Top Chef Chicago Season Premiere Tonight On Bravo

The season premiere of Top Chef: Chicago is 100% like what we’ve seen in seasons past (well, 90%, because Katie Lee Joel isn’t the host anymore, thankfully) and that might be what I loved most about it!  The formula is the same – great chefs who all have a ridiculous sense of their own awesome cooking ability, duking it out over dishes that I would never, ever imagine making in my kitchen on a random Sunday night.  The cast seems well rounded and from a variety of restaurants.  There’s an Australian, a competing couple, and two characters possibly edited to annoy me from the minute we meet them.  

The quickfire challenge finds the cheftestants putting their own spin on the Chicago classic – deep dish pizza.  The combinations of products that they came up with just blew my mind.  I have no idea how Padma and guest judge Rocco DiSpirito were able to pick a winner from the motley crew of pizzas they tasted.

Elimination challenge basically throws the chefs, to use a food analogy, at the wall like spaghetti to see if they stick.  And a lot of them fall flat on the ground.  Too much salt, or too much grease do some contestants in, and by the end of the episode, one of the two characters who annoyed me from minute one, annoyed me even more.  The episode had a great conclusion and who doesn’t love the coolest “kick off line” ever – “Please pack your knives and go?”

The season previews look like there’s going to be a lot of in-fighting, a lot of the F word flying around, and head judge Tom Collichio being all around pissed about a lot of crappy food. 

 

Tune in to Bravo tonight at 10/9c for the season premiere!