Bravo’s Top Chef series is undergoing another variation. On August 6, the network will launch Top Chef Duels, featuring 18 cheftestants from past seasons of both Top Chef and Top Chef Masters, who will compete head to head. Each episode will feature two chefs in three cooking challenges. Apparently the first two challenges are determined by each of the two cheftestants, presumably trying to expose a weak area of each other. The judging panel presumably picks the third challenge. At the end of the individual challenges, the 10 remaining chefs (must be some sort of last chance kitchen thing) have a battle royal, but I could be wrong about that.
Here are the duels. I don’t know if this is the exact order in which they will be aired, though.
Richard Blais v. Marcel Vigneron
Brooke Williamson v. Shirley Chung
Antonia Lafaso v. Mike Isabella
Stefan Richter v. Chris Jacobson (CJ)
David Burke v. Takashi Yagihashi
Dale Talde v. Tiffani Faison
Jennifer Carroll v. Nyesha Arrington
Kristen Kish v. Stephanie Izard
Kevin Gillespie v. Art Smith
Perhaps… I sometimes am confused on this comment as the bulk of Knife Fight is cooking, but it’s a rowdier show so I think the chefs are sometimes less inclined to go through their process point by point. Maybe some feel the judging segments are too long? Disclaimer: Knife Fight is one show I work on. More new eps start airing 7/27~
Regardless, I like the format of two chefs just cooking. I’ll probably check out Duels too.