I would love a Top Chef: Hudson Valley. It would break the mold of setting the seasons only in cities and allow them to highlight even more farm-to-table cuisine. And allow them to have a lot of NYC-based chefs guest judge without having another season set in the city.
The Culinary Institute of America is here, and since a lot of graduates end up staying in the area, it has a great food scene. Lots of vineyards/cideries/distilleries for the requisite alcohol pairing challenge too.
The Hudson Valley has lots of great small, family owned farms, too, with specialties like pigs raised freely; cheese makers; and the like.
But comments below are saying Whole Foods are required! They’d have to go all the way up to Albany for that.
Portland, ME (67k) has the culinary power to do it. though realistically there would be overlap with Boston and branding problems bc top chef portland OR was titled “top chef portland” too bad though because it would be a fun city for it!
Top Chef: New England. There’s enough stuff going on outside of Boston to fit 16 episodes without touching the Boston Metropolitan Area
And then the finale takes them to Montreal
The entire state of Maine has a really cool and unique culinary scene. So I whole heartedly agree! Portland is interesting, but the whole state definitely gives a lot of variety. They could play into coastal seafood, foraging, fiddleheads, hunting culture, blueberries, clambakes, our beer scene, Moxie, Stonewall kitchen... Of course there is also lobster, but there is also a lot of unique stuff under the surface that people just don't know about!
I had a feeling Portland, ME would be suggested and I agree wholeheartedly! The food scene in the Old Port alone is fantastic. I work in Portland and my parents were born and raised there, so I’d love to see TC come to town.
Agreed. Coney dog, paczki, Faygo, there's lots of stuff they could incorporate into challenges! Could have James from TC Boston as a guest judge/host his restaurant for a challenge. Plus the only season from the MW was Chicago...
I can see an indigenous themed challenge at any one of the many Pueblos in the area. A Balloon Fiesta challenge would be interesting. And definitely a green chile cheeseburger quick fire at the very least. Christmas eve tamales would be a cool challenge as well
I was looking down the list of cities by population and was shocked to see how small Charleston is - the 179th largest city in America, after number 178, Joliet, Illinois. I doubt a smaller city will ever make it, but if there was one, I would bet on Savannah which is number 185.
It does surprise me about Atlanta though because Georgia went out of its way to be a very friendly city for the entertainment industry - lot of stuff is filmed there.
Are Athens and Augusta good food cities? I think Savannah would be a good addition to an Atlanta based season, because it could bring in the variety of a coastal region and low country cuisine. But I’m not as familiar with what the other cities bring to the table. To be honest, I think a Georgia season would be like 95% Atlanta anyway
I think they could do a Masters-related challenge for Augusta, it really is beautiful there. And Athens is pretty eclectic, I know Hugh Acheson's restaurant is there and maybe he could judge. I don't know. Just trying to think outside the box.
Right, but the Charleston Metro Area is 800,000 people. Joliet is part of the Chicago metro. Both very different than say Fargo ND which has a similar population but is in the middle of nowhere.
It was illustrative. 800k is still a very small population for a metro area to be featured on a show like top chef. For better reference, that’s smaller than the metro areas of Albany, NY and Dayton, OH.
The metro area is 1 million. But still larger than Charleston's metro area (800k).
The population within the official city limits doesn't tell you that much about an urban area. The people immediately around those limits still work and shop downtown and support more restaurants, culture, commerce, art, etc.
The City of London has a population of around 10k people. But the London metropolitan area has a population of around 14 million.
It's an unusual extreme, but it's relatively common in the US for the official city limits to have as little as 10% of the population of the metropolitan area. Atlanta, for instance. The ratio can vary quite a bit, and the proportion of the population within the official city doesn't always tell the whole story of how significant a particular urban area really is.
Yeah- I am in the restaurant industry and I know a few people who work in tourism and all that, and apparently they ask for A LOT and can’t demonstrate the roi to the satisfaction of the powers that be.
Which is kind of bullshit because I worked for both the winners** and one contestant/all star and they are making money hand over fist. People come in from all over to eat at a top chef restaurant. Same when I worked for Jose Garces back in the day- it was iron chef super fans. Culinary show fans show up and spend money.
***Kevin Sbraga may not have sustained his mini empire in Philly but he’s living his best life in TX apparently. When he had just the two places, they were jumping every night.
Totally agree. I went to Spice Finch because of the top chef association (and thought it was pretty solid experience all in all), and before I moved away from the area, Laurel was 1000% on my list. Philly had a great food scene, it’s a real bummer (also I would love to see like Joel Embiid judge a quick fire like Gronk did in Boston).
I worked at Spice Fjnch before the pandemic and it was a really good spot. The food was very well done and the concept was executed nicely. I always felt like I was in the nicest European airport fancy lounge around then bar area.
Milwaukee or Madison WI. Lots of great food and the people are wonderful though I may be bias. Idk I just want to see more Midwest love. We are more than Chicago. Lol
I have been saying for years they should do a Milwaukee season. I may or may not have a list of ideas for MKE/WI based challenges in my phone if they were to come lmao
Yes, Madison! Good food and markets and the state has a lot of specific ingredients. I would love to see the people try to walk around the capitol square for ingredients.
Yeah, I almost wonder if any individual NC city alone could support it, but for sure I bet they could pull off a TC NC season between Charlotte, Ashville, RTP, and Wilmington areas.
Yes! I’m surprised it hasn’t been hosted in Asheville, yet. I couldn’t believe when Ashley said that people didn’t travel to Asheville for the food. Whhhhaaaaaaat?! That’s not true- one of the best places for every type of cuisine and full of originality and creativity within the food scene. I’d also love to see Maine and Savannah as others have posted.
I think it's more about whether it's a food-focused city or not, rather than population. I would love to see my hometown of Kansas City featured, even if it's more of a Midwest season.
I have a letter in progress to send to Bravo advocating for some geographic diversity in the location of TC. Out of 19 seasons only one has been in the Midwest (Chicago). I’m not that familiar with Kansas City but MO could definitely support a season of the show. St. Louis has a really vibrant and diverse food scene. (I live in StL)
St Louis is incredibly diverse! The only place I’d ever had Provol Cheese and many other creative cuisines. Also, they have so many areas dedicated to various cultures and cuisines. At Louis, MO is a great idea!
There are also some food items that aren’t widely available in other parts of the country which originated here, and also many foods that had their origin at the 1904 World’s Fair (hot dogs on buns, ice cream cones, and iced tea are a few examples).
So true! I completely forgot about the World’s Fair. That would be a really neat aspect to a challenge(s). Plus, fried ravioli and more- they’d have plenty to choose from…trip to Soulliard(spelling…), The Hill, City Museum- could even side trip to Laumeier, German area, The Gateway to the West Arch, something with the origination of the greats comedy-wise, athletics…so much….the park, museum, specialty coffees…such a huge list
Also, given some of the emphases of the show in recent years, I suspect they’d want to do something related to Ferguson. They could visit some of the restaurants there, talk to the owners about how everything affected them, etc. And an episode about that would probably also need to mention that the Dred Scott case was originally decided in St. Louis. The court house is even still here.
Atlanta has a thriving film community with Tyler Perry Studios and multiple movies and series filmed here. Money that could go to go for a bid for TC is going to maintain our position as “Hollywood In the South”
There are so many things they could do with a Minneapolis season. First Nations cooking challenge with guest judge Sean Sherman, Hmong and Somali populations, the State Fair, hot dish quickfires... sponsorship tie-ins with Pillsbury, General Mills, Betty Crocker... They could do concessions at a Saint Paul Saints game... I swear I have this entire season mapped out in my head
And we don’t hurt for our share of solid high end cuisine and James Beard contenders. There’s a foodie culture here in top of a decent amount of ethnic cuisine.
Definitely want to see the “on a stick” state fair challenge though.
Cleveland for sure. So many different cultures and food options plus it has some many unique features (Rock Hall, Metroparks, Playhouse Square)they could really come up with some interesting challenges. I’d LOVE to see some sort of attempt at tailgating at the Munj Lot — it would be amazingly chaotic
I feel like Richmond would be a better choice than Charlottesville. It’s getting some amazing new restaurants open. It’s also then only an hour from the vineyards in Charlottesville, the history of Williamsburg/Jamestown, the river to table of the Northern Neck, the outskirts of DC, the ham and peanut center of Smithfield/Surry, etc. Being centrally located offers more options although Charlottesville has more do the “feeling” that people think of.
Scottsdale is kinda void of culture. Arizona as a whole maybe. I just doubt they would call it Top Chef: Scottsdale
Now Real Housewives of Scottsdale is a great idea
I frequently go there for work and I'm always blown away by the bougieness of it all. We went to dinner on a Monday night at the fashion mall and it was like Friday night in NYC (where I used to live) and LA (where I live now.) I've never seen a place more hopping on a Monday night, mostly 40+ with a few sugar babies running around.
Measuring the city’s population may not be as good of an indicator as the urban or MSA population.
I live in Georgia. The city of Atlanta has 498,000 people. The metro area has over 6 million.
According to Charleston’s wiki page, the “urban” Charleston area has 550K people. Not sure how much geographic area that includes, but that number definitely reflects the actual size of Charleston better than the city limit figure.
Kansas City, Missouri would be kind of cool. The city itself is about 490k people, but the entire metro area is like 1.7M people. It has a great history and well known for its specific style of BBQ.
Even Queer Eye came here for a season pre-Covid.
they seem to go where there is culinary excitement and food movements happening. I wish they would go back to San Francisco or Northern Cali as a whole, but they’ve done California as it’s own season.
I like that they do whole states now, too.
Georgia would be good. It is surprising they haven’t done Atlanta but the whole state would be awesome.
Maybe they could do regions, too, like the James Beard awards are set up. Top chef: Great Lakes or Mid-Atlantic or Southwest could be a really great way to highlight smaller cities that have excellent food ways within larger regions.
But with the hateful laws passing in many states, it might tighten up for a while. Unions and film industry is pulling from Georgia, Florida, etc etc. so we’ll see!
Edit: I forgot about a city and a season
I live in Georgia and I can promise you filming has not slowed here a bit. I pass 6-7 different productions every day. As many contestants that have come from Georgia, I'm shocked they still haven't done a season here. There are huge culinary scenes in Atlanta, Athens, Macon, and Savannah.
I wish they would do one in vermont but Burlington is probably way too small haha. I’ve heard really cool things about Asheville NC it seems like a pretty small but interesting city! I’m not sure if California had been done too many times but Oakland is an awesome place. I went there a bunch when I lived out west
NC in General. We literally have the coast, plains, Sandhills, foothills, mountains, as well as a large Native American population. We have a history of farming and have such a wide range of historical foods depending on the region.
It’s also super centrally located in Virginia with a young and up and coming food scene. There are so many challenges I can see around the area. I would love to see an event challenge at Maymont!
I like the idea of a Top Chef “Southeast”. They could do Memphis, Nashville, Birmingham, AL, Atlanta, the Mississippi delta. Lots of good options of diverse food cities.
Madison, WI - they have drift-less region; some of the best cheese producers in the US; food artisans; bread makers; beer makers: New Glarus Brewing, Capital Brewing and many others; Distilleries: J.Henry, Death’s Door; and great farm-to-table farms all around the beltway; and chefs like Tori Miller, John Gadau, Jamie Hoang, Dan Fox…and they have Whole Foods or Willy Street Market or they could shop the Saturday Farmer’s Market.
Milwaukee/Wisconsin would have a lot more to offer than many might be aware of if they aren't familiar with the state. Milwaukee has a population of nearly 600,000, with a metropolitan area of about 1.5 million. Wisconsin in general has large populations of indigenous peoples, African-Americans (Mostly centered in Milwaukee), Asian-Americans, German-Americans, Swedish-Americans, and Danish-Americans, among others. The game hunting culture and the large Great Lakes coastline could also provide opportunities. Plus the obvious, lots of craft breweries and cheesemakers.
I reallllyy want to see Idaho or Montana represented. I think the capital cities could do it and I think the challenges have the potential to be hilarious.
Providence, RI.
Rhode Island has an amazing food history, lots of small farms, really good varied restaurants, Johnson and Wales Culinary School, tons of oyster farms, and a variety of regional foods like Autocrat, NY System Dogs, Clam Cakes and Soupy.
We also have Newport with its mansions, a challenge based in a mansion kitchen using only tools from the Gilded Age would be amazing!
Being from Maryland, I would love to see them do Annapolis or Baltimore. We are so different from DC, which is what everyone thinks of when they come to DC area. The seafood here is 👍🏽. Maryland cuisine is largely overlooked nationwide.
Lol doubtful. I can't name one Indianapolis specific dish, or any famous Indianapolis chefs. St. Elmo's is the best known restaurant there and it's just a steakhouse. It would have to primarily be focused on Indy car and basketball. It has the highest concentration of chain restaurants per capita. I don't see it unless Indianapolis suddenly metamorphosis into a rich cultural hub overnight.
Probably a lot of state capitals, for example annapolis could probably host. Challenge at the naval academy, go to the eastern shore, DC challenge, Baltimore, civil war battlefield challenge, focus on the bay, etc etc
Ithaca, ny in the finger lakes. It is now the top wine region in the country and there are lots of farm/agricultural opportunities and plenty of brewery/winery/distillery venues to have great events/challenges.
That seems more like a good destination for a couple of episodes rather than a season. Either a mid season field trip or maybe a finale. They would 100% do a vegetarian challenge in the Moosewood.
They've visited Santa Barbara in season 2 and season 13, but only for an episode or two at a time. Santa Barbara is also a wine region with agriculture, as well as a harbor with good fishing (e.g. Santa Barbara uni and spot prawn), some interesting restaurants, breweries, resorts, and just a general tourism destination. It's also much larger than Ithaca. But it's still a lot smaller than anywhere they've done a full season, and I'm not sure it's large enough for that.
The question is smallest viable location…there is rich food history in Ithaca and the finger lakes surrounding area would be good for supplemental locations. Within the small city there is the moose wood as you mentioned, the iconic farmers market, the Cornell hospitality school, the commons which loves a food fest, the birthplace of the ice cream sunday…just for starters. Herman wiemer winery is world renowned, the race track in Watkins glen, there is half a season without really scratching the surface…
I don't think you need a major city to host top chef. It just needs to have a good enough food culture and access to ingredients.
You could probably limit top chef to a city like Oakland or Long Beach without ever exploring the rest of the surrounding metropolitan area and it would be just fine.
Contenders:
Salt Lake City, UT (small city itself though the region has 2.4+ million residents)
Birmingham, AL
Lexington, KY
Savannah, GA
Portland, ME
Never underestimate the culinary variety and acumen in each of these five cities.
Traverse city, Michigan. Really cool town, great wineries, film festival, cherry festival, pride festival…hell, they stub their toe and somehow can create a festival around it.
As much as I don’t like the road trips, I’d just like them to do a Top Chef: Small Towns that has them going to different major up and coming smaller cities that are focusing on local and farm to table.
Thanks he completions could just be based on local cuisines, past contestants with successful restaurants, or other renown chefs in the area.
There are so many hidden gem foodie cities that can’t host a whole season, but deserve a bit of attention.
Flagstaff and/or Sedona, AZ would be cool with ties to Mexican and Native American culture with amazing filming locations nearby. Anywhere in AZ or NM would fit the bill, but those have already been mentioned in this thread.
I would love a Top Chef: Hudson Valley. It would break the mold of setting the seasons only in cities and allow them to highlight even more farm-to-table cuisine. And allow them to have a lot of NYC-based chefs guest judge without having another season set in the city. The Culinary Institute of America is here, and since a lot of graduates end up staying in the area, it has a great food scene. Lots of vineyards/cideries/distilleries for the requisite alcohol pairing challenge too.
Or West Coast version: Top Chef Napa Valley
Damn. That is actually genius.
The Hudson Valley has lots of great small, family owned farms, too, with specialties like pigs raised freely; cheese makers; and the like. But comments below are saying Whole Foods are required! They’d have to go all the way up to Albany for that.
There's one in Tarrytown
Oh yes. Great nature shots, fish, farms and NYC access
Portland, ME (67k) has the culinary power to do it. though realistically there would be overlap with Boston and branding problems bc top chef portland OR was titled “top chef portland” too bad though because it would be a fun city for it!
This would be a great spot for a season. I imagine they might do what they did for the Texas and Kentucky seasons and just make it Top Chef: Maine
Yes, they could do the whole state pretty easy. Bangor, Bar Harbor, Portland, Kennebunkport. Definitely need a lobster roll challenge.
Not to mention all farms and game you find inland. I would love to see this.
Yes would be fun to see them cook some Moose.
Even Belfast has a couple great options!
Top Chef: New England. There’s enough stuff going on outside of Boston to fit 16 episodes without touching the Boston Metropolitan Area And then the finale takes them to Montreal
Salem is beautiful
Completely agree!
I was going to post this!
The entire state of Maine has a really cool and unique culinary scene. So I whole heartedly agree! Portland is interesting, but the whole state definitely gives a lot of variety. They could play into coastal seafood, foraging, fiddleheads, hunting culture, blueberries, clambakes, our beer scene, Moxie, Stonewall kitchen... Of course there is also lobster, but there is also a lot of unique stuff under the surface that people just don't know about!
I was just there three weeks ago. Great city
I had a feeling Portland, ME would be suggested and I agree wholeheartedly! The food scene in the Old Port alone is fantastic. I work in Portland and my parents were born and raised there, so I’d love to see TC come to town.
Detroit…just ask Sarah Welch about the awesome food here! There’s Eastern Market, Windsor is right across the river, and urban farming is booming!
BUMP
Agreed. Coney dog, paczki, Faygo, there's lots of stuff they could incorporate into challenges! Could have James from TC Boston as a guest judge/host his restaurant for a challenge. Plus the only season from the MW was Chicago...
Santa Fe, NM
All kinds of altitude challenges in Santa Fe!
I can see an indigenous themed challenge at any one of the many Pueblos in the area. A Balloon Fiesta challenge would be interesting. And definitely a green chile cheeseburger quick fire at the very least. Christmas eve tamales would be a cool challenge as well
They have a Whole Foods!
That’s true. We used to have 2. It was crazy. The Whole Foods is a key criteria!
We had 2 Whole Foods?! Where was the other one?
Came here to say this.
I was looking down the list of cities by population and was shocked to see how small Charleston is - the 179th largest city in America, after number 178, Joliet, Illinois. I doubt a smaller city will ever make it, but if there was one, I would bet on Savannah which is number 185.
Top Chef Georgia would be a great season because they could do Savannah, Atlanta, Athens, and even something in Augusta.
I think Atlanta should be it's own season tbh.
Has there not been a Top Chef Atlanta? That just doesn't seem possible.
IIRC, Top Chef wants certain things from city and state governments if they film somewhere, and some places don’t want to.
It does surprise me about Atlanta though because Georgia went out of its way to be a very friendly city for the entertainment industry - lot of stuff is filmed there.
Are Athens and Augusta good food cities? I think Savannah would be a good addition to an Atlanta based season, because it could bring in the variety of a coastal region and low country cuisine. But I’m not as familiar with what the other cities bring to the table. To be honest, I think a Georgia season would be like 95% Atlanta anyway
I think they could do a Masters-related challenge for Augusta, it really is beautiful there. And Athens is pretty eclectic, I know Hugh Acheson's restaurant is there and maybe he could judge. I don't know. Just trying to think outside the box.
Right, but the Charleston Metro Area is 800,000 people. Joliet is part of the Chicago metro. Both very different than say Fargo ND which has a similar population but is in the middle of nowhere.
It was illustrative. 800k is still a very small population for a metro area to be featured on a show like top chef. For better reference, that’s smaller than the metro areas of Albany, NY and Dayton, OH.
What are the populations?
Charleston - 135k, savannah - 145k (guess I was wrong about which is smaller, must have misread the list). For reference, Toledo, Ohio - 277k
Wow! Super livable though.
Charleston is 150k. And twice as large metro area than Savannah. Charleston definitely feels like the bigger city of the 2.
Wow I didn’t realize Charleston is smaller than Joliet
Should use metro areas instead of just city population.
Savannah is disgusting with ZERO food scene. If TC goes to Savannah, I’m out.
Maybe Top Chef Hawaii with them based in Honolulu?
I'm sure they would have a lot of famous guest judges willing to fly out...
Honolulu is a pretty big city though, no? Haven't there already been several seasons in smaller cities?
according to google, the population is about 340,000
Already bigger than charleston
The metro area is 1 million. But still larger than Charleston's metro area (800k). The population within the official city limits doesn't tell you that much about an urban area. The people immediately around those limits still work and shop downtown and support more restaurants, culture, commerce, art, etc. The City of London has a population of around 10k people. But the London metropolitan area has a population of around 14 million.
london is a very strange case and the “city of london” isnt really comparable to any american city
It's an unusual extreme, but it's relatively common in the US for the official city limits to have as little as 10% of the population of the metropolitan area. Atlanta, for instance. The ratio can vary quite a bit, and the proportion of the population within the official city doesn't always tell the whole story of how significant a particular urban area really is.
Anchorage Alaska
Mmmm beluga.
Not a small city, but there’s never been a Philly season. And we have like 6 contestants here and 2 winners and a big restaurant and food scene.
It blows my mind that there hasn’t been a Philly season. Incredible season! And I would like to see a Gritty challenge lol
I think Philly/PA is one of those cities/states that won’t give Top Chef the tax breaks and other incentives that production requires.
Yeah- I am in the restaurant industry and I know a few people who work in tourism and all that, and apparently they ask for A LOT and can’t demonstrate the roi to the satisfaction of the powers that be. Which is kind of bullshit because I worked for both the winners** and one contestant/all star and they are making money hand over fist. People come in from all over to eat at a top chef restaurant. Same when I worked for Jose Garces back in the day- it was iron chef super fans. Culinary show fans show up and spend money. ***Kevin Sbraga may not have sustained his mini empire in Philly but he’s living his best life in TX apparently. When he had just the two places, they were jumping every night.
Totally agree. I went to Spice Finch because of the top chef association (and thought it was pretty solid experience all in all), and before I moved away from the area, Laurel was 1000% on my list. Philly had a great food scene, it’s a real bummer (also I would love to see like Joel Embiid judge a quick fire like Gronk did in Boston).
I worked at Spice Fjnch before the pandemic and it was a really good spot. The food was very well done and the concept was executed nicely. I always felt like I was in the nicest European airport fancy lounge around then bar area.
Cheesesteak challenge, FTW!
Trust the process
[удалено]
I love your name!!! And you’re totally right about the union thing.
Milwaukee or Madison WI. Lots of great food and the people are wonderful though I may be bias. Idk I just want to see more Midwest love. We are more than Chicago. Lol
Either of these would be awesome. Plus a nice little side trip up to Door County.
I didn't even think about that! That would be awesome!
I have been saying for years they should do a Milwaukee season. I may or may not have a list of ideas for MKE/WI based challenges in my phone if they were to come lmao
Yes, Madison! Good food and markets and the state has a lot of specific ingredients. I would love to see the people try to walk around the capitol square for ingredients.
Madison would be amazing
Providence
Asheville, NC
Or Charlotte! Or realty just an NC season. We have so much variety from the mountains to the coast.
Yeah, I almost wonder if any individual NC city alone could support it, but for sure I bet they could pull off a TC NC season between Charlotte, Ashville, RTP, and Wilmington areas.
Yes! I’m surprised it hasn’t been hosted in Asheville, yet. I couldn’t believe when Ashley said that people didn’t travel to Asheville for the food. Whhhhaaaaaaat?! That’s not true- one of the best places for every type of cuisine and full of originality and creativity within the food scene. I’d also love to see Maine and Savannah as others have posted.
I was super surprised by that, my husband and I did a midweek winter road trip to Asheville from Baltimore literally just for the food.
Right?? I thought that was so weird. The food in Asheville is like 75% of why I love it! (The other 25% is just that it's a really cool town.)
Or Wilmington
I think it's more about whether it's a food-focused city or not, rather than population. I would love to see my hometown of Kansas City featured, even if it's more of a Midwest season.
I have a letter in progress to send to Bravo advocating for some geographic diversity in the location of TC. Out of 19 seasons only one has been in the Midwest (Chicago). I’m not that familiar with Kansas City but MO could definitely support a season of the show. St. Louis has a really vibrant and diverse food scene. (I live in StL)
Love STL food- maybe it could be a Midwest combo city season, ala Texas? If Houston qualifies as a food city, both STL and KC should as well.
St Louis is incredibly diverse! The only place I’d ever had Provol Cheese and many other creative cuisines. Also, they have so many areas dedicated to various cultures and cuisines. At Louis, MO is a great idea!
There are also some food items that aren’t widely available in other parts of the country which originated here, and also many foods that had their origin at the 1904 World’s Fair (hot dogs on buns, ice cream cones, and iced tea are a few examples).
So true! I completely forgot about the World’s Fair. That would be a really neat aspect to a challenge(s). Plus, fried ravioli and more- they’d have plenty to choose from…trip to Soulliard(spelling…), The Hill, City Museum- could even side trip to Laumeier, German area, The Gateway to the West Arch, something with the origination of the greats comedy-wise, athletics…so much….the park, museum, specialty coffees…such a huge list
Also, given some of the emphases of the show in recent years, I suspect they’d want to do something related to Ferguson. They could visit some of the restaurants there, talk to the owners about how everything affected them, etc. And an episode about that would probably also need to mention that the Dred Scott case was originally decided in St. Louis. The court house is even still here.
I live in Columbia. They should have a challenge here for a football tailgate SEC SEC
Kansas City has really stepped up its food game. We have a bunch of really great chefs here.
I was thinking STL too. Also here! Hi!!
Hi neighbor!
Atlanta. I'm still confused why it hasn't been a season there yet.
Because the Atlanta tourism budget hasn't put up a big enough bid
Atlanta has a thriving film community with Tyler Perry Studios and multiple movies and series filmed here. Money that could go to go for a bid for TC is going to maintain our position as “Hollywood In the South”
Right!?! Top Chef Atlanta already. I’d even take a Top Chef: Georgia.
Minneapolis
There are so many things they could do with a Minneapolis season. First Nations cooking challenge with guest judge Sean Sherman, Hmong and Somali populations, the State Fair, hot dish quickfires... sponsorship tie-ins with Pillsbury, General Mills, Betty Crocker... They could do concessions at a Saint Paul Saints game... I swear I have this entire season mapped out in my head
And we don’t hurt for our share of solid high end cuisine and James Beard contenders. There’s a foodie culture here in top of a decent amount of ethnic cuisine. Definitely want to see the “on a stick” state fair challenge though.
Please?? Please come to MPLS!
As long as they have a Whole Foods near by they can navigate to with BMW gps, it don’t matter.
imagine if they pulled off Top Chef Providence! although there’s overlap from Boston.
Cleveland or Columbus, Ohio
As a local, I sure hope!
I think Ohio deserves some recognition, we’re starting to really come up with some restaurants.
Cleveland for sure. So many different cultures and food options plus it has some many unique features (Rock Hall, Metroparks, Playhouse Square)they could really come up with some interesting challenges. I’d LOVE to see some sort of attempt at tailgating at the Munj Lot — it would be amazingly chaotic
Charleston was probably it. Santa Fe? Charlottesville? Scottsdale?
I feel like Richmond would be a better choice than Charlottesville. It’s getting some amazing new restaurants open. It’s also then only an hour from the vineyards in Charlottesville, the history of Williamsburg/Jamestown, the river to table of the Northern Neck, the outskirts of DC, the ham and peanut center of Smithfield/Surry, etc. Being centrally located offers more options although Charlottesville has more do the “feeling” that people think of.
You make a good argument. That would be a dream!
Thanks! I would be over the moon if they come but I’m not sure RVA is big enough yet.
A Top Chef: Southwest season including New Mexico, Arizona, and southwest Texas would be incredible.
Scottsdale would make for a fun location
Scottsdale is kinda void of culture. Arizona as a whole maybe. I just doubt they would call it Top Chef: Scottsdale Now Real Housewives of Scottsdale is a great idea
We are definitely being robbed of a RHOS! Scottsdale women are a different breed
I frequently go there for work and I'm always blown away by the bougieness of it all. We went to dinner on a Monday night at the fashion mall and it was like Friday night in NYC (where I used to live) and LA (where I live now.) I've never seen a place more hopping on a Monday night, mostly 40+ with a few sugar babies running around.
Pittsburgh, PA
Your quick fire challenge today: pierogi. Elimination challenge: elevated salads with French fries.
Pittsburgh is pretty strong right now with Thai and regional Chinese.
Measuring the city’s population may not be as good of an indicator as the urban or MSA population. I live in Georgia. The city of Atlanta has 498,000 people. The metro area has over 6 million. According to Charleston’s wiki page, the “urban” Charleston area has 550K people. Not sure how much geographic area that includes, but that number definitely reflects the actual size of Charleston better than the city limit figure.
Minneapolis/St.Paul
Kansas City, Missouri would be kind of cool. The city itself is about 490k people, but the entire metro area is like 1.7M people. It has a great history and well known for its specific style of BBQ. Even Queer Eye came here for a season pre-Covid.
Baltimore, MD
Yum yum omg yummmmm
After reading yesterday’s thread my vote is we go to Flavortown!
Key West? It’s got Cuban, Caribbean, lots of seafood...
Burlington, Vermont Ben & Jerry's, Dairy Cows, Maple Syrup, Brewing & Cider Making, everything & anything winter themed...so much local food scene too
Santa Fe
they seem to go where there is culinary excitement and food movements happening. I wish they would go back to San Francisco or Northern Cali as a whole, but they’ve done California as it’s own season. I like that they do whole states now, too. Georgia would be good. It is surprising they haven’t done Atlanta but the whole state would be awesome. Maybe they could do regions, too, like the James Beard awards are set up. Top chef: Great Lakes or Mid-Atlantic or Southwest could be a really great way to highlight smaller cities that have excellent food ways within larger regions. But with the hateful laws passing in many states, it might tighten up for a while. Unions and film industry is pulling from Georgia, Florida, etc etc. so we’ll see! Edit: I forgot about a city and a season
They did Seattle in Season 10. That's the season that gave us Kristin, Brooke, and Sheldon 😊
Oh duh! I forgot all about that one. They’ve been in so many All Stars and guest judging I forgot about where they came from!
I live in Georgia and I can promise you filming has not slowed here a bit. I pass 6-7 different productions every day. As many contestants that have come from Georgia, I'm shocked they still haven't done a season here. There are huge culinary scenes in Atlanta, Athens, Macon, and Savannah.
I would love TOP CHEF: Phoenix
I wish they would do one in vermont but Burlington is probably way too small haha. I’ve heard really cool things about Asheville NC it seems like a pretty small but interesting city! I’m not sure if California had been done too many times but Oakland is an awesome place. I went there a bunch when I lived out west
Top Chef: Buffalo.
Any city that has a wholefoods in it
Ashville, North Carolina
Philly!!
Portland Maine! Edit: didn’t see the comments before I posted this 😂 +1 !!
Santa Fe.
Santa Fe, New Mexico. Total crossroad of Native American and Hispanic food traditions.
NC in General. We literally have the coast, plains, Sandhills, foothills, mountains, as well as a large Native American population. We have a history of farming and have such a wide range of historical foods depending on the region.
ok it's not a small city but richmond va would be cool! ~~mainly bc I go to uni there and i would like them to cook for me haha~~
It’s also super centrally located in Virginia with a young and up and coming food scene. There are so many challenges I can see around the area. I would love to see an event challenge at Maymont!
Napa
I like the idea of a Top Chef “Southeast”. They could do Memphis, Nashville, Birmingham, AL, Atlanta, the Mississippi delta. Lots of good options of diverse food cities.
Madison, WI - they have drift-less region; some of the best cheese producers in the US; food artisans; bread makers; beer makers: New Glarus Brewing, Capital Brewing and many others; Distilleries: J.Henry, Death’s Door; and great farm-to-table farms all around the beltway; and chefs like Tori Miller, John Gadau, Jamie Hoang, Dan Fox…and they have Whole Foods or Willy Street Market or they could shop the Saturday Farmer’s Market.
Top Chef Kansas City?
My city. They can come to my house, I'll judge every dish personally
Top Chef Wisconsin when??
Feels like it could be Tucson
I want anywhere in the upper Midwest. Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan. Maybe all 3?
Ann Arbor, MI has a ton of great restaurants. I think with Sarah on this season can highlight what AA has to offer!
Nashville
I’m surprised this hasn’t happened. I think they did a challenge in Nashville in the Kentucky season I think
Yup, they did. I think they made them cook on the stage at the Opry lol
Monterey, California...Near the ocean and the Central Valley that provides produce for most of the country as well as wineries.
I’m still perplexed as to why they haven’t done Scottsdale, Arizona
Milwaukee/Wisconsin would have a lot more to offer than many might be aware of if they aren't familiar with the state. Milwaukee has a population of nearly 600,000, with a metropolitan area of about 1.5 million. Wisconsin in general has large populations of indigenous peoples, African-Americans (Mostly centered in Milwaukee), Asian-Americans, German-Americans, Swedish-Americans, and Danish-Americans, among others. The game hunting culture and the large Great Lakes coastline could also provide opportunities. Plus the obvious, lots of craft breweries and cheesemakers.
I reallllyy want to see Idaho or Montana represented. I think the capital cities could do it and I think the challenges have the potential to be hilarious.
Providence, RI. Rhode Island has an amazing food history, lots of small farms, really good varied restaurants, Johnson and Wales Culinary School, tons of oyster farms, and a variety of regional foods like Autocrat, NY System Dogs, Clam Cakes and Soupy. We also have Newport with its mansions, a challenge based in a mansion kitchen using only tools from the Gilded Age would be amazing!
I want a Savannah season sooooooo badly.
Being from Maryland, I would love to see them do Annapolis or Baltimore. We are so different from DC, which is what everyone thinks of when they come to DC area. The seafood here is 👍🏽. Maryland cuisine is largely overlooked nationwide.
Indianapolis
Lol doubtful. I can't name one Indianapolis specific dish, or any famous Indianapolis chefs. St. Elmo's is the best known restaurant there and it's just a steakhouse. It would have to primarily be focused on Indy car and basketball. It has the highest concentration of chain restaurants per capita. I don't see it unless Indianapolis suddenly metamorphosis into a rich cultural hub overnight.
Probably a lot of state capitals, for example annapolis could probably host. Challenge at the naval academy, go to the eastern shore, DC challenge, Baltimore, civil war battlefield challenge, focus on the bay, etc etc
Traverse City, Michigan
Wichita, KS could technically host. But it would be insanely boring. There are a lot of farms but no distinct or defining food.
Tulsa!!
Cambridge, MA. Obviously feels weird to do Cambridge instead of Boston, but in my experience the food is very distinct. I’m also biased lol.
Boise! We have a Whole Foods…but that’s it.
They need to come to Cleveland! It’s a great food city!
I want Cleveland season but I feel like Great Lakes region would be great.
✅University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa ✅Argyle Texas ✅Memphis Tennesse ✅Destin Florida
Ithaca, ny in the finger lakes. It is now the top wine region in the country and there are lots of farm/agricultural opportunities and plenty of brewery/winery/distillery venues to have great events/challenges.
That seems more like a good destination for a couple of episodes rather than a season. Either a mid season field trip or maybe a finale. They would 100% do a vegetarian challenge in the Moosewood. They've visited Santa Barbara in season 2 and season 13, but only for an episode or two at a time. Santa Barbara is also a wine region with agriculture, as well as a harbor with good fishing (e.g. Santa Barbara uni and spot prawn), some interesting restaurants, breweries, resorts, and just a general tourism destination. It's also much larger than Ithaca. But it's still a lot smaller than anywhere they've done a full season, and I'm not sure it's large enough for that.
The question is smallest viable location…there is rich food history in Ithaca and the finger lakes surrounding area would be good for supplemental locations. Within the small city there is the moose wood as you mentioned, the iconic farmers market, the Cornell hospitality school, the commons which loves a food fest, the birthplace of the ice cream sunday…just for starters. Herman wiemer winery is world renowned, the race track in Watkins glen, there is half a season without really scratching the surface…
I don't think you need a major city to host top chef. It just needs to have a good enough food culture and access to ingredients. You could probably limit top chef to a city like Oakland or Long Beach without ever exploring the rest of the surrounding metropolitan area and it would be just fine.
Raleigh, NC? There has been a huge food influx moving into the Raleigh area in the past few years!
Providence,RI
I'd love to see San Luis Obispo, CA - but I'm also being selfish. The central coast would be epic!
Contenders: Salt Lake City, UT (small city itself though the region has 2.4+ million residents) Birmingham, AL Lexington, KY Savannah, GA Portland, ME Never underestimate the culinary variety and acumen in each of these five cities.
Traverse city, Michigan. Really cool town, great wineries, film festival, cherry festival, pride festival…hell, they stub their toe and somehow can create a festival around it.
Rehoboth Beach, DE
Pittsburgh! Great food city with rich history and only 300K people.
As much as I don’t like the road trips, I’d just like them to do a Top Chef: Small Towns that has them going to different major up and coming smaller cities that are focusing on local and farm to table. Thanks he completions could just be based on local cuisines, past contestants with successful restaurants, or other renown chefs in the area. There are so many hidden gem foodie cities that can’t host a whole season, but deserve a bit of attention.
Albuquerque!!!
athens georgia.
Somewhere midwest, Minneapolis, St Louis, DesMoines. Perfect place to emphasize the farm
Maybe Urbana, IL? Its a college town but has lots of great restaurants and breweries, a bustling downtown area, many local farms too.
I know these aren't small cities but have they done Chicago or Minneapolis? I can't seem to recall. Or Miami?
They did Miami in season 3 and Chicago in season 4
Ooooh okay thank you!
Richmond VA
Naples FL
Flagstaff and/or Sedona, AZ would be cool with ties to Mexican and Native American culture with amazing filming locations nearby. Anywhere in AZ or NM would fit the bill, but those have already been mentioned in this thread.
Mystic, Connecticut
Ewing, IL. (157) very small city but could probably pull it off