I’m not sure how to write about my current ire toward Top Chef without sounding impossibly petty and dumb, so I’m going to shoot for a calm, analytical approach.
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Here’s the deal: Everyone who watched Season 6 of Top Chef knows that this season’s cast represents a significant downward direction in aptitude, experience, and creativity. Last season was a grand tour of the current culinary vanguard, and towards the end became a series of deft master classes. There were moments when the judges seemed hopelessly behind the times, like representatives of an long-gone avant-garde. Think about this: When Craft opened in 2001, the menu—farm-to-table components, selected by diners and prepared by the kitchen with classic technique—was considered revolutionary. Now that’s par for the course, having given way to molecular gastronomy and bold flavor combinations of a sort proffered by the top few contestants last season.
Which is all to say that I wonder whether last season was perceived as a threat by the old guard, who could dish out all the criticism they wanted while knowing that if it came to a head-to-head with one of the top contestants, they’d likely get their asses kicked. And with that in mind, I can’t help but think that this season’s (comparatively) mediocre lineup and surfeit of gimmicks is a way to turn the tables once again.
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I’m okay with the contestants being not-so-stellar, although it’s more fun to watch great chefs make innovative food. What I object to is the onslaught of gimmicks, which inject randomness into what should be a meritocratic pursuit and create stupid situations whereby the worst contestants hold leverage over the best. The sniping, the intrigue—that’s great for other reality shows. But in a show where one is ostensibly judged for the plates they put out, a gimmick like last night’s “Cold War” is unforgivable. The contestants, divided into two teams, judged their peers on the other team, and the chef deemed worst by the other team went to the elimination challenge. Seeing an opportunity to eject a strong competitor, one of the teams pretended to despise Kenny’s dish, and in doing so sent one of the competition’s strongest chefs to the elimination challenge.
While this sort of nonsense creates infighting among the contestants (and leads to obnoxious admissions, like that one of the contestants used to sleep with another contestant’s girlfriend), it also discredits the judges. You are there to judge, judges! We want to hear what you have to say! We want the best food to win! For next season, how about some challenges that don’t involve two-person aprons, nefarious plotting, or musical chair-style shuffles? How about challenges that force chefs to make great food?
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Just a thought.
