Inside the Unprecedented Effort to Film Top Chef Through COVID, Protests and Wildfires (EXCLUSIVE)
Kate Aurthur, provided by
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The “Top Chef” Quickfire Challenge was about to start filming, and Padma Lakshmi the Bravo show’s longtime host, judge and executive producer was being fussed over by people wearing masks and face shields.
“This is a lot of copy to get through,” said Lakshmi, who would soon have to describe a complicated “Black Box” challenge one imported from “Top Chef: France” to the show’s five remaining contestants on this Sunday afternoon in mid-October. In the Quickfire, the cheftestants (to use the “Top Chef” fans’ term of art) would enter a lightless box one at a time for five minutes to try to replicate a dish before them in the pitch black. With a night-vision camera, viewers will see the chefs tasting, smelling and feeling the food in order to figure out its ingredients, and how it was cooked. The dish was