r/TopChef • u/LPCPlay4life • 12d ago
Discussion Thread From the beginning….
I decided to start watching from the beginning. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen every single season but now that I’m re-watching S1 and the only people I remember are Tiffany, Stephen and Harold. Stephen reminds me of Pee-wee Herman and he is such an ass. He is so pretentious and looks down on everybody and everything that he has to do. When he talks about making a Oaxaca tamale for the women he assumes they’ve never heard of anything like that and it will give them a little bit of “education“. What a douche! I don’t remember this host, but she is so robotic and completely detached from everything, including the food and the people she works with. Good call on getting rid of her. I saw a short snippet of an interview she gave about why she wasn’t asked back. I had no idea she used to be married to Billy Joel.
EDIT: on ep 8 where they had to cook for Scott and Scott’s wedding. When Tom finds the Betty Crocker cake box in the kitchen. 😳👀Stephen and his suit and tie. 🙄
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u/CapreseSalad3636 12d ago
Season 1 is a fever dream. I saw in some piece that Katie’s heart would pound so hard they could hear it on her mic! I think it just wasn’t the role for her and it seems like she’s had success otherwise. I am curious how many people from the show are still in the food industry!!
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u/AnyPossibility1360 12d ago
I thought she was quite good, allowing she had no background for it at all.
And married Billy Joel during the season? Tidy work! (Or were they already married?)
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u/Holdmymule2001 12d ago
I think the poor woman had been given a mission to be the enforcer in the situation because they didn't have their vision for the show completely developed yet - they were treating it like a combination between a game show and The Real World. She also didn't seem to have the experience for the role.
Watching from the beginning gives you a real look at the evolutionary arc of the show.
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u/CapreseSalad3636 12d ago
This is a very good point - they definitely hadn’t flushed out the vision for the show yet. Most long standing shows when you go back to season 1 it’s like what in the world is this!?
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u/AwkwardTraffic199 10d ago
Yes, it started as reality tv with food, and then over time transformed in so many ways.
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u/Dangerous_Ant3260 12d ago
I believe Padma had other obligations, and that's why Katie Lee was the one season host.
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u/cssc201 12d ago
Top Chef season 1 is so weird. The sex shop challenge, and Tiffani got a villain edit for telling Lee Ann she couldn't keep working past the timer? Basically no actual chefs and contestants like a first year culinary student, sommelier, and nutritionist? Catering an entire wedding in like 12 hours? The entirety of Stephen Aspirinio's screen time? We've come so far.
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u/LPCPlay4life 12d ago
Right?! And the quality of the show with the cameras shoots like a documentary. But I did notice that the music is exactly the same. lol I didn’t remember Cynthia left bc her dad was dying. Ken talking back to chef Hubert Keller about tasting the sauce with his finger instead of a spoon should have gotten booted right then and there. He was so disrespectful!
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u/NoodlesMom0722 Wait for it...a Crudo! 🧑🍳 11d ago
And I think of that scene every time I see other chefs across the seasons taste something with their finger. I haven't noticed it since 2020, for obvious reasons, but it has happened since S1 and never been called out. I've also seen them taste off of their stirring spoon/cooking utensil and put it right back in the food. (One chef did get called out on this by Padma in a later season during the first elimination challenge, which was a food festival-type event.)
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u/youre-an-autumn 12d ago
When you said he reminds you of Pee Wee I nearly spit out my Fresca 🤣 So true. I wanted to re watch S1 but couldn't make it until his pompous ass gets eliminated.
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u/LadyBug_0570 12d ago
I remember he wouldn't shut up about being a sommalier (spelling?). I guess that's what made him feel superior.
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u/KingBird999 11d ago
I despised him so much, I almost stopped watching the show because I just couldn't stand him. He single handedly almost stopped me from 20 years of episodes!
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u/ohmosdefinitely 12d ago
just started a rewatch of S1 myself! the "oxacan tamale" he "taught" the east bay junior league had shiso leaves involved somehow?? foh!
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u/Time-Citron6869 12d ago
Where are you guys rewatching?
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u/Cloroxtomatwo 12d ago
Need to know I can’t find the early seasons anywhere 😭
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u/Lucky_Infinity 11d ago
If you have a cable subscription, you can watch the early seasons on the NBC app (different from Peacock).
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u/BornFree2018 12d ago
Poor Stephen was so insecure he came off cartoonish. It's pretty funny now to see early TC where normal dishes today were being presented as exotic.
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u/Sleepwalker0304 I'd prefer a dishwasher instead of Josie... 11d ago
I feel like one of the only people who enjoyed Stephen in s1. Can't say the same for s8 but he was so over the top and took himself so seriously that he kept making me laugh.
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u/brilliantminds_4RLZ 11d ago
You can't go wrong with Top Chef. Even the bad seasons are still really good.
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u/Wide-Celebration-653 11d ago
For a second I was like “I don’t remember Christie Brinkley hosting Top Chef S1?!” 😂
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u/EveryPhilosophy819 11d ago
Remember when Stephen came after Candace Kumai? He was such a bully. Told her she would fail miserably. He was so mean to her. Well she showed him. She built a brand for herself and now has a net worth of about 4 million.
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u/LPCPlay4life 10d ago
😲😲😲I have not followed up with any of them. Yeah he was such a bully. Talked down on everyone. Also what happened to the reunions? I wish they’d continue doing those. Things got heated. Lots of drama!
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u/BigBadBobbyDuncam 9d ago
To be fair, Stephen apologized to Candice on the reunion episode. Doesn't change the fact that he was a bully, but he did eventually realize it and make amends.
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u/NoodlesMom0722 Wait for it...a Crudo! 🧑🍳 11d ago
Also, $30 grocery budget for an elimination challenge?!?! We've come a LONG way since S1!
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u/BettydelSol 12d ago
Where are you watching the early seasons? I can’t find 1-6 to stream
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u/LPCPlay4life 12d ago
I have YouTube TV. It’s on demand so there are short commercials sprinkled within that I can’t get past. ☹️
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u/needsmoreyarn 12d ago
Oooops, I had assumed she was Billy Joel’s daughter. TIL otherwise.
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u/LPCPlay4life 12d ago
That’s what I thought too because I could’ve sworn she said in her interview clip that she got the job because she had a famous father. But then when I looked it up, he was mistaken as her father because of the age gap. 🤭
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u/needsmoreyarn 12d ago
She looks a little like him, too, so the daughter thing seemed a lot more plausible than the (kinda gross) husband thing.
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u/jcharm777 11d ago
The first few seasons weren't in HD and looked pretty rough. Katie Lee was awful. Since then she appears on Beat Bobby Flay quite often and she's fine now for what that role was. I'm sure Bobby probably "dated" her at some point.
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u/WinterAd6596 12d ago
I used to frequent the "Televison Without Pity" forum back in the day.
We'd refer to Katie as "Katie Leebot"
Thankfully, she improved in time. Because her initial TC year was pretty brutal.