They say everything is bigger in Texas, and that appears to hold true for the new season ofTop Chef.
Bravo’s Emmy-winning reality series returns to the Lone Star state for its 19th season, bringing 15 of the country’s most talented chefs to Houston — the nation’s fourth largest city — for the most prestigious culinary competition on television.
PEOPLE andFood & Winehave a joint exclusive first look at the trailer for the season, which kicks off with a supersized premiere on March 3.
This is the secondTop Chefseason that has taken place during the ongoing pandemic, but COVID-19 plays a part in the upcoming season in a whole new way.
“I lost my scene of smell and taste,” contestant Jackson Kalb says in the trailer, referencing a common side effect of COVID-19. “I am terrified.”
NBC/Bravo
Back again this year is hostPadma Lakshmi, head judgeTom Colicchio, andThe Good Dish’sGail Simmons.
A local or national culinary icon will also judge each week. Renowned chefs Daniel Boulud, Wylie Dufresne, Carlotta Flores, Bricia Lopez, Eric Ripert, Marcus Samuelsson, and Alexander Smalls are slated to give their expertise, while 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 and Chris Williams will also appear.
As for the new cheftestants, they come from all across the country with a range of culinary experiences and training. The roster includes Ashleigh Shanti (Asheville, North Carolina), Buddha Lo (Brooklyn, New York), Damarr Brown (Chicago, Illinois), Evelyn Garcia (Houston, Texas), Kalb (Los Angeles, California), Jae Jung (New York, New York), Jo Chan (Austin, Texas), Leia Gaccione (Morristown, New Jersey), Luke Kolpin (Seattle, Washington), Monique Feybesse (Vallejo, California), Nick Wallace (Jackson, Mississippi), Robert Hernandez (San Francisco, California), Sam Kang (Brooklyn, New York), Sarah Welch (Detroit, Michigan), and Stephanie Miller (Bismarck, North Dakota).
They’ll be put to a sea ofTop Chef’s iconic challenges — from making space-friendly dishes for former NASA astronauts, feeding Houstonians at an Asian Night Market, and spotlighting Nigerian cuisine to honor Houston being home to the largest Nigerian population in the country, to paying tribute to the state’s female trailblazers, heading out to the Gulf with Colicchio for an unforgettable fishing experience, and seeing if the chef can put their own spin on beloved staples popularized in Houston (like BBQ, biscuits, queso and the classic Tex-Mex original, the fajita).
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The competition’s signature challenge, Restaurant Wars, ups the ante with 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.
Season 19 ofTop Chefpremieres Thursday, March 3 (8 p.m. ET) on Bravo.
source: people.com
