r/TopChef • u/prolly_not_62 • 27d ago

Discussion Thread Top Chef

Of all the seasons of Top Chef, can you name your favorite contestant of all seasons? Mine; Sheldon Simeon season 10 and season 14. Who’s yours?

108 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

234 comments sorted by

View all comments

59

u/Adorable-Lack-3578 27d ago

Mr. Toups. He's funny and fed a lot of service employees when Covid shut down New Orleans tourism. Him and his wife and team still feed thousands of kids every year. I'm on my phone and cant link to his causes.

27

u/AriesRedWriter 27d ago

He said on his season how Emeril Lagasse wrote personal checks to help his employees during Katrina. I love that he paid it forward and continues to do so.

11

u/cssc201 27d ago

And a few years later, when he was struggling financially and had been kicked off Food Network, Martha Stewart stepped in and bought out the rights for his media for tens of millions and helped him turn things around.

Emeril also once said on the show his chef took their starter with him when he evacuated from Katrina and it was still there when they reopened several months later.

2

u/AriesRedWriter 27d ago

That's amazing! Thanks for sharing 😊

6

u/Ok_Interest9427 27d ago

The man also has one of my favorite cookbooks. It's the kind that you can just read even if you're not mining it for recipes (I do, BTW; his gumbo recipe has beaten out Donald Link's for me and his pickle game is SOLID).