London calling
‘Top Chef ’ heads to the British capital for 20th All-stars edition
“Top Chef” has set up shop in one of the most multicultural metropolises on the planet: London.
The British capital serves as the setting for the 20th season of television’s venerable cooking competition, which premiered March 9 on Bravo. The series is celebrating the milestone with a World All-stars edition. Sixteen former contestants, including one from Texas, were tapped from the show’s 29 international versions to vie for the title.
“To be able to do this again is like a dream,” said Houston chef Dawn Burrell, a runnerup on Season 18.
For Burrell, the opportunity meant a return to both “Top Chef ” and London. In 2010 and 2011, she spent five months living in the city, honing her culinary skills at short, often unpaid stints in various kitchens.
Burrell hadn’t been back to London until last year to duke it out on All-stars — the first time an entire “Top Chef ” season was filmed abroad. Her competition hails from across the globe, mostly consisting of past winners and finalists from “Top Chef ” franchises in the Middle East, Mexico, Thailand, Italy and Brazil, among others.
“What’s great about London is there is no ‘Top Chef’ here, so it’s an even playing field, and nobody can say they have a home-field advantage,” said showrunner Doneen Arquines, who’s worked on the Emmy- and James Beard Award-winning series since it debuted in 2006.
Another selling point, Arquines said: “London has a very international, multicultural cuisine.”
One of the best ways visitors can get a taste of what this cosmopolitan city has to offer is to spend a few hours at Borough Market near London Bridge. This intoxicating maze of 100-plus vendors sells everything from Spanish tapas, Malaysian clay pot cooking and Turkish coffee to traditional British fare, like bougie sausage rolls from Ginger Pig and crispy haddock on a bed of fries — er, chips — from Fish! Kitchen.
By Lori Rackl CORRESPONDENT
(Eating Europe offers guided tours of the market, with plenty of food stops along the way, for a little less than $100 a person.)
“It’s a great place to go at 8 in the morning when nobody’s there yet,” said Jamie Lauren, a former “Top Chef ” competitor. She now works behind the scenes, running the show’s culinary department.
Lauren shopped at Borough Market to source some of the myriad ingredients used in cooking challenges on the “Top Chef ” set, a cavernous space near Heathrow Airport, far from the tourist trail. The show also takes competitors — and viewers — to better known parts of the city, exploring a few of London’s more than 3,500 pubs and popping in at Tottenham Hotspur’s flashy soccer stadium.
This season’s Restaurant Wars episode takes place at an actual restaurant. Not just any restaurant. The action unfolds in the glass-enclosed kitchen at Core by Clare Smyth, where teams have to create a multicourse meal worthy of the fine-dining establishment’s three-michelin-star status.
Smyth, who catered Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s private wedding reception, grew up on a farm in Northern Ireland. She went on to work for big names like Gordon Ramsay before becoming a big name herself. Smyth couldn’t be happier that “Top Chef” picked her corner of the world for its 20th season.
“It’s a really good opportunity for London and the U.K. to show its produce, food culture and restaurant scene,” she said.
When it comes to the latter, one of Smyth’s all-time favorites is Bentley’s Oyster Bar & Grill, a short walk from Piccadilly Circus.
“Go and sit at the bar, have a glass of Champagne, and talk to the guys shucking the oysters,” she said. “I always go for the native oysters first and finish up with some of the British cheeses — Stilton, some of the wonderful cheddar — oatcakes and a glass of port. They’ve been doing that there for over a hundred years.”
Like Smyth, “Top Chef” host Padma Lakshmi was pretty pumped about this season’s location. “It gave me a chance to revisit some of my old haunts,” Lakshmi said from a makeshift dressing room at St. Peter’s. This Anglican church in the rom-com-adorable Notting Hill area doubled as a Restaurant Wars staging area for cast and crew. “I lived in this neighborhood for eight years.”
Any “Top Chef” fan knows Lakshmi’s palate is particularly discerning when it comes to Indian food, which abounds in Britain, largely thanks to colonial ties. A couple of Lakshmi’s favorite London spots to indulge are Gymkhana and Zaika, both on the swankier side. She’s also partial to Dishoom, a restaurant chain inspired by Parsi cafes in Mumbai.
During the seven weeks of filming the All-stars edition in London, head judge Tom Colicchio found himself gravitating to the kitchen of his Notting Hill rental home to make his own meals. The offerings at nearby fruit and veg stands, cheesemongers and butcher shops proved too enticing for him to pass up.
“The dairy, the milk is so much better. It’s richer. It’s fattier,” Colicchio said while sitting in the pews at St. Peter’s, waiting to head back to Core to dig into his second Restaurant Wars meal of the day.
“A lot of great cheese. The produce is amazing,” he continued in his trademark staccato style. “Around the corner is Notting Hill Fish + Meat. It’s absolutely stunning. There’s a lot going on food-wise, not just in the restaurants.”
So when Colicchio did eat out in London, where did he go?
“I don’t like to give shoutouts to restaurants,” he said with a sly smile.
His colleague at the judges table does. When Simmons was asked for her London restaurant recommendations, she started rattling off a list: Hoppers, a Sri Lankan and South Indian-inspired joint with several locations. Lyle’s, “one of my favorite British fine-dining places.” Italian food at River Café. Drapers Arms gastropub.
Simmons thinks the new season in London could change some people’s outdated perceptions about what’s being eaten on the other side of the pond.
“Seeing the food of all these different countries, and how it got here and how it intermingles with British sensibility,” she said, “it really flips the old and dusty idea of British food being terrible.”