With "Top Chef" closing the kitchen for the holidays, let's take a good look at this season's competitors. You can find Top Chef odds all season at BookMaker.eu
For those of you just joining us, the thirteenth season ofthe hit series marks the first-ever statewide “Top Chef” road trip, covering all of the California coast.
“It really does feel like a road trip,” longtime host Padma Lakshmi toldVariety. “We’re just caravaning up the Pacific Coast Highway.”
Though the culinary competition did travel throughTexas for the ninth season, visiting San Antonio, Dallas and Austin, season 13 will never find a "true" home base, as the plan was to bounce around to more cities than ever before, from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara to Palm Springs to San Diego and finally to San Francisco and Oakland, with the majority of the episodes taking place in L.A.
As reported here last week, Grayson Schmitz, of New York City, is one of a few contestants already cut loose. Also already sent packing: Garrett Flemming of Washington, DC.
The first point of drama occurred in the first episode of the two-night premiere when the new “chef-testants”had to serve up a 200-person food festival underneath the Hollywood sign, with members of the press in attendance who were acting as undercover taste-testers, weighing in on who has to pack their knives and go home at episode’s end.
The chefsweren’t the only ones put to a challenge. The production staff had to perfect pre-production planning “down to the butter,” says Sandee Birdsong, a former “Top Chef” contestant who now leads the show’seight-person culinary production team,which is in charge of everything from creating QuickFire and elimination challenges. Birdsong’s team tests out challenges andsources ingredients and equipment.
So why put the contestants and staff to such a challenge? Lakshmi said it’s to keep the show fresh.
“It’s 13 seasons, so we have to do something more,” she explained. “We have pretty loyal fans, so our fans have been watching us for a really long time, so it’s good to do things that are changing it up.”
Here are Season 13's cheftestants:
Karen Akunowicz, Boston
Angelina Bastidas, Miami
Carl Dooley, Boston
Jeremy Ford, Miami
Renee Kelly, Shawnee Mission, KS
Phillip Frankland Lee, Los Angeles
Marjorie Meek-Bradley,Washington, D.C.
Kwame Onwuachi, Washington, D.C.
Amar Santana, Orange County, CA
Jason Stratton, Seattle
Frances Tariga-Weshnak, New York City
Isaac Toups, New Orleans
Wesley True, Atlanta
Giselle Wellman, Los Angeles
Chad White, San Diego, CA & Tijuana, Mexico
Already cut Schmitzcompeted on season 9 of the show, for those of you foodies recognizing the name. According toPeople, two things contestants will cook with this season are the timeless snack Bugles and...gulp...Spam.
Um...yum?
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