Welcome to the new Pack Your Knives

Tom and Kevin are moving to Substack. This is good news.

Our Friday morning calls had become a matter of routine. Before Kevin had even finished his first cup of coffee on the west coast, we were already dishing on last night’s episode of Top Chef. Did Sylva get “rooked” and eliminated over returning alums Brooke and John, even though they had inferior dishes but were the lucky recipients of “superstar calls”?! Is Katsuji just trolling the competition?! Is there any rational reason to ever volunteer to be exec chef or front-of-the-house in Restaurant Wars given the fatality rate?!

A few weeks before Top Chef made its way to Denver for Season 15, Tom had an inspired suggestion:

Why not just turn these calls into a Top Chef podcast?

We were already spending an hour doing our best impression of sports radio — only instead of delivering hot takes on the NBA, which we covered professionally as reporters, we were applying that sensibility to our favorite cooking competition show.

That’s how Pack Your Knives was born in December 2017.

More than six years later, we are moving to Substack because the platform will enable us to develop Pack Your Knives into more than a weekly podcast. We want PYK to be a place where fans of Top Chef can offer up their own takes on the show (and ours!), where our paid subscribers can chat with us live, where Tom can use his analytic expertise to explore some of the mysteries of Top Chef success and failure — something he does better than anyone, and where Kevin can post the occasional “test kitchen” video of trying to replicate a winning dish by the likes of Buddha Lo or Kelsey Barnard Clark. We want to grow Pack Your Knives into a resource where you can find restaurants all over North America owned or operated by Top Chef alums, and get recommendations from your favorite chef-testants. We want to expand our podcast offerings beyond the weekly recap.

More than anything, we want it to be a community hub for all things Top Chef.

If you’re familiar with Substack and already signed up to be a paid subscriber, thank you. We will go to great lengths to make your subscription worth every penny. If you haven’t yet subscribed, or are new to Substack, or just discovering us for the first time, welcome! If you’re a Top Chef enthusiast, you’re going to love Pack Your Knives. Please take a moment to subscribe below — it’s simple.

The first few podcasts episodes of the season will be free. But as the Top Chef: Wisconsin field whittles down, those recaps will be available instantly to those with paid subscriptions, who will also receive other features like live chat, written posts, interviews with Top Chef celebs, and videos. If that excites you, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll get $10 off the annual subscription through March 23.

If you’re really excited, think about becoming a Founding Member of our Chef’s Table. You’ll be invited to participate in our annual Fantasy draft big board, and to personal chats with Tom and Kevin.

Thanks for being part of PYK’s move from podcast food truck to brick-and-mortar establishment.

Tom & Kevin