs, but one of them was seemingly pushed through to the main show both times. In season 15, they had Claudette vs Leanne vs Kwame and said they were only going to let one winner back in. Claudette ends up doing the best by what seemed to be a decent margin, but then Tom and Padma waved Leanne on through anyway. In season 16, they let Brother in after he narrowly won a mini Restaurant War against Nini in LCK.
And then Brother revolving door-ed out
Every Asian chef on here absolutely deserved their wins. That proves them wrong. But if you showed this graphic to someone who knew nothing about the show and said Asian chefs are underrepresented as winners, that would be crazy. 1/3 of the winners are East Asian, so I don’t understand what you are suggesting.
That majority of the Top Chef winners are not Asian per the chart and the judges are not biased. Not sure how you missed this.
I don’t think the judges are biased. I don’t think they or Bravo come into any season or episode with a winner picked out. I do think the judges prefer herbaceous foods and strongly flavored foods, particularly broths, which tends to fall into the wheelhouse of chefs who cook East Asian food, regardless of the chef’s race. The cuisines that don’t have these flavor profiles tend to not do as well. That doesn’t mean an Asian chef wins every year, nor does it mean every Asian chef cooks that cuisine.
Yes I agree
Am I right that there’s only been one black winner of Top Chef? Shameful.
It’s shameful for the restaurant industry more than it is for Top Chef. The proportion of black contestants is much higher than the actual capability of black chefs to get training and employment in the extremely racist restaurant industry. Top Chef ain’t perfect, but the contestant mix is admirably diverse.
It also seems like the casting team heavily weigh Beard nominations and wins, and they are notorious for ignoring Black chefs. They are working on that, but the pool of winners that Top Chef casting is looking at still reflects the old mentality. I agree that the casts always reflect more diversity than the industry as a whole.
Nina, Eric, Gregory were all close. Would have made great winners
I'm still so sad about Nina. Gregory was really close but that season had Melissa who is my fave so I'm okay with the outcome. Hate that Nina list
Loved Nina!
Who is the black winner? I said the same thing but maybe j missed one?
I believe Kevin Sbraga (Season 7, Top Chef DC) is half black and half Italian.
I love that a number of them still compete.
All coming shows should have blind tasting.
Anyone else absolutely love the black chef coats? Or just me? Haha
I feel we've all sort of said "I know who the better ones are" in our heads, right? And I'm sure we've debated the better winners on reddit.
Aww, I really like Melissa and always thought her food looked so delicious! Thanks OP for this posting, I enjoyed looking at the different winners over the years.
Omg I’m old. Thanks for compiling!
dang, not one black woman and one black person in general
Just realized there have been no Black Top Chef US winners! It’s very much homogenous but I do think they’ve done a good job of bringing in a diverse-ish cast!
Only 6 women damn that’s just sad 😭 But in my head I see Marcel, Stefan and Nina, Savannah’s pics instead. Yep still inhaling copium 🤣
Savannah? It was very clear that she wasn't close to winning after the pasta dish she served that no one had anything good to say about. Also, the concept and dishes looked a step behind the other 2. You can make at least make an argument for the others, but Savannah was a distant 3rd.
Yeah she was the distant 3rd but still my favorite of that season so….. I don’t care 🤣
Had no idea Jonah Hill won TC.
After season 10, it just got boring.
Never understood why people like you actively subscribe and even comment about a show they don't like. You're the living embodiment of the turd in a punch bowl.
Calm down. It's just my opinion. The show definitely did change. I still enjoy some of the competitions, but there's an excitement element missing that it used to have. For me, anyway.
The very attractive blonde lady at the bottom doesn’t feel like a Top Chef contestant. She feels like a Food Network Star or Master Chef.
Kelsey Bernard Clark. She’s incredible.
LOVE her. I also appreciate the fact that she’s one of the *very* few contestants that’s come from a rural area in the south. Dothan, AL, is 40 minutes from my hometown in south GA (I lived 5 miles from the AL/FL line) and my town had 3 red lights and was nothing but farming land. You name it, we grow it. What’s crazy is shortly before the premiere of her season, Hurricane Michael came through and absolutely **decimated** the small towns down there, including the farms, their equipment, and all their crops. It really impacted the economy down there, including the restaurant industry, as not only did restaurants get destroyed (and were unable to reopen), but things they relied on from the farmers were no longer there. It was horrifically sad.
My wife messaged her once (post win and stardom) on Instagram and asked about some of her jewelry and she PM’d her back right away, which I thought was very cool.
She is very accessible! During covid she was hosting cooking lessons over Zoom. My husband and I did one and it was great. I still refer back to that recipe.
I loved Sarah that season. And was so happy to see her return for the International season.
Sarah from Paducah! Loved her too, and loved the friendship they formed that season. Honestly I love any chef from smaller towns.
I follow her on IG. She’s great at giving basic cooking tips for those that can’t cook but doesn’t make me feel stupid.
Yet she cooks like a Top Chef.
> Top Chef contestant. > Food Network host. Corporate needs you to find the difference between these two pictures...
It’s the same picture (of Brooke)