Ranking ALL 15 seasons of Top Chef
Top Chef’s 16th season premieres on December 6th. Its’ inaugural season premiered back in 2006 and awarded the winner a top prize of 100K to help kickstart their culinary career. Over the last 12 years Top Chef has proved itself to be a juggernaut. It has launched and enhanced the careers of many contestants. With the 16th season of this iconic television show right around the corner, I’ve decided to rank all 15 seasons. My rankings are more about entertainment value and enjoyment of each season as opposed to a critique of the contestants themselves. A strong season of Top Chef for me consists of an entertaining group of chefs, a smart use of the filming location, and a strong lineup of culinary challenges. Here is my subjective ranking of every season of Top Chef from worst to first. However, I’ve watched every single season multiple times. Therefore, my least favorite season can’t be that bad.
(15th) Season 10-Seattle-This is my least favorite season for a few reasons. My main complaint is that there didn’t seem to be anything that anchored this season creatively. The quickfire where contestants had to elevate iceberg lettuce stands out to me as the most boring challenge in Top Chef history. It always seemed unfair to me that three returnees were allowed to enter the competition in the middle of episode 2. This Seattle season ranks in 15th place.
(14th) Season 7-D.C.-The 7th season of Top Chef featured our nation’s capital, but a location with so much historical and political intrigue couldn’t carry a slow-moving season.
(13th) Season 12-Boston-This season had some strong chefs, but tried a little too hard when highlighting Boston. There was a quickfire at the Cheers bar and an elimination challenge on the field of Fenway. This would be cool, but the challenges themselves were lackluster.
(12th) Season 14-Charleston-The gimmick of Rookie chefs (chefs who never competed on Top Chef) vs Veteran chefs (chefs who competed on Top Chef at least once) ruined the season from a creative standpoint. I don’t think we were ever supposed to root for the rookies. At times I think they were setup to look incompetent. The rookies deserved a season where they were not completely overshadowed by previous contestants.
(11th) Season 9-Texas-They say that everything is bigger in Texas and this is true of the explosive arguments and mean spirit that negatively permeated the entire season. There were way too many team challenges that were meant to highlight drama instead of culinary abilities. However, Grayson is my all-time favorite Top Chef contestant. There is a Twitter exchange between me, her, and Elijah Wood somewhere on the internet.
(10th) Season 2- Los Angeles-This season featured so much negative tension and nastiness between contestants that there was no reunion. I will leave it at that.
(9th) Season 1-San Francisco-This was the inaugural season of Top Chef and at times the challenges were on the verge of too simplistic. But, this is the season that started it all and it deserves much respect in that regard.
(8th) Season 15-Colorado-This season had an extremely likable cast who made this season fun to watch. I don’t feel like the challenges always lived up to the Colorado setting which was a bit of a disappointment. I love that this season featured a local CT contestant. Go Tyler!
(7th) Season 5-New York-One of the most memorable episodes in Top Chef history was when the contestants had to cook a Thanksgiving meal for the Foo Fighters. This is the season that introduced Carla Hall to the world. Hootie Hoo.
(6th) Season 4-Chicago-This season introduced us to creatively minded Richard Blais. The deep-dish pizza and tailgating challenges screamed Chicago, and I really enjoyed the competitive group of slightly quirky contestants.
(5th) Season 13-California-The thirteenth season of Top Chef featured a culinary tour of California with stops in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, and Palm Springs. I like how this season highlighted that much of California cuisine is based in international influence. My favorite challenge this season was the unrelenting restaurant wars. Chefs had to rotate front and back of the house positions while producing a lunch AND dinner service. It was insane.
(4th) Season 6-Las Vegas-The sixth season highlighted the adult playground that is Las Vegas. Elements of gambling and luck were incorporated into challenges which added an extra layer of competition. The strongest chefs this season were of the highest caliber and really set the precedent for the talent level moving forward.
(3rd) Season 11-New Orleans-The eleventh season of Top Chef found itself in New Orleans. This is one of the best seasons in terms of how production featured the filming location. Some of the best challenges this season involved cooking at Commander’s Palace and developing dishes based around the Vietnamese influence on New Orleans. I appreciated how Emeril acted as an almost-mentor to the contestants, and the contestants seemed to be so receptive to the spirit of the city.
(2nd) Top Chef 8- All-Stars-The eighth season of Top Chef was the much beloved All-Star season. I’m slightly surprised I’m ranking it so high in the #2 position. The first five episodes were sublime, but the end of the season dragged quite a bit. This season ranks so high due to its timing and casting. The show needed to be invigorated after a weak 7th season and the all-star season did that. Every single contestant selected deserved to be there. There were skilled contestants, contestants we loved, and contestants we loved to hate. This season is a masterclass on everything an all-star season should be.
(1st) Top Chef 3-Miami-The third season of Top Chef is when the series finally found its’ groove. It had a fun and beachy feel and perfectly assembled cast. There were some fights between cast members, but you could tell they all had passion for their craft. The standout episode of this season was when chefs thought they had a night off to experience Miami nightlife. When they arrived at the nightclub they were met with their elimination challenge. I think this episode teaches us a lot about filming a reality television show. If you allegedly have the “night off”, but there is a camera still filming, you are most likely about to be screwed over very soon.
Congrats to Top Chef Season 3 as winning my distinction as top season of Top Chef. Are my rankings wildly inaccurate? Spot on? What’s YOUR favorite season? Leave a comment!
