Stay ConnectedKevin Arnovitz and Tom Haberstroh bring their die-hard fanaticism of the hit TV show Top Chef and combine it with their NBA analytical instincts to draft “fantasy” teams, interview contestants and talk about America’s food and restaurant trends. Follow along weekly as the top cooking competition meets top-shelf analysis.
In Season 23, Chef Sara Bradley replaces Kevin as host to provide insight from the mind of former competitor and current kitchen guru.
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In this recap, Tom tries not to get salty about the elimination, but he gets peppered with shame anyway. Speaking of salt and pepper, Tom and Sara debate the best duo in the culinary world in an episode full of poor pairings.
Sara explains all the ins-and-outs of rabbit cooking while they both wonder who the mystery judges were and why they were presented that way. Sara and Tom discuss whether the customer is always right on a show like Top Chef. Did one of the chefs skate this week?
As the show crosses over state lines again to Asheville, NC, Sara and Tom preview the home stretch of the season and peg the favorites as it all winds down. Next week, the snake episode finally is here.
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In this week's Track Your Knives, Carly and Kendra rave about a return to the previous pace of a Top Chef episode. Carly gives a history lesson on mise en place relays before they get into the nitty gritty of power rankings. What happened to players' scores? We see a new entrant into the Top Ten! And then in their review of Fantasy Leagues, we lament Tom's draft while lauding Sara's. As always, listen for shout-outs to high performers!
As always, enter your scores each week before the episode airs on find-topchef.com and become a subscriber on packyourknives.com to get additional data-driven insights on Top Chef.
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In one of the best episodes of the season, we got a mise en place race AND boats. Mise en place and boats. THAT’S WHAT TOP CHEF DOES.
Tom and Sara take some time to bid farewell to a beloved chef and give some flowers to a fan favorite. Tom and Sara has out the proper pronunciation of pecan, and Sara reveals a personally devastating story about a salamander.
If you love cooking tips, you’re going to love this PYK recap. After listening to this pod, Sara will have you microwaving an artichoke tonight.
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This week’s Track Your Knives discusses our go to dinner party dishes and how we felt about the Quickfire into Elimination challenge sequence. Carly took a swing in the power rankings that unfortunately didn’t pay off, while two-thirds of power rankers correctly ranked the winner and eliminated chef in their top 3 and bottom 3 rankings. We then chat about the top fantasy league teams by chef count and call out the top teams - how’d you do?
As always, enter your scores each week before the episode airs on find-topchef.com and become a subscriber on packyourknives.com to get additional data-driven insights on Top Chef.
Follow us on Instagram: @find_topchef and @carly.sue.bear
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The third segment of a six-part Savor Charlotte series presented by the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority.
Tom Haberstroh is joined by Charlotte’s own Brittany Cochran who competed on Top Chef Season 23 Carolinas. She’s the executive chef of Stagioni in Myers Park in Charlotte and the only Charlotte “hometown” contestant this season.
Brittany shares what it was like to be the Queen City representative and how she wanted to break stereotypes that she faced in the restaurant biz. She also reveals what it was like to hear head judge Tom Colicchio and Charlotte legend Greg Collier give her flowers on the show and what really went down on the Southern Sides episode. For the Charlotte diners out there, Brittany also pulls back the curtain on the ghost named Blanche that still haunts her restaurant.
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After debating the crown of condiments, Tom and Sara break down the show’s first episode in Greenville, SC and explain how Last Chance Kitchen production goes down. Though they are facing each other in fantasy, they are both Team Mayo (particularly Duke’s Mayonnaise). With the LCK winner back in the competition, Tom and Sara wonders if the right chef was eliminated. When it comes to draft etiquette, Tom and Sara have very different strategies.
Plus, the third segment of a six-part Savor Charlotte series presented by the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority. Tom is joined by Top Chef Carolinas contestant Brittany Cochran, who is the Executive Chef at Stagioni. She shares what it was like to make her TV debut on Top Chef and the mental challenge it demands. She also reveals the stereotypes of being a female chef, her winding road to Top Chef and the ghost that haunts her Stagioni kitchen.
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This week’s Track Your Knives starts out with a deep dive of Restaurant Wars analysis. With 23 seasons now, there’s plenty of data to break down! In the land of Power Rankings, Carly and four other players kick butt by correctly placing the elimination chef as the most likely to be eliminated.
Kendra is still ahead of Carly, but Carly’s coming for her! While no one got a perfect score, we call out those who still did well this week for Power Rankings. On top of that, we get into the interpretation of Power Rankings heading into Restaurant Wars: did those who interspersed teams’ chefs among their Power Rankings do better or worse than those who ranked the teams in two separate blocks?
Carly gets another bragging right and Kendra calls out which chefs are earning the most points in Fantasy Leagues. Before wrapping up, we call out the leaders in the different Pack Your Knives Fantasy Leagues.
As always, enter your scores each week before the episode airs on find-topchef.com and become a subscriber on packyourknives.com to get additional data-driven insights on Top Chef.
Follow us on Instagram: @find_topchef and @carly.sue.bear
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A loaded recap episode this week tackles all the happenings on Top Chef’s iconic Restaurant Wars episode with a special boots-on-the-ground report from Tom, who attended as a takeout guest.
Sara and Tom break it all down and rehash Sara’s Restaurant Wars history and whether she’d prefer to be dine-in or takeout. Sara disagrees with the choice of which chef went home while Tom questions the kitchen jobs of the Tierra Reina team. Is a welcome drink a waste of time? Did immunity save a certain chef? Is a Bloomin’ Onion the worst takeout food of all-time?
We also had a Last Chance Kitchen finale to recap. We welcome back the LCK winner and look forward to the show’s next stop in the Carolinas.
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We're back for episode seven of Track Your Knives, the data-driven Top Chef companion podcast brought to you by Pack Your Knives. This week Carly analyzed how often desserts land chefs in the top or bottom of elimination challenges and we hypothesized on what will happen next week during Restaurant Wars. Will there only be 7 chefs or will we see a surprise return?
As always, enter your scores each week before the episode airs on find-topchef.com and become a subscriber on packyourknives.com to get additional data-driven insights on Top Chef.
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The second segment of a six-part Savor Charlotte series presented by the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority.
Tom Haberstroh is joined by Callan Buckles, Executive Chef at Rada, which was named to the New York Times' most recent 50 Best Restaurants in America, to share his journey and why he chose to relocate to Charlotte from NYC.
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