Andy DehnartBravo announced the premiere date and cast for Top Chef Houston, season 19 of its marquee cooking competition, and also revealed some unexpected news: a second full season of Top Chef will be airing on Bravo Thursday nights, and while most people probably haven’t seen it, it’s technically new-ish.
First, for Top Chef Houston, the all-star panel is returning, but will be used in a slightly different way. Instead of serving as the only guest judges, host Padma Lakshmi explains in the trailer that “each week, we’ll be joined by a Top Chef all-star guest judge, along with a local or national culinary icon.”
The names of the all-stars, the guest judges, and all of the contestants are below.
Another terrific pandemic-inspired change is also being modified for this new season: Restaurant Wars will now be “an open kitchen concept where the chefs must cook for a full dining room of guests, while also catering to an intimate tasting table for the judges,” according to Bravo. Honestly, that’s a little disappointing, because the tasting table worked fine by itself, and I don’t think the challenge really needs a dining room full of guests, too.
But here’s the really exciting news…
Top Chef Family Style will air on Bravo
Yes, Top Chef Family Style, which aired only on Peacock for paying subscribers, will air on Bravo, with a new episode following each episode of Top Chef Houston, starting March 3.
In addition to bringing back Last Chance Kitchen, which will air on demand and online, Bravo is giving us a second full season of Top Chef that will be new to many, if not most, fans of the franchise.
Bravo is calling this an “encore,” saying “every Thursday directly following Top Chef, Bravo will encore Peacock’s Top Chef Family Style, hosted by Meghan Trainor and Marcus Samuelsson, where 15 exceptionally talented culinary prodigies compete with an adult family member for the chance to be crowned champions.”
The only thing I didn’t like about Top Chef Family Style was that it was locked behind yet another paywall, and so I’m thrilled NBCUniversal is pulling a Discovery+ here and airing its formerly exclusive show on cable.
The show features pairs of contestants, kids and a relative, and was truly just an outstanding season of Top Chef. If Top Chef Houston is anything like Top Chef Portland, having those two seasons back-to-back will make for fantastic Thursday evenings.
Top Chef Houston’s cast, all-stars, and guest judges
Contestants
There are 15 chefs competing on the new season. Here they are, with links to each chef’s bio on Bravo’s site:
- Ashleigh Shanti, Asheville
- Buddha Lo, Brooklyn
- Damarr Brown, Chicago
- Evelyn Garcia, Houston
- Jackson Kalb, Los Angeles
- Jae Jung, New York City
- Jo Chan, Austin
- Leia Gaccione, Morristown, New Jersey
- Luke Kolpin, Seattle
- Monique Feybesse, Vallejo, Calif.
- Nick Wallace, Jackson, Mississippi
- Robert Hernandez, San Francisco
- Sam Kang, Brooklyn
- Sarah Welch, Detroit
- Stephanie Miller, Bismarck, North Dakota
Top Chef alumni/all-stars
Judging the contestants will be Padma Lakshmi, Tom Colicchio, and Gail Simmons, of course, plus these Top Chef alumni:
- Nyesha Arrington
- Dawn Burrell
- Kelsey Barnard Clark
- Adrienne Cheatham
- Tiffany Derry
- Joe Flamm
- Gregory Gourdet
- Hung Huynh
- Stephanie Izard
- Melissa King
- Kristen Kish
- Ed Lee
- Maria Mazon
- Shota Nakajima
- Nini Nguyen
- Kwame Onwuachi
- Sheldon Simeon
- Brooke Williamson
- Claudette Zepeda
Top Chef Houston’s guest judges
Top Chef season 19 will have two different types of of guest judges, starting with these “world-renowned chefs”:
- Daniel Boulud
- Wylie Dufresne
- Carlotta Flores
- Bricia Lopez
- Eric Ripert
- Marcus Samuelsson
- Alexander Smalls
The guest judges will also include these “acclaimed Houstonian chefs”:
- Ope Amosu
- Aaron Bludorn
- Irma Galvan
- Greg Gatlin
- Robert Del Grande
- Christine Ha
- Trong Nguyen
- Hugo Ortega
- Monica Pope
- Chris Shepherd
- Kiran Verma
- Chris Williams