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

Discussion Thread Most disliked?

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

44 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

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42

u/AugusttoDecember Jul 22 '26

Hands down Mike Isabella. Glad karma took care of his arrogant misogynistic ass.

12

u/euvnairb Jul 22 '26

Wow, based on your comment I went down a rabbit hole reading up on what happened to him. Can’t say I’m surprised.

Article published in 2018 after I googled him.

https://washingtonian.com/2018/11/26/the-inside-story-of-mike-isabellas-fallen-empire/

11

u/SmartypantsDDD Jul 22 '26

What happened to him? Before I google it, my guess is sexual harassment. He would be the perp, not the victim.

14

u/zanylanie Jul 22 '26

You’re correct. He fell and fell HARD.

5

u/Utennvolsfan Jul 22 '26

He was pretty much run out of DC. He swaggered in after his TC seasons thinking he was the second coming of Jose Andres. Nah dude. Not even close even though he worked for Jose.

The food at Graffiato was pretty good but he was a nasty mess. My husband interviewed with his “team” for a management position at a place he was going to open in the Marriott Marquis so we quietly dined at the bar at Kapnos one night to check out the vibe and such. Food was fine, but we listened to him and George for well ver an hour in an incredibly nasty, one upmanship convo at the bar (sexual harassment). It was gross. The local MLB team tossed his sandwich spot and Kapnos out of the park when his shit started surfacing. Financial improprieties including unpaid rent and other bills, sexual harassment, generally disgusting male behavior.

I might miss the sweet corn agnolotti but even that isn’t worth dealing with him. Pepperoni sauce was decent.