(Season 2, Los Angeles, 2006)
(Season 2, Los Angeles, 2006) (Season 4, Chicago, 2008) (Season 11, New Orleans, 2013; Season 14, Charleston 2016)
Michael Midgley earned celeb-chef status on TV shows, including “Top Chef” and “Cutthroat Kitchen.”
This Stockton chef was one of the first Northern California cheftestants to compete on “Top Chef” back in the day. Midgley started cooking at age 14, attended the California Culinary Academy, then dove into the profession as a bar owner and bartender. In 2014, he opened Midgley's Public House in Stockton with a creative gastropub-meets-steakhouse menu. A noted business leader in town, he's been named Best Chef in San Joaquin County a number of times. Over the years, he's returned to TV, winning an episode on “Cutthroat Kitchen” and judging an episode of “Top Chef Masters.” These days, he frequently brings his chowder and chili recipes to Santa Cruz to compete in the Boardwalk's professional competitions. Both the Filet Mignon & Bacon Chili and the Clam Chowder are on his restaurant menu, along with the Asparagus Cigars so popular in the asparagus-crazy San Joaquin Valley.
Churchill was the chef and competitive swimmer who packed a swimsuit and goggles along with her knives. A girl who learned to cook from her Greek grandmother, she then attended the California Culinary Academy and became a pastry specialist for San Francisco's Rubicon, Ame and Slanted Door. After “Top Chef,” she published a cookbook, “Sweet and Skinny,” that featured slimmed-down versions of 100 dessert recipes. A few years later, while living in Greece, Churchill had a cooking show and put out her second book, “My Sweet & Skinny Life.” She's now living in Silicon Valley and has wrapped up two more, one a children's cookbook and the other a middle-grade novel with a culinary twist. She's also doing some consulting and baking. “Cookies are my weakness!” she says. If you're interested in buying a cookie box of her latest, follow her on Instagram @chef_marisachurchill.
Casey Thompson has been executive chef of Sonoma's Folktable, a Michelin Bib Gourmand honoree, since 2020.
(Season 3, Miami, 2007)
After the competition, Texas native Thompson, the “fan favorite” and a finalist, expanded her skill set in Argentina's Malbec country and other destinations before moving to California. She worked in the Napa Valley pairing up wineries with local farms, then launched her first solo venture in San Francisco (while also operating Brownstone in Fort Worth). That was the well-regarded Aveline, in the Warwick hotel on Geary Street, a sophisticated blend of French and California influences. Who can forget her Crab Macarons presented to the diner in a gift box? These days, Thompson is back up in Wine Country, only it's Sonoma this time around. She's executive chef at Folktable, a restaurant with Michelin Bib Gourmand honors that is devoted to seasonal, farm-to-table cuisine. And she was just back on TV, competing in Guy Fieri's “Tournament of Champions” on the Food Network.
Brooklyn-born Biesty had trained and cooked around the world — New Orleans, Manhattan (with Marcus Samuelsson), Paris, London (with Jamie Oliver and Ruth Rodgers) — before she was tapped to compete on “Top Chef.” By that time, San Francisco considered her one of their own, as she had worked with chef Loretta Keller at Coco500 and as chef de cuisine for Traci des Jardins at Jardiniere. After competing in Chicago, she headed back to S.F., where she became executive chef for Scala's Bistro and the Sir Francis Drake Hotel. A decade ago, she planted roots in Oakland, where she was the chef and co-owner of Shakewell, the standout Spanish-Mediterranean restaurant that won raves for creative tapas, small plates and paella. Biesty is now executive chef at Pixar Animation Studios, in next-door Emeryville.
Ryan Scott continues to be heavily involved in television and his catering operaton, Ryan Scott 2Go.
(Season 4, Chicago, 2008)
Ryan Scott, who hails from Los Banos and Modesto, was cooking at San Francisco's Michelin-starred Gary Danko and at the popular Mission Beach Cafe and Myth Cafe before his “Top Chef” appearance. In the years following, he was opening new restaurants left and right — you may recall Finn Town and Market & Rye — while creating sandwiches for McDonald's; traveling the country for Paramount Network's “Bar Rescue”; making frequent appearances on NBC's “Today Show”; hosting his own Emmy award-winning show, “Food Rush,” on ABC's Live Well Network; and writing cookbooks, “One to Five” and “The No-Fuss Family Cookbook.” Now Scott, his family and his successful Ryan Scott 2go Catering operation are based in Marin County. There's another cookbook in the offing and his next big project should launch soon: It's a boutique restaurant trailer in San Anselmo that will serve some of Scott's greatest-hit recipes from the past 20 years.
A Beijing native, Chung immigrated at the age of 17 with her family to Fremont, where she attended Washington High School and then Cal State East Bay in Hayward. Among her favorite Bay Area foodie memories is eating at Osteria Toscana in Palo Alto, where she tried carpaccio for the first time and recalled frequently sharing the saltimbocca with her father. (Both dishes are still on the menu today.) In 2014, after her TV stint, Chung launched the restaurant Twenty Eight in Orange County. These days, she's busy with her trendy Culver City place, Ms. Chi Cafe, which features modern riffs on northern Chinese cuisine — plus the cheeseburger potstickers she made famous on “Top Chef.” Can't make it to L.A. to try them? You can buy those, her scallion pancakes and more on Gold Belly and have them shipped to you.