"I don't think it's ever happened before": BTS with Kristen, Gail and Tom at the Charlotte Season Premiere
Come along for a night with the Top Chef judges ...
SEASON 23 EPISODE 1 SPOILER ALERTS BELOW. IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED THE PREMIERE, KEEP THIS TAB OPEN AND VISIT US LATER
CHARLOTTE, NC — Kristen Kish sat down and got really serious.
“… so would you like to know? You’re getting an exclusive …”
You're damn right I would like to know. An exclusive???
This is Monday night, and Kristen and I were sitting at a table in a fourth floor hall above the beautifully refurbished Carolina Theater in Uptown Charlotte (remember, Uptown Charlotte = downtown Charlotte). Next to us: Gail Simmons and Tom Colicchio. Below us: 800+ people would soon be shuffling to their seats to watch the season premiere of Top Chef Season 23: Carolinas. I had 10 minutes with the Top Chef judges before we took the stage for a fireside chat.
Of course, I’d like an exclusive. WHAT A GET FOR PACK YOUR KNIVES.
What could the scoop be? Suddenly, she showed me: Ink. Body ink. Kristen told me she gets a tattoo to commemorate each season of Top Chef that she hosts. She has one for Wisconsin and one for Destination Canada. And she wanted to reveal the tattoo for Charlotte.
Gail nearly fell out of her chair in excitement.
Kristen held out her right arm and pointed to the outline of a flower pot at an oblong angle. In it, a flower with petals that resembled sun rays. (You can spot the tattoo on her arm below, at a previous event).
“So here’s the story,” Kristen told me. “The first episode, the one we’re watching tonight, the one at the Charlotte Motor Speedway was so hot —”
“Oh my god, so hot,” Gail jumped in.
“So fucking hot,” Colicchio grumbled.
Kristen went on: “The shirt I wore had an odd shape and so I got this tan line…”
She got so sunburnt from the blaring Charlotte Motor Speedway sun that she decided it needed to memorialized forever. To me, the tan line tat resembled something like the outline of a Coca Cola bottle cap. In Kristen’s mind, a flower pot. So Kristen added the flower with sun rays. Perfect.
Gail was thrilled to be present for the reveal. She had no idea that Kristen actually GOT the tattoo, something they had whispered about together for months.
When I asked what they remembered from the first day of Top Chef, it was that, the heat. The outfits didn’t exactly help. Tom wore a black button-down shirt with black jeans. Like the Canadian icon she is, Gail wore a full denim tuxedo jumpsuit out on the track.
On the show, Top Chef contestant Sieger Bayer said the heat was so bad “miserable doesn’t even describe it.” Gail shared her own analogy.
“You know in Friends,” Gail told me, “when Ross gets stuck in the bathroom because he has the leather pants on and he starts to sweat? And then he has to put the Vaseline on and then the baby powder and it forms a paste?”
I nodded. (My wife, a Friends superfan, has shown me the scene).
“That’s what it was like for me,” Gail said.
Honestly, that’s kinda how I felt sitting in front of these three. Was I sweating up a storm? In my mind, yes. Play it cool, Tom. You’re a professional. You’ve got a fireside chat to host!
It was hard to believe this was really happening. About ten years ago, I decided to start a Top Chef podcast with my pal Kevin, having no idea if anyone would listen. Dozens listened. Then, hundreds. Soon, thousands. Woah. Tens of thousands. WOAH. We got an award from Bon Appetit. People Magazine gave us a shoutout. This little podcast turned into a thing.
We kept going. The show evolved. The podcast evolved. We added Eric Adjepong to the squad for Season 22. Then Sara Bradley jumped on board. Carly Levitz brought her brilliant wisdom. This year, we linked up with Kendra from Find-TopChef.com and expanded our Top Chef universe. And then in 2025, for Season 23, Top Chef was coming to Charlotte — my hometown.
It really feels like I hit the Top Chef lottery.
And it got crazier. A couple months ago, the kind folks at CRVA, the Charlotte tourism board, asked if I would be game to moderate a panel with Gail, Tom and Kristen before they showed the premiere episode in front of a live audience in Charlotte.
Hmmm... Lemme think about it — yes.
So here I was sitting in front of them, trying not to lose my cool while they described all the different ways they tried to keep cool. It was insane. A night I could have never imagined 10 years ago.
This is all to say: thank you for the support. Really. I can’t wait for you all to see what’s in store at PYK. I appreciate you subscribing and listening and telling your friends. It means the world.
OK, back to the work. I asked them about the premiere episode. Yes, the heat. Everyone looked like steamed lobsters after the racetrack. But also, I wanted to know about another thing.
The Nana meltdown at the Elimination Challenge
I’ve been to La Belle Helene — Top Chef alum Jamie Lynch’s French restaurant in Charlotte — and it is a gorgeous space in Uptown Charlotte. After the season premiere drama, I won’t look at the space off to the kitchen area the same.
The Chef Nana meltdown and Kristen pep talk. I had to ask them about it.
They all instantly recalled what it was like.
“I couldn’t see Nana but I could see her,” Colicchio said, pointing to Kristen.
“She was shaking so much,” Kristen said. “You can recognize a panic attack. Obviously, we didn’t see what was happening in the kitchen, but she came out and her hands were shaking so much I thought she was going to drop the plates. Or faint, or pass out. Or both.”
At the time, Gail had her back to Chef Nana.
”When you got up, Kristen,” Gail said, “we were like, ‘What’s going on? Where’s she going?’ And I saw Nana, and it looked like she was going to collapse.”
Was that a first on Top Chef?
”I don’t think that’s ever happened,” said Gail.
Then, Tom looked at me.
“Let me ask you a question,” Tom said. “Did it make sense that she didn’t go home?”
Woah! The head judge flipped it on me.
So I told him what I thought. On the pod with Sara, I said the same thing: at the end of the day, it’s all about the food. If it tasted better than Day’s dish, then that’s really what matters. Tom seemed to approve of my answer. Phew.
“Yeah, I actually liked her dish!” Tom said.
Kristen giggled, “Well, you got a full dish.”
“It was messy,” Gail said, “but it was tasty.”
Kristen backed that up.
“It was never going to win,” Kristen said of Nana’s dish. “But her sweet potato — that’s all that was on my plate — it was actually cooked and seasoned. As opposed to Day’s sweet potatoes which were … under.”
On the “under” comment, Tom peeled back the curtain a bit.
“There’s degrees of undercooked, right? The only thing that we are asked (by producers) to do as judges — we’re never told who stays, who goes — the only thing we are asked is, ‘Can you give us a positive on a dish? Even though it’s all negative, can you give us a positive?’ So you gotta be careful with what you say. There’s a difference between undercooked and raw.”
So sometimes, a gentle “undercooked” comment might actually mean “this was raw as bone.” Tom stood by his decision to pick Nana in the Elimination Challenge group. Gail didn’t have any second thoughts to send Day home, not Nana.
“I think at the table, I think we all felt that we really did make the right decision,” Gail said. “But our concern is always in the edit, does the viewer understand and feel confident in that decision through how it comes across to you. Because Nana had such a dramatic episode.”
Tom shared one critique at the judge’s table that didn’t make the air regarding Day’s herbes de provence.
“I think Gail’s comment was, ‘It tasted like her grandma’s underwear drawer.’” Tom said with a smile.
I don’t think that comment made the cut!
“I felt bad! But you know exactly what I mean,” Gail said. “Just too much lavender.”
I DO know what you mean. The first episode is always jampacked. There’s only so much you can put into an episode with 15 chefs competing over two challenges. I can only imagine what other comments hit the cutting room floor over the years.
In the end, I tend to agree with them that the right chef went home. I’ll eat with a ring mold on my plate any day as long as it’s not in my grandma’s underwear drawer.
The rest of Season 23
Looking ahead to the rest of the season, I got the sense that the judges were pumped about what’s about to go down this season. But of course, they had to be guarded.
“There’s a LOT in this season,” Gail said. “There are a lot of layers.”
“There’s a lot that happened,” Tom said ominously.
“In a good way,” Gail said. “I think the food it’s still exciting. The challenges are really exciting. I think there’s some really great dishes, some really competent cooking, and there’s a lot of … adventure.”
Tom jumped in.
“What was weird about the season,” he said, “is that they all collectively had a good day or a bad day. It wasn’t like two people had a bad day or three people had a bad day. They all had a bad day. Or they all had a good day. It was bizarre. In the pepper challenge, I think it’s the next episode, all the food across the board was fantastic. But the episode after that …”
Well, there you go. A little preview of what’s to come … For us here watching along, it’s all good days.
And with that, we were off to the fireside chat.
The Fireside Chat and Watch Party
I couldn’t even hear myself introduce Kristen, Gail and Tom. The crowd cheered loud as soon as they started walking out. They love Top Chef here in Charlotte.
Backstage, before going out there, Kristen was a team player. If I seemed nervous, she wasn’t having it. She coached me up, giving me carte blanche to ask us anything. “Tom. I want you to hit us with nothing but hard questions! No softballs out there, OK?” So of course, at one point, I asked Tom to grade Kristen as a host. That’s what you get, Kristen! (Tom showered her with praise, of course).
Tom wore two gold stud earrings in his ear. Don’t recall him rocking those on the show, but he certainly brought his rocks to Charlotte.
I still haven’t watched Traitors. I’m sorry. I know. Once the NBA season ends, I’ll get on it. Promise. I also haven’t seen Southern Charm or Southern Hospitality. Those celebrities were at the event as well. Bravo TV’s finest.
When Tom first came on the pod, way back in 2020, he told us that he’s a huge UNC Tar Heel fan. (He once dated the daughter of a Tar Heel basketball legend). You’re not going to get a more captive UNC audience than Charlotte in March Madness. So I had to tee him up on stage. He told the story how he became friends with Dean Smith, arguably the greatest college basketball coach in history. The attendees were smitten. Also smitten: Tom when a UNC Board of Trustees member handed Tom a UNC lapel pin before we went on stage.
Gail reiterated her stance that Signature Dishes are overrated when it comes to a city’s identity, arguing that it gets tiring when every restaurant tries their own spin on the same old dish. We all got a good laugh at Gail’s take that Charlotte has majestic chicken tendies. For more on that, catch our Savor Charlotte interview with Charlotte chef Chris Coleman of The Goodyear House in the back half of the premiere recap episode. (Gail loves The Goodyear House, too).
Spotted at the event: Mr. No Immunity Jamie Lynch. The two-time Top Chef alum received huge cheers when he popped up on the screen for the Elimination Challenge. You could tell that the event organizers made sure to bring in local restaurant staffers to the party. The crowd roared when La Belle Helene got some shine as did when local restaurant Stagioni (Cochran’s post) got on screen. Also spotted at the event: James Beard nominated chef Chayil Johnson who was at the Elimination Challenge table across from Sean Brock. Go check out what Chayil is doing in Charlotte at his Community Matters Cafe.
There’s nothing like a live audience. It’s a big reason why we taped the Season 22 Finale recap at Eric Adjepong’s restaurant Elmina in DC. Stay tuned for this year’s watch party with Sara … ironing out some details!
After our Fireside Chat, I walked down to sit next to my wife and we watched the episode on the big screen with the 800+. I’d watch it like that every time. Who knew watching Top Chef at the movie theater could be so much fun?
Speaking of live audience, during the Season Premiere Watch Party, there was a pocket of fans who seemed to be having the time of their lives. Laughing out loud. Vocally reacting to all the drama on stage. They were relentlessly joyful. I turned to see who they were. They weren’t fans. They were contestants. Nana Wilmot, Brittany Cochran, Oscar Diaz and Jennifer Jackson were all in attendance. Having an absolute blast watching it all unfold on the big screen.
I want to thank CRVA, Bravo and Carolina Theater for putting on such a memorable evening. It was a well-deserved celebration of Top Chef and the Carolinas. Here’s a shot of the judges from their IG feed:
I’d say we clean up nice, too.
Wow! Thanks for sharing what sounds like an epic dream-come-true evening with us! Really looking forward to the seasons as well as your and Sara's recaps!