Top Chef season 22 has been taking the culinary cooking show genre by storm right now. The thrilling challenges and the fearful eliminations have kept everyone on the edge of their seats. While these challenges sometimes surprise us in a good way, other times they just fail to leave an impact. The same happened recently in episode 4.
The challenge was based on the game show Jeopardy!, and while the premise definitely sounds intriguing, as the episode goes on, the challenge feels a little unfair.
Don’t get me wrong—there’s still plenty to enjoy in this episode. But as I watched it, only one question kept coming to mind: is it fair to send someone home based on a challenge that barely involved cooking?
Why did the Quickfire Challenge seem unfair in Top Chef?
Season 22 has started to make an impact on the culinary world, with talented chefs fighting it out to win the grand prize. The recent episode 4 also started off in a fun and lighthearted way, and I really thought I was going to love it. The chefs walked into the kitchen and found Jeopardy! stars Amy Schneider and Mattea Roach waiting for them.
And they weren’t alone and brought actor Michael Cera along with them as well. Truly, it felt so good to see Cera having the time of his life. But then came the Quickfire Challenge, and this is where things took a turn. This Jeopardy! style wasn’t just for laughs but was also going to directly impact what the chefs could do in the kitchen.
Based on how they scored in the trivia, the chefs were split into three teams. The team that did the best would get 30 minutes of cooking time with eight ingredients. Second will get 20 minutes and 4 ingredients, and the last team will get 15 minutes and three ingredients. Now I get it—the show is all about pushing the pressure and limits.
But this test wasn’t about cooking; it was a trivia challenge, and while some of the chefs are incredible with a knife, they might not be good with questions about food history or Canadian regional dishes. Imagine being in one of the most famous cooking shows out there but getting stuck with 15 minutes and three ingredients because you missed a couple of quiz questions.
And as expected, the lower-ranked team, comprising Tristan, Massimo, and Henry, struggled as they didn’t have enough time or options to make something great. To be fair, some of the other chefs did impress; Corwin knocked it out of the park with a scallop dish that won him $10,000. But still it’s hard not to imagine how much better or different things could have been if everyone had equal time and equal ingredients.
Thankfully, the Elimination Challenge brought things back to balance. Chefs were asked to turn Canadian desserts into savory dishes—no sugar allowed. Now that was creative and the kind of challenge I tune in for. While the challenge was intense, Tristen impressed everyone with his Guyanese pepper pot dish. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a lucky day for Zubair, who failed to showcase his skills and was ultimately sent home.
How did Top Chef fail to showcase Canada’s beauty again?
It wasn’t just the trivia challenge of Episode 4 that raised my blood. This particular episode was filmed at Casa Loma, which is a beautiful castle right in the heart of Toronto. Not only that, but it’s full of history and is also the place where movies like X-Men, Strange Brew and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World to name a few were filmed.
You’d think the show would take this chance to explore the stunning rooms inside or at least talk about its importance. But instead, the production decided to film the episode just outside on the patio. No one explained why the chefs were there, no background, nothing. Just a quick scene outside the iconic landmark, and then the episode moved on.
This is not the first time that the show has missed a perfect opportunity to showcase the real beauty of Canada. In fact, this has been happening a lot this season. Top Chef is being filmed in Toronto, which is quite literally the hub of amazing places, people, and flavors.
But despite this, the show has been more focused on sponsors rather than connecting with the country it’s filming in. While the show is still in its earlier episodes, I hope that they start working on showcasing the real beauty of Canada before it’s too late.
Top Chef is now streaming on Bravo with new episodes every Thursday, 9 P.M. ET.
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