Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Top Chef’ Season 21 On Bravo, Where Kristen Kish Takes Over For Padma Lakshmi As Host

When Padma Lakshmi announced that Season 20 of Top Chef was going to be her last as host, people were surprised that she was going to leave the job she had for 19 of that show’s 20 seasons. But what the fans of the show weren’t surprised about was the name that was bandied about as Lakshmi’s replacement: Kristen Kish. She seemed to be a natural for the job, given the fact that she won the show’s tenth season and from there launched a media career that included hosting gigs on shows like Iron Chef: Quest For An Iron Legend and Restaurants At The End Of The World. As she slides into Lakshmi’s chair, the series sets its sights on a dining scene they haven’t explored before: Wisconsin.

TOP CHEF SEASON 21: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Pastoral scenes of Wisconsin farms and cows rockets to the trio of Top Chef‘s new host, Kristen Kish, head judge Tom Colicchio and longtime judge Gail Simmons standing on the Milwaukee riverfront. “Top Chef is back”, says Kish.

The Gist: After Padma Lakshmi’s departure from Top Chef after Season 20, Kish, who won the show’s 10th season and was a guest judge numerous times, takes over as host. This season, the fifteen cheftestants will be competing in Milwaukee and other parts of Wisconsin. As the chefs, many of whom were James Beard Award finalists or worked in the kitchens of restaurants that earned Michelin stars, file into the kitchen studio, Kish gets congratulations on the new gig, and the chefs applaud, knowing that not long ago, she was one of them.

There are a couple of rule changes right off the bat: Starting this season, the Quickfire Challenge winners will no longer get immunity in that episode’s Elimination Challenge; instead, the winner will get money from a $100,000 prize pool. There will be immunity on the table, though; the winner of the Elimination Challenge will get immunity from being sent home after the next episode’s Elimination Challenge. As usual, the winner of Top Chef gets $250,000, a feature in Food & Wine magazine, and an appearance at that magazine’s festival in Aspen and, of course, the title of Top Chef.

In another twist, there isn’t a Quickfire Challenge the first week; in the Elimination Challenge, the chefs draw knives with the names of Kish, Simmons and Colicchio on them, meaning they’ll have to make the category of dish east host/judge picks. All three pick dish categories that seem simple but are actually amazingly complex: Kish picks soup, Simmons picks stuffed pasts, and Colicchio picks roasted chicken. The chefs will shop for ingredients for 30 minutes, then have two hours the next day at Milwaukee restaurant Lupi & Iris to make their dish. Paul Bartolotta, whose group owns Lupi & Iris, and Adam Siegel, the restaurant’s chef/owner, are the guest judges.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Top Chef Seasons 1-20. Every cooking competition that has come since uses elements of Top Chef in one way or another, if they don’t completely rip off the format.

Our Take: Kish, who has hosted shows in the past, didn’t come into this gig cold, but we were surprised how quickly she stepped into Lakshmi’s longtime slot and fit right in. She even delivered the show’s signature line “Please pack your knives and go” with the right combination of authority and sympathy.

She definitely brings a different perspective to the show, as Colicchio mentioned during Kish’s intro. She’s a chef, not a food expert/cookbook writer like Lakshmi was, and she won her season of Top Chef after she was eliminated, returning to the competition by constantly winning Last Chance Kitchen. She’s been where these contestants have been, and know how tough it is to come up with a well-composed dish under the show’s unnatural conditions. But it will also mean that she’ll likely be tougher on chefs she knows can do better than what they’re doing. Either way, she’ll certainly have a different connection to the chefs than the sometimes standoffish (in a good way!) Lakshmi had.

Splitting the chefs into three groups and removing the first Quickfire gave the audience a chance to get to know the fifteen cheftestants a little better than we’ve seen in most recent season premieres. One of the toughest things about the first episodes of any Top Chef season is that there are so many chefs that its tough to get a handle on who’s who and what they’re going to bring to the competition. But a few immediately stand out, like David Murphy, who wears a hat when he cooks and owns a restaurant that utilizes upcycled food waste; Kevin D’Andrea, who won Top Chef France in 2015; Michelle Wallace, who specializes in barbecue but has to make a stuffed pasta; and Valentine Howell, Jr., who has a memorable head of hair.

Sex and Skin: The usual food porn shots, but that’s about it.

Parting Shot: Scenes from Season 21 are shown after the first chef is eliminated.

Sleeper Star: Daniel Jacobs is the only chef in the competition that actually owns restaurants in Milwaukee. He may have a leg up, given he knows the city’s dining scene, but it also means that he’s going to be the guy who gives his “Milwaukee expertise” all the time.

Most Pilot-y Line: This isn’t a criticism, but we hope that at least one of the challenges revolves around one of our favorite Milwaukee delicacies. Yes, we’re talking about bratwurst.

Our Call: STREAM IT. We hope that there will be more rule shakeups this season on Top Chef, as the show had started to become a bit rote over its past half-a-dozen seasons or so. But with the change in when immunity is won, and the new perspective Kish gives as host, Season 21 is off to a good start.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.