Top Chef just closed out an incredible season in Charleston that brought back some fan favorites to compete with some newer talent in the culinary world. Last night, Brooke Williamson and Shirley Chung competed in the Top Chef Season 14 finale and before the big episode aired, Brooke spoke out about the worst thing that can happen on Bravo's long-running competition series. Here's what she had to say:
Yeah, but I think really, the biggest fear is to be eliminated first, or second, or third. (both laugh) I mean, honestly, to get eliminated that early in the game, I don't think it does a lot for your career. I don't think it does a whole lot for business, if you're only on the show for a couple of episodes.
Competitors on Top Chef devote a lot of time to appearing on the competition series. You are gone from your home, your family and your job for seven weeks. A lot of other competition shows cater to people who may be in transitional periods in their careers or who may have more free time, but the chefs on Top Chef are often in the peak of their careers and working 10-12 hours a day, as Shirley Chung also noted in the interview with Uproxx. It's hard to take seven weeks off to film the Bravo show, so it would be devastating to go home after only one or two episodes, as Brooke noted above.
Of course, going home early is always a little disheartening even if there aren't paycheck concerns, but sticking around on the show can be equally hazardous. This season, behind-the-scenes, Shirley puked during the shrimp challenge. Brooke also revealed that her least favorite challenge was the brunch challenge, and Shirley had trouble making her own cocktail using Patron. The show also implemented the elimination quickfires several times during Season 14 that were super difficult for contestants, and two great chefs went home because of them. In some ways, staying around can be as tough as getting kicked off before you really have a chance to showcase your skills.
I've particularly liked the way that Top Chef has been able to bring back some fan-favorite chefs in recent years to spice things up with the newer competitors. Season 14 was actually a really strong season of Top Chef in my opinion, even if a lot of the newbies went home before the veterans did. We have a while to wait before Season 15 hits the schedule, although Bravo has already renewed the series for another season. To find out what is heading to the schedule in the meantime, take a look at our midseason TV premiere guide.
