Top of the world: ‘Top Chef’ heads to Colorado’s mountains
Unpack those knives and settle in for a satisfying meal. Bravo’s “Top Chef” is back with a tantalizing 15th season that’s taking the culinary competition to new heights — literally.
The long-running cooking competition returns Thursday, Dec. 7, with a new group of cheftestants who are all ready to test their culinary mettle against their peers. Unlike, say, Fox’s “MasterChef,” the competitors here aren’t amateurs — far from it. Instead, they’re all culinary professionals, some fairly new to the culinary world and others wizened veterans who own their own successful restaurants.
Each season of “Top Chef” whisks the competition off to another location where most of the season is set, and this iteration is no exception. This year, the judges are trading in last season’s sunny coastal city of Charleston, South Carolina, for the crisp mountain air of Colorado. It isn’t just a change in scenery, though. The culinary traditions and local ingredients always play a big part of the challenges the cheftestants face, and the Centennial State’s altitude could definitely force some of the chefs out of their comfort zones as well.
Model and cookbook author Padma Lakshmi returns to host — a role to which she’s brought a touch of class since the series’ second season. Five-time James Beard Award-winning chef Tom Colicchio is back as head judge, with chefs Gail Simmons, Richard Blais and Graham Elliot also returning to their seats at the judges table.
Also back this year is “Last Chance Kitchen,” the online companion series first introduced in the ninth season. Hosted by Colicchio, the bite-size weekly episodes feature whichever cheftestant was eliminated that week trying to outcook whoever the reigning “Last Chance Kitchen” winner may be, with the loser getting eliminated, and the ultimate winner returning to the main competition. It’s a chance for talented chefs who were eliminated too soon to earn their way back into the main competition, as in season 10, when “Last Chance Kitchen” winner Kristen Kish went on to win the main event.
With 14 seasons behind it, “Top Chef” is still flying high. The culinary competition heads to the beautiful peaks of Colorado Thursday, Dec. 7, on Bravo.