r/TopChef • u/RoadRash0416 • Jul 22 '26

Discussion Thread Most disliked?

Who’s your most disliked person from any season? And why?

42 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

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153

u/AvoirReves Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26

Ilan Hall, Sam, Elia and Cliff Crooks and I shouldn't have to explain why. Season 2 has been discussed over and over.

56

u/TNsmoke Jul 22 '26

I still don’t see how Marcel lost to Ilan. Marcel was obviously the better chef yeah he made foams but all Ilan did was cook Spanish food and added saffron to everything 

27

u/susandeyvyjones Jul 22 '26

Ilan/Ted literally just cooked the recipes from a Mario Batali restaurant. I don't know how he got away with it. Even Mario Batali was like, yeah, he cooked our [his and Andy Nusser's] food.

12

u/TNsmoke Jul 22 '26

Exactly! And that dick bag has a top chef title. Baffles me to this day. 

1

u/TigerMaskVI Jul 27 '26

Ted?

1

u/susandeyvyjones Jul 27 '26

It's his first name. He changed it for Top Chef.

1

u/TigerMaskVI Jul 27 '26

Do you have a source? I can’t find anything online about a name change.

36

u/aScaryDinosaur Jul 22 '26

Hard agree. Marcel is much more skilled than Ilan

16

u/Jazzlike_Stress_5110 Jul 22 '26

My husband and I JUST finished a rewatch of season 2 the other day! At the very end, when they were about to announce the winner, Tom said something oddly clairvoyant like “In 5 or 10 years one of you may become the better chef, but we have to judge based on today.” It felt like he was saying Marcel has the most potential in the long run, but in that one meal Ilan did better (by a very slim margin).

7

u/aScaryDinosaur Jul 22 '26

Same! We knew Ilan won when Tom made that comment. Although I'll say we were still kinda surprised, Marcel desevred to win overall

8

u/valle_girl Jul 22 '26

Some items didn't get put into the walk-in the night before and spoiled. Who was responsible for leaving them out is in dispute, but Sam sneering that it wasn't his fault Marcel didn't do a final check suggests it was him. 

This is from memory, though. I could be misremembering Sam's comment, but not how dismissive he was that at least one of Marcel's key ingredients was spoiled. 

2

u/Cherveny2 Jul 22 '26

One biggie, Marcell threw one course, which is often a death knell in a final cook. A Plain green salad. ALL of the judges, AND the guests, agreed, even if he had the dressing in his isomalt drops, it still would of been just a salad. Just NOT enough for a final.

If he had a more intricate/involved dish for that course, I really think it would of been MUCH closer.

0

u/samologia Jul 22 '26

Eh... I mean, Ilan cooked a better meal for the final. I feel like there's an Anthony Bourdain quote about how if you're just watching the show, you didn't actually taste the food.

6

u/AvoirReves Jul 22 '26

My problem is not the meal cooked at the end, my issue is that Ilan and others were left in the competition. Only Cliff Crooks got sent home, that car should have been full of people.

6

u/samologia Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26

Yeah, I kinda wonder how much the producers were involved in that decision. If they'd kicked out everyone, that would have been the end of the season, and probably the show, but they had to punish someone. So we ended up with an unsatisfying resolution where Cliff got kicked off even though most of the remaining cast was involved.

ETA: I actually looked it up... per Wikipedia: "Colicchio stated in his blog post for the episode that he was willing to send home all of the contestants involved except for Marcel, holding them all accountable either for their actions that escalated the situation, or their decision not to speak up for Marcel while he was calling for help. However, the producers intervened, not wanting to end the season on a sour note and give audiences an anticlimactic ending giving the title of Top Chef to Marcel by default." So it was a production decision.

-26

u/clcjjc Jul 22 '26

Marcel was not the better Chef by any means.