Let’s rank every Restaurant Wars on Top Chef

Going into NOLA’s Restaurant Wars, Team Fin (Brian Huskey, Carrie Mashaney, Nick Elmi, Stephanie Cmar, and Travis Masar) were clear underdogs compared to the competition heavyweights over on Team Found (Carlos Gaytan, Justin Devillier, Nina Compton, Sara Johannes, and Shirley Chung). Which made it all the more satisfying when they managed to pull off one of the smoothest services in the history of Top Chef, led ever-so-efficiently by Nick (“I don’t know who taught him how to expedite, but he should never change it,” proclaimed Stephanie) and with an all-time FOH performance from Travis. That made the absolute dumpster fire of Team Found even more apparent, from Justin’s sweaty tirades to Sara flat-out forgetting to introduce courses to the judges. (Two words: “verbal fire.”)

You’d never call watching an episode like Restaurant Wars “relaxing,” but seeing the way Team Four Pigs (Melissa King, Doug Adams, Adam Harvey, and Mei Lin) cleanly executed their concept, consistent service, and cook—even navigating the mysterious disappearance of Adam’s 150 clam shells, requiring the team to quickly regroup and shuck 150 more—was the closest we’ve been to feeling zen-like during the challenge. Choosing them as season twelve’s Restaurant War victors was one of the more clear-cut judging decisions in challenge history, especially when compared to the crepe-temperature debacle and service snafus happening over on Team Magellan.

“Cheers to another Restaurant Wars—may it be our best!” Padma Lakshmi announced to the judges ahead of service in this two-part season 13 installment. Best is subjective, but it definitely was one of the most difficult: Not only did our players have to prepare and put together a restaurant in 24 hours for dinner but, in a format shift, lunch as well. Producers also shook up the long-standing tradition of having a separate executive chef and FOH lead. Cleverly, the chefs would have to rotate those roles, meaning no one could hide away on the cook line. As is the case with most two-part episodes, the first half suffered from a lack of consequence and closure, but the ep redeemed itself with “the worst risotto in Top Chef history” and watching obnoxious Phillip Frankland Lee pack his man-pony and go.

Even an overall weak season—D.C. was oddly taken with both “alpha males” and America (remember that CIA challenge?)—can produce a great Restaurant Wars. And this one was a textbook rendition of everything we want from the drama-charged challenge: stew-room in-fighting, dish mix-ups (see: Alex Reznik accidentally serving a lamb chop as a pork chop), guest-judge bitchiness (New York Times critic Frank Bruni brutally likened one contestant’s beet salad to Hamburger Helper), an unpredictable winner (EVOO over Twenty One 21), and a massive upset elimination (frontrunner Kenny Gilbert, over Amanda Baumgarten’s “it’s like a nice pair of shoes with a bad suit” sauce?!).

It’s one thing to get snippy with a fellow cook in a high-pressure kitchen. It’s a whole other thing when said cook is your own sibling. Season six was a family affair, with both Michael and Bryan Voltaggio dominating the cast, but their Restaurant Wars appearance was anything but brotherly love. As executive chef of Team Revolt, Michael was an increasingly aggressive force in the kitchen, getting into verbal scraps with Robin Leventhal over the size of her pear pithiviers. (We love the deliciously cheeky edit that paired Michael’s early declaration, “Yelling and screaming and arrogance—there’s really no place for that in the kitchen,” with a montage of him yelling in the kitchen.) Though that intensity led to a team win—Padma proclaimed Revolt’s efforts as the best of all the early Top Chef seasons—it clearly bothered Bryan, who refused to take his cut of the $10,000 winnings that Michael offered to split with his teammates. We’re going to assume that family gatherings were a bit awkward after that one.

The first-ever Restaurant Wars looks almost wholesome compared to all of the smoke and smolder to come in the franchise, but it still served up one of the most fiery moments in Top Chef history. We’re talking, of course, about the ever-iconic “I’m not your bitch, bitch!” moment, a mid-judges-table grievance from Dave Martin that punctuated his heated rivalry with teammate Tiffani Faison. Did we mention that these two were on the winning team?! (The losers, meanwhile, had their own fish to fry, with soon-to-be-ousted competitor Miguel Morales accidentally buying seafood at seventeen, not seven, bucks a pound and, you know, not knowing what Spanish food is.)

It was the most egregious elimination decision our judging trio has ever made: voting to send home Kristen Kish, the clear frontrunner of season ten and one of the most successful Top Chef alumni since—she is, of course, our newly instated Top Chef host, succeeding —over Josie Smith-Malave’s frequent kitchen fumbles was downright baffling. (As usual, Gail Simmons, who was pro-Kristen, had the only correct opinion.) It was made even more maddening that Kristen was let go less for poor cooking than for lack of candor, with the Atelier Kwan executive chef refusing to throw Josie under the bus for her lack of line-cook urgency. However, in retrospect, that insane elimination prompted one of the series’ best redemption arcs, with Kish fighting her way back into the competition via five rounds of Last Chance Kitchen and ultimately going on to win the entirety of Top Chef: Seattle.

Most chefs only have to survive Restaurant Wars once. But the cast of season 17—composed entirely of returning contestants like Brian Voltaggio, Lea Anne Wong, Melissa King, and Brian Malarkey—had the delightful misfortune of having to go through the whole culinary rigmarole twice. This season’s version differed from previous iterations in that chefs pitched their concepts in the previous episode, with Gregory Gourdet’s Kann and Kevin Gillespie’s the Country Captain getting green-lit by the judges. And though Kevin initially seemed to have the upper hand with both Brian and Melissa—arguably two of the best contestants in show history—cooking in his kitchen, it was Gregory’s shrewd gameplay (putting Malarkey as FOH? Genius!) that secured Kann’s victory.

If you routinely dislike the FOH component of Restaurant Wars, this is the episode for you. Filmed in fall 2020—a.k.a. the belly of the COVID pandemic—the signature challenge was as much a challenge for production as for the players, with both the cast and crew required to isolate themselves in a bubble. That meant there couldn’t be a host of hungry patrons to feed and impress with a fresh-out-the-oven restaurant concept. Thus, wartime custom was thrown out the window, with the team instead assigned to create a chef’s table concept and seven-course tasting menu, an operating theater dramatically set right in front of an all-star judges’ panel (hi, Kristen Kish!). Sure, we missed out on those fun waitstaff snafus, but Portland plated up the best Restaurant Wars restaurant in the history of Top Chef with Kokosón, a concept so purposeful and fleshed-out that the chefs actually revisited it as a pop-up in the real world. (Seriously, we’ve been wanting to eat that hot pot ever since watching it.)