Tag: Top Chef

Meet the cast of Top Chef Season 21 as it heads to Wisconsin

A Top Chef season in Wisconsin means that we’ll see a few challenges featuring cheese, right?

The newest season of Bravo’s Top Chef is nearly here, and it comes with a new host, some new wrinkles and rules, and of course, new contestants.

After Padma Lakshmi stepped away from her longtime role as host after Season 20, showrunners tapped former Top Chef winner Kristen Kish as her successor. Joining Kish are familiar faces, as Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons return as judges and executive producers.

Top Chef is heading to Wisconsin this season after spending its 20th in London and Paris with some of the show’s former all-stars. It’s the first time Top Chef has been set in a state – rather than a single city – since Kentucky, which got the spotlight in Season 16. Other states that have garnered the focus of Top Chef include Texas (Season 9), California (Season 13) and Colorado (Season 15).

According to Bravo’s website, quickfire and elimination challenges this season will be held in Madison and Milwaukee. The season premier is set for March 20.

There are 15 contestants this season. Let’s meet them:

  • Alisha Elenz – A private chef in Chicago, Illinois.
  • Amanda Turner – The chef de cuisine at Olamaie in Austin, Texas.
  • Charly Pierre – The head chef and owner at Fritai in New Orleans, Louisiana.
  • Dan Jacobs – Chef and co-owner at EsterEv & Dandan in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
  • Danny Garcia – Executive chef at Saga Hospitality Group in Brooklyn, New York.
  • David Murphy – Chef and co-owner at Shuggie’s Trash Pie + Natural Wine in San Francisco, California.
  • Kaleena Bliss – Executive chef at Chicago Athletic Association and Cindy’s Rooftop in Chicago, Illinois.
  • Kenny Nguyen – Head chef and owner at Pretty Boy, and executive chef at the Expat in Athens, Georgia.
  • Kevin D’Andrea – Chef and owner at Foliepop’s in Austin, Texas.
  • Laura Ozyilmaz – Executive chef and owner at Dalida in San Francisco, California.
  • Manny Barella – Culinary director at Camp Pickle & Jaguar Bolera in Denver, Colorado.
  • Michelle Wallace – Chef, owner, and pitmaster at B’tween Sandwich Co. in Houston, Texas.
  • Rasika Venkatesa – A chef de cuisine based in New York City.
  • Savannah Miller – Chef de cuisine at M Tempura in Durham, North Carolina.
  • Valentine Howell Jr. – An executive chef based in Dorchester, Massachusetts.

Former Top Chef winner Kristen Kish succeeds Padma Lakshmi as host, and the show is headed to Wisconsin

Bravo’s Top Chef will have a new host for the first time in 19 seasons.

A former winner of the popular Bravo competition cooking show Top Chef will move into the host’s chair.

Kristen Kish, an accomplished chef and the victor of the show’s 10th season, will become its next host. Kish – who will need some practice saying, “please pack your knives and go,” – succeeds longtime host Padma Lakshmi, who is moving on to pursue other ambitions after 19 seasons.

Kish, 39, will begin her hosting duties with Season 21, which will be set in Wisconsin – a return to the U.S. after Season 20’s World All-Stars. Bravo announced the news about Kish and Wisconsin on Tuesday. Gail Simmons and Tom Colicchio will be back too, and Kish will join them at the judges’ table.

In a statement, Kish said:

“Top Chef is where I started my journey – first as a competing chef, then a guest judge and now as host I have the honor of helping to continue to build this brand. I’m thrilled to sit alongside Gail and Tom as we get to know new incredible chefs and see what they cook up. It feels like coming home.”

Kish is a native of South Korea and grew up in Michigan. She became a fan favorite after winning Season 10 in Seattle. That season – which concluded in 2013 – Kish won four elimination challenges and was then eliminated in episode 11. But then she won five straight rounds of Last Chance Kitchen to earn her way back on the show, where she triumphed over Brooke Williamson in the finale. Kish was the first contestant – and still just one of three – to survive Last Chance Kitchen and then go on to win the show.

Choosing Kish was the obvious and smart decision by the showrunners. Not only is Kish a talented chef, and not only does she know Top Chef inside and out – having won it and served as a guest judge – but she’s gotten a lot of reps hosting food-related television shows. She co-hosted 36 Hours on the Travel Channel, was a host on Netflix’s Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend, and was the star of the National Geographic mini-series Restaurants at the End of the World. She has also been a contestant on TruTV’s Fast Foodies.

Since winning Top Chef, Kish has also opened her own restaurant in Austin, Texas, and written a cookbook.

A premiere date for Season 21 hasn’t been announced yet, but it will feature Madison and Milwaukee.

It’s the first time Top Chef has prominently based a season in the Midwest — or, to use a sports reference: Big Ten country — since 2008, when Season 4 was set in Chicago.

Top Chef Season 21: What we know so far about a host, location

Padma Lakshmi is out, but Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons will be back.

It’s been about three weeks since Top Chef: World All-Stars ended. The show’s 20th season wrapped up by crowning Buddha Lo the champion over Sara Bradley and Gabri Rodriguez in the finale, and earlier this month it won a Critics Choice Real TV Award for Best Culinary Show.

Some of us are already going through withdrawal without Quick Fire challenges and the judge’s table in our lives. What’s next? When’s the next season? Where will it be?

A few folks closely associated with the show gave some interviews and sent out some tweets recently, giving fans a glimpse into what Season 21 will be like.

Here’s what we know, so far.

5 potential replacements for Padma Lakshmi we’d like to see on Top Chef, including Action Bronson

Former Top Chef winners, like Melissa King or Kristen Kish, could be possible.

“Please pack your knives and go.”

Soon, someone else will be saying those famous words on Top Chef.

After 17 years, Padma Lakshmi is leaving her post as the host of the longtime cooking competition show on Bravo. Lakshmi made the announcement with a statement on her social media channels on Friday, just a day after the penultimate episode of this season – the show’s 20th – aired.

The finale of Top Chef: World All-Stars hits Bravo on June 8. Presumably, it’ll be the last time the show sees Lakshmi as its host.

“I am extremely proud to have been part of building such a successful show and of the impact it has had in the worlds of television and food,” Lakshmi said in a statement.

 

Lakshmi wasn’t the original host of Top Chef, but joined the show in its second season in 2006 – replacing Katie Lee – and has been around ever since, becoming part of the show’s fabric along with Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons, quick fires and restaurant wars. Lakshmi earned four Emmy nominations for outstanding reality show host during her tenure and 10 more Emmy nominations for Outstanding Competition Program during her run as an executive producer on the show, which began in 2010.

Lakshmi won’t disappear from the limelight. The second season of Taste the Nation debuted on Hulu last month, and she was recently in Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue. Lakshmi is also the author of six books and might have another one of those up her sleeve.

But Top Chef will move on without Lakshmi, as Bravo has already ordered a 21st season of the show. Which means the show will need a new host.

And we have some ideas.