'Top Chef' Is Padma-less And Headed To Wisconsin In Season 21 Trailer

By Emily Richardson | TV | February 7, 2024 |

By Emily Richardson | TV | February 7, 2024 |

Praise be the food gods! Top Chef returns on March 20. For Season 21, the chefs are headed to… (drumroll please) Wisconsin! Huh. I did not expect that. But I’m looking forward to learning about Milwaukee cuisine and all the different ways Michelin star chefs can zhuzh up cheese.

Another reason this season is notable? No more Padma Lakshmi, who’s been hosting since 2006 (she took over from Katie Lee, cookbook author, food critic, third ex-wife of Billy Joel). She left to focus on her food/travel show, Taste the Nation, her books, and “other creative pursuits”. Maybe she also got tired of ingesting 9,000 calories a day during the first half of the season? Padma’s replacement is Top Chef Season 10 winner, Kristen Kish. I’ll miss Padma, but I welcome the Kish Era. She’s great.

Yesterday, Bravo dropped the trailer for the new season. Luckily, sexy, sexy Tom Colicchio returns to judge. As well as sexy, sexy Gail Simmons. Famous guest judges include chef/The Bear star Matty Matheson, actresses Clea Duvall and Brittany Snow, chef Art Smith, and comedian W. Kamau Bell.

Obviously, there will be a lot of cheese challenges. And one that highlights Indigenous recipes. There’s also going to be a cranberry episode, because, apparently, Wisconsin is America’s largest producer of cranberries. Huh. The more ya know.

Kristen teases some new rules in the trailer, including the abolishment of Quickfire immunities. So, if contestants win the Quickfire challenge, they can still get sent home in the main challenge. Sorry, chefs, you can Kish (I’m sorry) your safety nets goodbye.

Here’s the trailer: