Rise up, Tom Colicchio thirsters. The Top Chef vet is back and he’s wearing a Canadian tuxedo. Actually, all three of our judges are sporting festive denim-on-denim fits, as season 22 of the long-running culinary competition brings Tom, host Kristen Kish, our resident Canuck Gail Simmons, and the show’s wide-eyed competitors up to the Great White North.
Though Top Chef has previously used whole states as “settings” for a respective season—Texas, California, Kentucky, what have you—this is the first time that the reality franchise has adopted an entire country as its geographical subject, with the premiere episode taking place in Toronto (that’s pronounced “Torono,” for us Yanks) but highlighting various regions of the sprawling country, from the prairie provinces to the western coast to the Indigenous north. That Canadian backdrop was clearly not a political choice for the powers that be, who couldn’t possibly have predicted all of this would be happening between the United States and our northern neighbors right now. But the setting serves as a lovely reminder not only of the country’s gorgeous culinary history but also of the deep cultural and historical ties between the two nations.
And, in a nod to the sheer scale of this season’s destination, production has upped the stakes for our cheftestants, especially where prizes are concerned. The usual spread of $250,000 provided by Saratoga Spring Water, a feature in Food & Wine magazine, and an appearance at the prestigious Food & Wine Classic in Aspen are all still up for grabs for this season’s big winner. But they’ll also get a $125,000 flight credit to spend on travel with Delta Air Lines, their own headlining dinner at the historic James Beard House in New York and the opportunity to present at the starry James Beard Awards in Chicago. And even if you don’t win the whole chef kit and caboodle, this season’s challengers will have the opportunity to nab some of the $150,000 that are up for grabs in Quickfire Challenges. Yes, that means that, like last season, Quickfire winners will not receive immunity.
With all of that on the line, it’s no surprise that our chefs are knife-sharp focused on winning. For Harlem’s Lana Lagomarsini, she wants to become the first Black woman to ever win Top Chef. For Chicago-based Zubair Mohajir, a victory is a must to please his demanding parents. (“An Indian household is kind of like Talladega Nights—if you’re not first, you’re last. Your mom doesn’t care that you got second place.”) And for Montréaler Massimo Piedimonte? “If I fail, I don’t think I’ll be able to go back home.”
With suitcases still in hand, our 15 chefs immediately have to draw knives right outside Toronto Pearson Airport, where they’re ushered into five separate cars. (“I thought I was gonna get a little settled before I started having to fear for my life,” jokes Houston toque Tristen Epps.) And, you guessed it, those road buddies are officially our first teams of the season for this week’s Quickfire. Each trio is tasked with individually picking three ingredients, supplemented by three of our judges’ choosing (Kristen went with tomatoes, Gail chives, and Tom clams) to honor Toronto’s nickname of The Six. Along with major early-in-the-comp bragginging points, the winning team will receive $15,000 to split.
As for our teams, Zubair and Bailey Sullivan immediately connect because of their Chicago roots, which make Moscow-born Anya El-Wattar feel left out. (“All I know is that I can cook the most delicious cabbage.”) Henry Lu and Corwin Hemming share the same impulse to choose corn as their ingredient, leading to their kernel-heavy dish of corn sofrito with butter-poached clams and pickled Fresno chilies alongside L.A.-based teammate Kat Turner. However, things hit a snag on the Yellow Team when the highfalutin Vincenzo Loseto wants to serve their fennel-apple soup straight out of a hulled-out Granny Smith. When Vinny pulls out a smoking gun, Lana is unconvinced about the need for such theatrics. “I think we should just do delicious food?!”
However, Vinny’s gimmicky presentation works, with Team Yellow taking the first Quickfire win of the season. That gives them the advantage of choosing first from which Canadian region they want to take on for the Elimination Challenge, which is set forth by “the Canadian version of Mount Rushmore,” per Tristen. (The Texan is the MVP of the ep, at least as far as one-liners are concerned.) Special guests Sheila Flaherty, Jeremy Charles, David Zilber, Dale MacKay and Nicole Gomez—the latter two of whom are Top Chef alumni—explain the various domains of the land and the local ingredients found within. The Yellow Team goes for the rainbow trout, peaches and pea shoots of Canada’s Central region, where Gail Simmons is from. Team Purple chooses the prairies, Team Red the west, Team Green the Atlantic, and Team Blue the country’s icy north, which nostalgically reminds Anya of her native Russia. However, this isn’t actually a team challenge—rather, each threesome will cook and be judged individually, with one competitor at the top, one in the safe middle, and one at the vulnerable bottom of each set. Along with representing Canadian tradition, Tom warns, “Don’t forget to put yourself on the plate.”
For Anya, that means an ukha (Russian clear soup) made with Arctic char, beet caviar, and rye crackers, with Gail commending the “fantastic” sourness of the broth. For Lexington-based Paula Endara, that means (sadly, overdone) grilled lamb with plum salsa macha and mushroom mole to represent both her Kentucky address and her Ecuadorian roots. And for Korean-born Katianna Hong, that means pork loin katsu with pea-shoot gravy and kimchi peaches that Tom Coliccio called “one of the best bites I had all day.” However, it’s Fancy Vinny with his “perfectly cooked” confit salmon and foraged mushrooms in miso-hazelnut butter that claims the season’s first Elimination win.
On the opposite end of things are the chaotic duo of Kat Turner and Portland, ME, chef Mimi Weissenborn. The former left out several vital components of her plate of pan-fried walleye with wild rice (“I have a hard time evaluating the dish when I don’t have cherries, I don’t have tomatoes…it’s uncomplete,” Tom griped), while the latter overboiled her potatoes and only started brining her pork with an anxiety-inducing 30 minutes left on the clock. “Beige, muddy…elevated hospital food,” David Zilber brutally says of Mimi’s dish, with Nicole Gomez likening the spuds to the powdered, boxed stuff. It’s no big surprise, then, that the Maine cook gets the first “pack your knives and go” of season 22, though she will have the opportunity to later reenter the competition via Last Chance Kitchen.
And Top Chef season 22 is under way. What are your thoughts so far? Who are you rooting for, who are you immediately hating, which cheftestants are you ’shipping? Did you, too, knock over a cup of water at the sheer volume of Massimo’s voice? Sound off!
Stray observations
- • As an avid Jeopardy! watcher, this writer was quite excited to see upcoming cameos from repeat contestants Amy Schneider, Mattea Roach, and Michael Cera (of Celebrity Jeopardy! fame) in the season’s preview. That’s a crossover I can really get behind.
• I’m personally glad that Kat Turner isn’t the first one out, as we’re going to need to hear heaps more about her being a private chef for Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, as well as her killer farmers’ market fashions.
