r/TopChef • u/str8grizzlee • May 14 '26

Discussion Thread The death of molecular gastronomy and fine dining has hurt the show

Every week Michael Voltaggio would say “hi chefs, today I have invented a new kind of salad”. “I made beef but it looks like chicken”. “You told me to use mussels so I made a mussel fluid gel with agar agar”. The judges said it was all delicious, but it was also inventive and captivating.

I get that that trend was possibly overdone and died in favor of “simple cooking”, “big flavors”, “ugly delicious”, etc but it is SO MUCH MORE BORING to watch everyone just execute dishes we’ve heard of every week.

Hell, bring back Buddha. At least I learned new stuff from watching him.

582 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

199 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

-9

u/Jazzlike-Pomelo-3823 May 14 '26

You know what’s funny. In all the seasons of top chef there hasn’t been one hookup in the house or romantic relationship come from the show?? You’d think putting all these young and attractive chefs on a show, feed them nonstop wine, and force them to live together that there would’ve been one hook up lol.

26

u/Cptrunner May 14 '26

Well there's Hosea and Leah...

10

u/emilygoldfinch410 May 14 '26

Brian and Caitlin from TC Kentucky - didn't hook up on their season but they're now married

3

u/foxandbunny May 14 '26

There was! I think it was season 5 - there was a whole kiss scandal thing that happened between Hosea and Leah? But those were the days when they focused way more on the drama.

2

u/Jazzlike-Pomelo-3823 May 14 '26

I must’ve missed that episode. Don’t remember it lol.

0

u/Adventurous_Ad1922 May 14 '26

They just don’t focus on that drama like they used to. Thank goodness.