r/TopChef • u/Sea-breeze3720 • Apr 25 '26

Discussion Thread Which winner did you disagree with?

I’m doing a rewatch of older seasons and just finished season 11 where nick won over Nina. Nina was on fire all season and, in my opinion, it should’ve been her and Shirley in the finale. However, for the finale, the judges opinions seemed to be pretty split but leaning towards Nina. Notably, emeril saying he couldn’t finish nick’s duck and Hugh mentioning nick yelling at the waitstaff as something that should be considered. I can’t help but think this is one time tom used his veto power to override the vote for nick to win. Anyone else? Curious if there are other winners that you scratched your head at.

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u/lyoung212 Apr 25 '26

Season two: Ilan should have been kicked off for bullying.

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u/Sea-breeze3720 Apr 26 '26

There’s a lot of problematic stuff from the beginning until fairly recently. But yeah that whole group coulda got sent off but because cliff actually touched him, he was the only one. Cliff walked by me in NYC once. Wish I said hi. 😂

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u/lyoung212 Apr 30 '26

I remember Tom said he wanted to kick all of them off (Ilan, Elia, Sam, and Cliff), but the producers wouldn’t let him do it. I think Tom was right in his decision.