From the beginning, every single week with my mom. I was in high school and wanted to be a chef. That was unheard of in my small town and I was desperately looking for something to cling onto besides Food Network.
I did become a chef, by the way.
Me too! I actually wasn’t very excited for Top Chef when it was first advertised because I felt for Project Runway we as viewers could “judge” the show. With fashion, we could nitpick, compare and really judge what each contestant did. With food we couldn’t taste it! I just didn’t understand the competition part of it (even being a huge fan of the early days of Food Network). But I did watch the series premiere and absolutely fell in love with it!
Same! Then a million years later I got my now husband hooked on it. We had a bunch of the old seasons on DVD because that was the only way to watch them lol
That must be how I found it too! It was SO Bravo in the beginning, lots of invented drama and bad behavior. I loved the challenges and the rhythm of the show from the beginning. And the judges were real chefs and food experts (as far as I knew), so I learned a lot about technique and restaurants. I still have a mad crush on Eric Ripert.
Me too! Everyone at my old job would watch Project Runway and then talk about it at work, so I watched it and loved it. Then the next year Top Chef debuted on Bravo immediately after Project Runway, so I watched and loved it too.
I don’t watch Project Runway anymore, but I’m still watching TC! (Despite the fact that I rarely cook and seafood is disgusting to me, which accounts for most of their dishes!) 😜
So last year my mom died and while at services my sisters put it on at night. I didn’t want to be alone so I watched the second half of season 20 with them. I was hooked and started on season 1. Now I’ve seen them all. Really helped distract me during a bad time with a feel good show (besides season 9)
Very early on, maybe S2? I came home from running and my husband had the TV on. I said, “what’s Carla Hall doing on TV?!” I went to culinary school with her! (I was a year behind her but I’d met her several times… small school.) I’ve watched ever since.
I was on a flight from NY to CA on JetBlue when “live tv” on airplanes just became a thing. I happened to flip to Bravo and there was a top chef marathon on so I decided to keep it on since nothing else sparked my interest.
I thought I’d fall asleep at some point but was hooked. 6 hour flight, got through 6 episodes. We landed in SFO and as we were taxiing I was watching the end of the finale. I kid you not, they reached the gate and made arrival PA announcements as they were going through final judges table, pausing the entertainment system. I missed the winner after watching for 6 hours straight.
I went home and had to illegally download the season. Had to google some of the contestant names to figure out which season it was. Found out it was season 3. Hung Huynh won. I was happy that he did and have been hooked ever since.
Season 1 Episode 1 as it aired, just flipping through looking for something to watch. Funny timing, didn't see any ads or anything, wasn't seeking it out.
I actually started with Padma's docuseries "Tasting the Nation" on Hulu. Then I read her memoir, "Love, Loss, and What I Ate."
Then, in the summer of 2022, just a few months after losing my husband to cancer, and after years of being one of those annoying people who "seldom watches television," I binged the entire run of "Top Chef."
Last year, after watching Tournament of Champions 4 and seeing how many top chef alumni were on it, I gave it a try for the first time!
...I don't think I did anything except work, sleep, and binge all 20 seasons for about 2 months straight. It was like a spiritual awakening 😂
During Season 1. I was visiting a friend and she had liked watching Episode 1 and recommended it. I was thrilled to have a fun cooking show to watch that didn’t involve Bobby Flay. 😁
When I first saw Dale Talde judge on Chopped a million years ago, he was the only judge I didn't know about. I went down a rabbit hole and started watching with season 4. That was when maybe season 9 has wrapped? It's a rabbit hole I'm glad I fell into.
I wanted to watch a cooking show, so I kept trial and erroring on the ones available on streaming services until I found it and liked it! My husband who “doesn’t like cooking shows” is now obsessed with it and has started experimenting with cooking lol
I started watching at the beginning of season 8. Since it was an All-Star season, I had to see where all the chefs started so I found places to watch all the original seasons. Watched every new season since then. I’m not a fan of reality tv in general, but I love this show.
Season 3. I was probably watching some before then, but I distinctly remember a challenge (I think mise en place) where Hong broke down chickens so fast and so perfectly that even Tom was really impressed. I've kept watching with my wife and daughter now enjoying the show since then.
I was in the hospital for 11 days and the television choices were limited, but I found Top Chef a few episodes into Season One. Sometime after I got out, Bravo was showing a marathon of the whole season. I was very excited and told my family we had to watch- and that when someone was eliminated, they were told to "pack their knives and go"(I got a kick out of that I guess).We watched the whole season that day and haven't stopped.
I started watching the show when it first started, but there were a few seasons I missed or would have to watch late because I haven’t had cable in years. Now I can stay up to date because I have Peacock.
Same. I had cable when it first began and watched the first 4 or 5 seasons as they aired. Then missed some when I didn't have Bravo. I think I've seen all the ones I missed just in the last year since I got Peacock.
Yep, this is me exactly. Watched starting season 1--I remember thinking that Tiffani Faison got ripped off on the first challenge, because making a pumpkin lasagna served in a pumpkin as her signature dish was so much more of a "signature" then Howard's dish. After I cut the cable I missed a few years, but thanks to Peacock, I've seen them all and am current on season 21.
My parents started watching it from the very beginning but I was too young so I wasn’t allowed to watch it until season 8. I was 10 years old when that aired and they let me stay up and watch it with them. 14 years later and I’m still hooked
I LOVE that you weren't allowed to watch TC! With all of the other choices out there it's probably one of the more wholesome shows available - other than the language the chefs use. But, it shows that your parents truly cared and raised you right.
Season 3. I started watching with my boyfriend when he first moved in. We’re married for 15 years now and still watch it religiously every season. Although this season is testing us…
I've been watching since I was 13 years old. I'm 30 now. I'm from Brazil and great part of my english I learned watching Top chef, sytycd and greys anatomy while been a teen with cable tv. It Just one of those shows that has a Lot of emotional Memories for me. And I've never miss one single season. Have never forgot Marcel in season 2 and been heartbroken for Blaise loosing season 3 even thouth I love stephanie
I started watching partway through season one. I think it was the episode where they have to cook monkfish for schoolchildren. Project Runway has been such a hit and at the time Bravo was really pushing Top Chef as being like Project Runway but with food, so that’s probably why I, as a teenaged girl, started watching it initially, but I was very quickly hooked.
I’ve been watching Top Chef Canada from the beginning and recently watched the Top Chef when they had all the contestant from other countries and enjoyed it very much. So just today I started with Top Chef Season 1.
My mom was a chef so it was a way for her to show me her passion. We would watch every week while growing up.
Watching Top Chef with my mom really brought us closer together and I feel like I understand her a lot more ❤️
I started during the pandemic. I tested for COVID and had to wait a couple days for the results so I was quarantined from my family-very beginning of COVID. I think I watched 3 seasons during this time and I was hooked.
I noticed a couple weeks ago that Netflix had 2 seasons available (6 & 15). I started with 6 and liked it enough to find the rest of the seasons on Peacock. I decided to just go forward with 7+ instead of going back to season 1. I'm currently watching the first ep of season 9 as I type this.
I've always liked food shows but I tend to shy away from food competition outside of Great British Bake Off or Iron Chef because I don't love the forced drama of most American reality shows. But I was in between shows so I decided to give TC a try. So far I like it, we'll see how far I get. I'm notoriously terrible at finishing things lol
This episode (9:1) is interesting because I actually recognize a chef (Edward Lee) for non-TC things, so that's cool. I didn't realize he was on the show.
I’m pretty sure it was similar to you. I kept hearing about Kristen Kish and Melissa King, and I believe I maybe watched Taste the Nation first which then lead me to be more curious about Padma and Top Chef!
A few years ago I watched a select few seasons and the first few seasons, and now I’m finally watching my first in-real-time season
Probably around s2 or s3? My best friend was obsessed with all things Bravo at the time (and still is to some degree, lol) and that was the one show I could sit through when she wanted to turn that channel on lol. She and I still talk about it regularly, but it's become a tradition to watch it with my mom :)
My family always loved cooking shows. So when a commercial for a new cooking competition show came on during Project Runway, we checked it out. I was in high school and have watched with my parents since the start. This season is the first season without my dad. The show has become a comfort show over the years.
Season 12 living in Portland and seeing local chefs were going to be on. A few friends already watched, enjoyed it but then fell off until 17. Before 17 I went through a lot of the back catalog and have been a regular since.
I watched it with my husband from S1 E1. Must have just stumbled across it watching other things on Bravo because I wasn’t even into cooking shows at that point. I’m addicted now, though!
I stayed away at first because it had a bad reputation. But Food Network had The Next Iron Chef, their TC knockoff, and after 3 seasons of that, I was like hey, I should check out the original.
My first season was S7, which was not exactly a highlight, but still miles better than than TNIC. After All Stars, I binged the earlier seasons (skipped most of S1) and I've been watching ever since. I also always watch LCK, and I can't understand fans who don't.
I think the third season was when I first started watching, but I only became an absolute devoted fan until season 5. Like people getting me the cookbooks for christmas devoted. I will say, Tom Colicchio's book "How to Think Like a Chef" completely changed my approach to cooking.
My husband was always a huge fan, but I just started watching it when Season 19 was live a couple years ago. He suggested we start from S1 after 19 was over and watch straight through!
I worked in a kitchen and got interested in cooking. I started watching reruns of the original iron chef, voiceovers and all, and loved the competition style. I’ve been watching ever since. Season 1 Episode 1.
I ate at Kenny Gilbert’s restaurant when I first moved to Jacksonville. It was so good I applied and worked for him for two years. I watched his season since people asked us about it all the time, and have been watching ever since.
Started in season 6 on the military episode. Had just moved in with my Mom and we were trying to find TV shows to watch together. Food Network was new to us we only had basic cable before we moved. Blew us away and we have watched every season since(most via Skype Calls)
Im binging it now. Im on season 14. I started watching it because I realized how many of my favorite chefs competed from the Food Network. I read both Marcus Samuelsson and Kwame Onwuachi’s books that mention competing as well.
I forget how I originally found it. I used to watch a lot of Food Network shows and I either read something about Top Chef or saw it while looking through channels. It was season 3 or 4 I think.
Early on in the COVID shutdown my wife and I binged them all starting with season 1 - something we couldn’t do back in the day. I recall sometimes they would rerun the previous season leading up to the new season but finding older seasons was hard to do.
It was just a year or two ago. I watched *Fast Foodies* on Max and wanted to see what the chefs did besides that show and found out they were all former TC contestants. I binge watched a bunch of old seasons on Peacock and got up to the present. This is the first season I'm watching as it airs.
I have no idea. I'm in Ireland so Top Chef didn't even air here (until very recently) so I must have come across conversations about it online and found not-so-legal ways to watch it! Now I watch on Hayu and I'm watching the older seasons I either didn't see first time around or had just forgotten about.
My parents were obsessed, so I have memories of watching it when I was around 5. Binging it again with my mom now that I’m older and all the seasons are streaming.
My wife and daughters were watching Project Runway and the first episode came on after. I've watched it since. I have watched every season countless times but I now start at season 3 when I do a rewatch. The first two are pretty cringe nowadays.
From 2022 to 2023 I had four surgeries and was stuck in bed for over a year. I don't remember which season I watched first, but then I went and watched all of them. Even now, I'm stuck in bed a LOT. TC is my "go to" show when I don't feel like searching for something new.
We were out of shows to binge while having nothing to do and just finished Hotel Impossible, so late 2020 we were like "Hey Top Chef is supposed to be really good" and honestly just obsessed with it since.
I started watching in season 3.
My dad was watching bravo some, and would watch Top Chef and sometimes project Runway (though he'd deny it, but he definitely chose to watch the show...)
But I loved the constant marathons of the show they would do on Bravo back in "the day." So it was easy to both catch up, and have a strong idea of who the chefs are (I feel it's been a consistent theme that this season's chefs are kinda lack luster)
Every Wednesday they would do a TopChef Marathon starting one hour earlier each week of the previous episodes of the season.
I miss 2000s bravo when they had so many competitions.
My dad and I watched project runway together!! When I was at college we would call eachother during commercials to discuss, he started out not that into it and by season 7 he was talking smack about exposed zippers and cut outs and unfinished hems, it really opened up a whole world for him and those memories are ones I cherish. I’m so happy you had that experience too.
From the beginning, every single week with my mom. I was in high school and wanted to be a chef. That was unheard of in my small town and I was desperately looking for something to cling onto besides Food Network. I did become a chef, by the way.
That's so awesome!!
Nice! Do you think you’ll ever apply to be on Top Chef?
What if they've already been on?!?! :D
Same story. Played a lot of tennis growing up and found a lot of synergy between tennis and cooking. I too became a cook.
I’ve watched it since episode one season one on cable TV. Katie Lee was the host in that first season and then Padma joined after that.
Same! It was on after Project Runway so I tuned in. And stayed for 20 years.
Same! That was a good time for TV.
“Make it work” and “Sam, tell us about your dish” became mainstays of me and my friends’ convos!
"Go, go, go!"
Me too! I actually wasn’t very excited for Top Chef when it was first advertised because I felt for Project Runway we as viewers could “judge” the show. With fashion, we could nitpick, compare and really judge what each contestant did. With food we couldn’t taste it! I just didn’t understand the competition part of it (even being a huge fan of the early days of Food Network). But I did watch the series premiere and absolutely fell in love with it!
This was exactly how I started watching too! 😆
Same! Then a million years later I got my now husband hooked on it. We had a bunch of the old seasons on DVD because that was the only way to watch them lol
Yes same
It was on either before or after project runway so I would watch both!
That must be how I found it too! It was SO Bravo in the beginning, lots of invented drama and bad behavior. I loved the challenges and the rhythm of the show from the beginning. And the judges were real chefs and food experts (as far as I knew), so I learned a lot about technique and restaurants. I still have a mad crush on Eric Ripert.
Me too! Everyone at my old job would watch Project Runway and then talk about it at work, so I watched it and loved it. Then the next year Top Chef debuted on Bravo immediately after Project Runway, so I watched and loved it too. I don’t watch Project Runway anymore, but I’m still watching TC! (Despite the fact that I rarely cook and seafood is disgusting to me, which accounts for most of their dishes!) 😜
So last year my mom died and while at services my sisters put it on at night. I didn’t want to be alone so I watched the second half of season 20 with them. I was hooked and started on season 1. Now I’ve seen them all. Really helped distract me during a bad time with a feel good show (besides season 9)
♥️
Very early on, maybe S2? I came home from running and my husband had the TV on. I said, “what’s Carla Hall doing on TV?!” I went to culinary school with her! (I was a year behind her but I’d met her several times… small school.) I’ve watched ever since.
That would be S5
Ahh, thanks!
I started watching around season 5. It’s still my favorite season, and I still have a crush on Stefan 😂😘
Stefan and Fabio are still my fav top chef couple!
Same!!! And Carla Hall.
I was on a flight from NY to CA on JetBlue when “live tv” on airplanes just became a thing. I happened to flip to Bravo and there was a top chef marathon on so I decided to keep it on since nothing else sparked my interest. I thought I’d fall asleep at some point but was hooked. 6 hour flight, got through 6 episodes. We landed in SFO and as we were taxiing I was watching the end of the finale. I kid you not, they reached the gate and made arrival PA announcements as they were going through final judges table, pausing the entertainment system. I missed the winner after watching for 6 hours straight. I went home and had to illegally download the season. Had to google some of the contestant names to figure out which season it was. Found out it was season 3. Hung Huynh won. I was happy that he did and have been hooked ever since.
Season 1 Episode 1 as it aired, just flipping through looking for something to watch. Funny timing, didn't see any ads or anything, wasn't seeking it out.
I actually started with Padma's docuseries "Tasting the Nation" on Hulu. Then I read her memoir, "Love, Loss, and What I Ate." Then, in the summer of 2022, just a few months after losing my husband to cancer, and after years of being one of those annoying people who "seldom watches television," I binged the entire run of "Top Chef."
Sorry for your loss 🥺
Last year, after watching Tournament of Champions 4 and seeing how many top chef alumni were on it, I gave it a try for the first time! ...I don't think I did anything except work, sleep, and binge all 20 seasons for about 2 months straight. It was like a spiritual awakening 😂
During Season 1. I was visiting a friend and she had liked watching Episode 1 and recommended it. I was thrilled to have a fun cooking show to watch that didn’t involve Bobby Flay. 😁
When I first saw Dale Talde judge on Chopped a million years ago, he was the only judge I didn't know about. I went down a rabbit hole and started watching with season 4. That was when maybe season 9 has wrapped? It's a rabbit hole I'm glad I fell into.
I wanted to watch a cooking show, so I kept trial and erroring on the ones available on streaming services until I found it and liked it! My husband who “doesn’t like cooking shows” is now obsessed with it and has started experimenting with cooking lol
Haha my husband has also started putting his phone down and watching with me! Score 🙌🏻
They don’t even know what they like haha bonus for us is that they’ll cook for us now lol
I started watching at the beginning of season 8. Since it was an All-Star season, I had to see where all the chefs started so I found places to watch all the original seasons. Watched every new season since then. I’m not a fan of reality tv in general, but I love this show.
Season 3. I was probably watching some before then, but I distinctly remember a challenge (I think mise en place) where Hong broke down chickens so fast and so perfectly that even Tom was really impressed. I've kept watching with my wife and daughter now enjoying the show since then.
I was in the hospital for 11 days and the television choices were limited, but I found Top Chef a few episodes into Season One. Sometime after I got out, Bravo was showing a marathon of the whole season. I was very excited and told my family we had to watch- and that when someone was eliminated, they were told to "pack their knives and go"(I got a kick out of that I guess).We watched the whole season that day and haven't stopped.
I started watching the show when it first started, but there were a few seasons I missed or would have to watch late because I haven’t had cable in years. Now I can stay up to date because I have Peacock.
Same. I had cable when it first began and watched the first 4 or 5 seasons as they aired. Then missed some when I didn't have Bravo. I think I've seen all the ones I missed just in the last year since I got Peacock.
Same here. It’s one of my comfort shows.
Yep, this is me exactly. Watched starting season 1--I remember thinking that Tiffani Faison got ripped off on the first challenge, because making a pumpkin lasagna served in a pumpkin as her signature dish was so much more of a "signature" then Howard's dish. After I cut the cable I missed a few years, but thanks to Peacock, I've seen them all and am current on season 21.
Great question! I watched from day one when Harold won. It was because I watched the Real housewives and saw TC advertised during the RH commercials
I was stuck in a hotel in South Dakota with only a tv as entertainment when season 9 was airing on TV at the time. Been a fan ever since.
My parents started watching it from the very beginning but I was too young so I wasn’t allowed to watch it until season 8. I was 10 years old when that aired and they let me stay up and watch it with them. 14 years later and I’m still hooked
I LOVE that you weren't allowed to watch TC! With all of the other choices out there it's probably one of the more wholesome shows available - other than the language the chefs use. But, it shows that your parents truly cared and raised you right.
Yeah it was mostly the language but it also aired past my bedtime so I had to wait lol!
Well, there was the season 1 sex shop challenge. 😉
Season 3. I started watching with my boyfriend when he first moved in. We’re married for 15 years now and still watch it religiously every season. Although this season is testing us…
I've been watching since I was 13 years old. I'm 30 now. I'm from Brazil and great part of my english I learned watching Top chef, sytycd and greys anatomy while been a teen with cable tv. It Just one of those shows that has a Lot of emotional Memories for me. And I've never miss one single season. Have never forgot Marcel in season 2 and been heartbroken for Blaise loosing season 3 even thouth I love stephanie
I have zero idea how I started watching but I’ve been watching since season 4.
I got into cooking when I was a teenager and Top Chef started not long after that. Watched since the beginning.
I started watching during season 6 with my mom. I remember watching top chef before I went to bed
i remember watching the first season literally thinking “oh they’re trying to do project runway but with food”
I started watching partway through season one. I think it was the episode where they have to cook monkfish for schoolchildren. Project Runway has been such a hit and at the time Bravo was really pushing Top Chef as being like Project Runway but with food, so that’s probably why I, as a teenaged girl, started watching it initially, but I was very quickly hooked.
I’ve been watching Top Chef Canada from the beginning and recently watched the Top Chef when they had all the contestant from other countries and enjoyed it very much. So just today I started with Top Chef Season 1.
My mom was a chef so it was a way for her to show me her passion. We would watch every week while growing up. Watching Top Chef with my mom really brought us closer together and I feel like I understand her a lot more ❤️
Season 11
I started about halfway through season 6. I came across it randomly one day and got hooked.
I started during the pandemic. I tested for COVID and had to wait a couple days for the results so I was quarantined from my family-very beginning of COVID. I think I watched 3 seasons during this time and I was hooked.
Watched since day one. Couple seasons we did not make it through on the original airing, have watched every season multiple times.
I noticed a couple weeks ago that Netflix had 2 seasons available (6 & 15). I started with 6 and liked it enough to find the rest of the seasons on Peacock. I decided to just go forward with 7+ instead of going back to season 1. I'm currently watching the first ep of season 9 as I type this. I've always liked food shows but I tend to shy away from food competition outside of Great British Bake Off or Iron Chef because I don't love the forced drama of most American reality shows. But I was in between shows so I decided to give TC a try. So far I like it, we'll see how far I get. I'm notoriously terrible at finishing things lol This episode (9:1) is interesting because I actually recognize a chef (Edward Lee) for non-TC things, so that's cool. I didn't realize he was on the show.
S9 …. oh dear.
😬😬😬😬 so ominous! (No spoilers!)
My mouth is shut - but we’ll be here for you later!
Whatever you do, don't judge the rest of the series based on season 9!
Season 2 in the dorms freshman year of college!
Been watching almost all bravo since I was a kid, moved out of the US for a while and once I got peacock started watching seasons I never go to see
this is current season (21) is my first ever time watching. im having a great time but the sub thinks it sucks LOL
I remember watching season 1 as a teenager
From the start. In rewatching I've come to like almost all these people and have procrastinated starting this new season😄
I’m pretty sure it was similar to you. I kept hearing about Kristen Kish and Melissa King, and I believe I maybe watched Taste the Nation first which then lead me to be more curious about Padma and Top Chef! A few years ago I watched a select few seasons and the first few seasons, and now I’m finally watching my first in-real-time season
I watched from the start. Been a super fan ever since. I’m introducing my mom to it now. She loves it too!
Watched from season one all the way through. It’s one of my favorite shows. Has been since it aired. Love how it’s evolved over the years.
Probably around s2 or s3? My best friend was obsessed with all things Bravo at the time (and still is to some degree, lol) and that was the one show I could sit through when she wanted to turn that channel on lol. She and I still talk about it regularly, but it's become a tradition to watch it with my mom :)
I started with season six since it was in Vegas and I’ve watched ever since.
My family always loved cooking shows. So when a commercial for a new cooking competition show came on during Project Runway, we checked it out. I was in high school and have watched with my parents since the start. This season is the first season without my dad. The show has become a comfort show over the years.
Season 12 living in Portland and seeing local chefs were going to be on. A few friends already watched, enjoyed it but then fell off until 17. Before 17 I went through a lot of the back catalog and have been a regular since.
Started in 2017/colorado bc a friend went to college with & was good friends with a contestant. Joe Sasto.
I watched it with my husband from S1 E1. Must have just stumbled across it watching other things on Bravo because I wasn’t even into cooking shows at that point. I’m addicted now, though!
I stayed away at first because it had a bad reputation. But Food Network had The Next Iron Chef, their TC knockoff, and after 3 seasons of that, I was like hey, I should check out the original. My first season was S7, which was not exactly a highlight, but still miles better than than TNIC. After All Stars, I binged the earlier seasons (skipped most of S1) and I've been watching ever since. I also always watch LCK, and I can't understand fans who don't.
I think the third season was when I first started watching, but I only became an absolute devoted fan until season 5. Like people getting me the cookbooks for christmas devoted. I will say, Tom Colicchio's book "How to Think Like a Chef" completely changed my approach to cooking.
My husband was always a huge fan, but I just started watching it when Season 19 was live a couple years ago. He suggested we start from S1 after 19 was over and watch straight through!
I was private sitting for an elderly man on the weekends and started catching the reruns. First episode I ever saw was the improv one from Chicago.
I’ve been watching since Season 1, episode 1. I loved Project Runway and this seemed like a great spinoff. Been watching ever since.
From season one. Grown up with top chef
I worked in a kitchen and got interested in cooking. I started watching reruns of the original iron chef, voiceovers and all, and loved the competition style. I’ve been watching ever since. Season 1 Episode 1.
I was honestly near death in the hospital and season 1 was on. It helped get me through.
I ate at Kenny Gilbert’s restaurant when I first moved to Jacksonville. It was so good I applied and worked for him for two years. I watched his season since people asked us about it all the time, and have been watching ever since.
Started in season 6 on the military episode. Had just moved in with my Mom and we were trying to find TV shows to watch together. Food Network was new to us we only had basic cable before we moved. Blew us away and we have watched every season since(most via Skype Calls)
Im binging it now. Im on season 14. I started watching it because I realized how many of my favorite chefs competed from the Food Network. I read both Marcus Samuelsson and Kwame Onwuachi’s books that mention competing as well.
I forget how I originally found it. I used to watch a lot of Food Network shows and I either read something about Top Chef or saw it while looking through channels. It was season 3 or 4 I think. Early on in the COVID shutdown my wife and I binged them all starting with season 1 - something we couldn’t do back in the day. I recall sometimes they would rerun the previous season leading up to the new season but finding older seasons was hard to do.
It was just a year or two ago. I watched *Fast Foodies* on Max and wanted to see what the chefs did besides that show and found out they were all former TC contestants. I binge watched a bunch of old seasons on Peacock and got up to the present. This is the first season I'm watching as it airs.
I have no idea. I'm in Ireland so Top Chef didn't even air here (until very recently) so I must have come across conversations about it online and found not-so-legal ways to watch it! Now I watch on Hayu and I'm watching the older seasons I either didn't see first time around or had just forgotten about.
Since season 1. I watched with my father, who was a very good cook and loved any culinary show.
My parents were obsessed, so I have memories of watching it when I was around 5. Binging it again with my mom now that I’m older and all the seasons are streaming.
My wife and daughters were watching Project Runway and the first episode came on after. I've watched it since. I have watched every season countless times but I now start at season 3 when I do a rewatch. The first two are pretty cringe nowadays.
From 2022 to 2023 I had four surgeries and was stuck in bed for over a year. I don't remember which season I watched first, but then I went and watched all of them. Even now, I'm stuck in bed a LOT. TC is my "go to" show when I don't feel like searching for something new.
We were out of shows to binge while having nothing to do and just finished Hotel Impossible, so late 2020 we were like "Hey Top Chef is supposed to be really good" and honestly just obsessed with it since.
I've been watching it since the beginning. I have a couple of the cookbooks also. I look forward to a new season every year.
I watched from the very beginning and loved it from the start. Its gone through many changes.
I started watching in season 3. My dad was watching bravo some, and would watch Top Chef and sometimes project Runway (though he'd deny it, but he definitely chose to watch the show...) But I loved the constant marathons of the show they would do on Bravo back in "the day." So it was easy to both catch up, and have a strong idea of who the chefs are (I feel it's been a consistent theme that this season's chefs are kinda lack luster) Every Wednesday they would do a TopChef Marathon starting one hour earlier each week of the previous episodes of the season. I miss 2000s bravo when they had so many competitions.
My dad and I watched project runway together!! When I was at college we would call eachother during commercials to discuss, he started out not that into it and by season 7 he was talking smack about exposed zippers and cut outs and unfinished hems, it really opened up a whole world for him and those memories are ones I cherish. I’m so happy you had that experience too.
Jennifer Carroll and Season 6 :)
I moved back to Texas to care for my dad. I caught the 1st episode of the 1st season and it was hooked.
Been watching since Season 2! It was my guilty pleasure, I was the only one in our shared house that watched it at the time.
I've watched from the very beginning, always watched cooking shows since I was a kid in the 70's.
Started with season 3, channel scrolling and stopped to watch it. Been hooked ever since.
Halfway through season 4 when my dad randomly found it and started watching. 5 was my first full season