Racial diversity on Top Chef

How it has changed over time and how it compares to the broader industry

I think naming our differences makes us stronger. It allows us to see the ways in which our individual stories and collective histories shape who we are and the society in which we live. We do not all have equal opportunities and experiences.

This is true in the restaurant industry as well. The Michelin Guide acknowledges it - and even my own city has researched this. Top Chef is a microcosm of the industry, and is at the intersection of an industry and reality TV. This post will dig into the racial representation on Top Chef seasons. I use the definitions of people of color as described in the terminology section of Seattle’s analysis of inequality in the restaurant industry.

So let’s look at Top Chef over time and how well people of color are represented. The percent of the casts across all seasons of Top Chef that were people of color ranged from 17.6% to 73.3%, with an average of 40.2%. Season 5 is the season with the lowest percent of chefs of color, though Season 4 is not far behind at 18.8%.

In most of the seasons where there were chefs that didn’t make it beyond the Qualifying Challenges or out of Last Chance Kitchen, the cast with official placements were more diverse than the overall cast (Figure 1).