Top Chef’s Restaurant Wars is still reality TV's greatest challenge
The cooking competition's fan-favorite face-off, which always delivers tasty drama, returns this week

Like a thirsty diner trying to flag down the waiter for a refill, Top Chef viewers spend all season eagerly anticipating one thing: Restaurant Wars. Though not necessarily The Best episode of any given season of Bravo’s iconic cooking competition, it is always—every single year—worth looking forward to. It’s where the show turns the dials up on any simmering storylines or personality issues between the contestants, not to mention the whole competition of Top Chef, and throws it all into a heightened version of a real-world setting. The winner of Survivor isn’t necessarily going to be the most adept person at living on a deserted island, but after surviving Restaurant Wars, it’s hard to argue that the winner of Top Chef is anything but the Top Chef.
The basic format of the Restaurant Wars episodes, going back to Top Chef’s first season (even before Padma Lakshmi had joined the show as its regular host), is that the contestants—however many remain, because part of the trick is that Restaurant Wars happens at a different point every season—are split into teams and tasked with conceptualizing a pop-up restaurant within a very short timeframe. (Restaurant Wars for this fantastic season of the show, which currently has eight contestants left, airs May 4.)
They have to come up with a concept and a menu, create a space by picking out tables and plates, and then actually make and serve the food. One team member generally has to work in the front of the house, explaining the menu to guests and the judges, and the others work in the kitchen preparing all of the food. But even the person working the tables has to invent a dish as part of the menu and explain how to make it to their teammates.