Top Chef behind the scenes.. All I have to say is that I knew Stephan was cool… I called it.. and Tom is awesome… F pads.
My husbee found this on Redit… I will link it on the bottom, I grabbed some key points but there is so much more….
Since it’s been accepted that the Top Chef contestant IAMA was a faker, I figured I’d do this one to answer some of the TC questions that got ignored. I worked as a low level crew member for Top Chef Season 5, going on field shoots, set (kitchen) shoots, and working at the cast house.
Ask me questions about how reality television works, how Top Chef runs, etc. I can’t tell you anything that I think Magical Elves might sue me for, and I won’t tell you my position or name just in case, but I’ll try to be as specific as I can
I’ve got a bunch…thanks in advance for answering any/all of them.
1. You said people hate Padma. So, What’s the deal with her? Is she just dumb? Does she not know anything about cooking? Or is she basically just a bitch? What do the contestants think? Usually they have good things to say about her in their interviews… Basically what is she like? Any good stories about her? It seemed like she got along with Gayle Simmons or was that not the case? Or do they not like Gayle either?
2. How many refrigerators/stovetops/ovens/etc. are in the top chef kitchen? Is it as big as they make it seem on TV?
3. When the contestants go to restaurants or outside locations to film, what goes into the set-up? Do they basically give you their kitchen for the day? Are the big restaurants really ok with that or do you have to film at weird times?
4. You said that the big red timer is real. Does that mean that the chefs really have to find ingredients, cook and plate multiple items in 1/2 hour for quickfire? Or is there more time they get for certain things that they don’t show?
5. When they do the contests for speed, are the teams really doing it all at the same time or is it really just timed and then the fastest team wins?
6. Who was the most memorable guest judge you had on the show and why?
7. What was the worst challenge for filming and why? How did you have to work around the problems?
8. Did Hosea really complain about Stefan as much as they made it seem like he did? The end of the season got really old with him always saying how much he wanted to beat Stefan.
9. Was the Hosea/Leah thing really that big of a deal? Were they just totally freaking out the whole time?
10. Did “Team Rainbow” come up as much as the show made it seem? Why is it that they always make a big deal about the whole sex thing? It’s a show about cooking.
11. Was Fabio as funny as they made him seem on the show? Was he super laid-back?
12. How long do the judges really talk before coming up with a decision? Is most of it really boring? Were there any big arguments that weren’t really shown?
13. Is there a reason they use the same music for every season? Can they not get rights to more music?
1.She wasn’t dumb, but she was a major diva who expected preferential treatment and complained about things the other judges didn’t care about. She got along better with Gail than she did with Tom — she and Tom were like cats and dogs. People liked Gail just fine.
2.I’m counting by memory so I hope you’ll forgive me if I’m off a little bit. I think we had six ovens, 12 stovetop burners, three refrigerators, dozens of each cooking utensil and pot. The kitchen is definitely as big as you see it, it took up almost a whole soundstage and worked fully.
3.The on-location shoots are booked months in advance, and they give us the entire restaurant or as much space as they can for the entire day/night and access to it the day before. The big restaurants like it because it’s promotion, and a lot of times the owners of the restaurants are guest judges. The set up is huge — we bring everything, tables, ingredients, food for the crew and the cast, and we get street permits for parking.
4.The quickfire times and rules are real, yes. Sometimes during longer challenges, especially if the challenge is supposed to take place the next day, they’ll cook through the night or at odd times.
5.None of the speed contests are rigged. The competitions for shelling oysters and skinning apples aren’t timed, but they never claim to be.
6.Rocco DiSpirito scared us. Intense guy. Jamie Oliver was super nice. (CALLED IT, ROCCO IS A COCKO)
7.The worst problem for filming came when a location to store our gear for a field shoot canceled on us at the last moment. I spent a full day roaming around Manhattan trying to find a suitable space to store four vans and a ton of equipment in less than a week. When things fell behind schedule due to problems shooting or bad weather things would really hit the fan; the only thing to do is keep going and not waste any additional time.
8. I didn’t watch all the interviews, but a lot of people were gunning for Stefan, yeah.
9. The entire season was short on drama, so they amped up the Leah/Hosea thing a bit. But yeah, when the whole story broke the crew couldn’t stop talking about it — I don’t think that had ever happened in a cast before. The producers loved it.
10. The cast divided up into teams by themselves, to the delight of the producers, who hoped to follow the whole team thread for the entire season. It didn’t really pan out though, since only Team Europe made decently far into the season. It’s a show about cooking but people also watch TV for the characters. That’s why the drama mattered.
11. Fabio was fun and laid back, yes, but he got upstaged by Danny until Danny was eliminated. Danny was crazy.
12. Most of their discussion is really damn boring, and a lot of it gets left on the cutting room floor. They talk for about an hour, and there weren’t any arguments that I knew of.
13. They could get rights to more music, but that’s an extra expense that they don’t need. It’s better to create your own theme music to keep each episode consistent. Also, whenever anyone hears that music they will think of the show.
they do interviews after someone gets eliminated. People keep tabs on what they wore during different segments, so that they can change into those clothes for the interview. They talk in the present tense and the producer helps them recount what they did and why they did it. This way the contestants don’t get hints about what’s coming in the future.
The person that gets eliminated usually does two interviews. One right after they’ve been eliminated — hence the tears and immediate frustration. Then they do another once they’ve had time to calm down. That’s the interview where they recall what they did during the challenge. It does take a bit of acting, but they’re usually eager to discuss it with someone, since they can’t tell their families.
Red the rest at redit
