Pack Your Knives

Buddha dropped by to dish with Tom and Kevin about his time on set, who actually served the best dish of the week, getting to watch Kristen Kish at work in her rookie season, and whom he’d name White House chef should he ever occupy the Oval Office. 👇Hear the full episode right now on the Pack Your Knives Substack👇 Subscribe to the new PYK Substack! https://www.packyourknives.com/ Rate PYK 5 Stars on Apple or Spotify Follow PYK on Twitter: @packknives & Instagram: @packyourknives COUNT THE DINGS MERCH STORE - Check it out here: https://bit.ly/CTDMERCH Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For all Tom and Kevin know, Wisconsin native Frank Lloyd Wright’s career might have been fueled by Pop-Tarts and Spaghetti O’s. But some of the architectural luminary’s best work can be found just a couple of blocks from where the Top Chef 21 chefs scavenge the aisle of the Whole Foods for their ingredients. This week, those chefs were asked to pay homage to Wright in a team challenge that stumped more than a few of them. The upside is some heightened tension in the kitchen and some incisive analysis at the judges’ table, where Kristen Kish continues to shine in her first season hosting Top Chef. After four weeks, one contestant in the field continues to dominate — and it ain’t a Top 3 pick.  A heads up that we will be hosting a LIVE chat during next week’s episode at 9 pm ET on April 17 on Substack. All Substack subscribers can join — free or paid. We will send out a notice in the coming days. Join us! Subscribe to the new PYK Substack! https://www.packyourknives.com/ Rate PYK 5 Stars on Apple or Spotify Follow PYK on Twitter: @packknives & Instagram: @packyourknives COUNT THE DINGS MERCH STORE - Check it out here: https://bit.ly/CTDMERCH Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week's PYK Premium guest is Carly Levitz, the delightful queen of Top Chef data science. Carly joins the show to talk about her (recent) obsession with Top Chef and how she watches every episode through the lens of a data nerd (we say this with utmost affection). Kevin and Tom ask her some burning questions about the value of immunity, the Top Chef GOAT debate and regional evolution in Top Chef history.  The Seattleite shares her all-time favorite cooking hacks from Top Chef and gives us her assessment of Season 21 Wisconsin as we enter the fourth episode. Follow her work at carly.sue.bear on Instagram, @carlylevitz on X and her viz page on Tableau Public. 👇Hear the full episode right now on the Pack Your Knives Substack👇 Subscribe to the new PYK Substack! https://www.packyourknives.com/ Rate PYK 5 Stars on Apple or Spotify Follow PYK on Twitter: @packknives & Instagram: @packyourknives COUNT THE DINGS MERCH STORE - Check it out here: https://bit.ly/CTDMERCH Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tom & Kevin aren’t huge fans of hidden doors or cheese croquettes, but they love getting to the bottom of a good mystery -- like who’s to blame over the slippery floor this week in the Top Chef kitchen. This week’s Cheese Elimination Challenge didn’t produce any instant classics. One nice “nice fried ball” — as Gail Simmons artfully called the procession of croquettes — after another. Though the episode didn’t produce any or memorable dishes, it did what an early episode is supposed to do: Begin the separation of the contenders from the long-shots. Michelle, Rasika, and Dan are beginning to form an elite at the front of the pack.  Subscribe to the new PYK Substack! https://www.packyourknives.com/ Rate PYK 5 Stars on Apple or Spotify Follow PYK on Twitter: @packknives & Instagram: @packyourknives COUNT THE DINGS MERCH STORE - Check it out here: https://bit.ly/CTDMERCH Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the annals of Top Chef lore, Joe Flamm is a legend. He clawed his way back through Last Chance Kitchen to win Season 15 with his combination of rustic Adriatic fare and technical savvy. If you find yourself anywhere in the vicinity of Chicago, treat yourself to the Croatian goodness that is Rose Mary in Fulton Market. Joe joins Tom and Kevin to chat about his experience sitting at the judges’ table in Episode 2. How good was Laura’s hops-infused rice pudding and Rasika’s pretzel-barley cake? Was Valentine’s soup bad enough to warrant elimination ? Has Tom Colicchio, after 21 years, entered the give-no-fucks stage of his Top Chef tenure, to the delight of all of us?  👇Hear the full episode right now on the Pack Your Knives Substack👇 Subscribe to the new PYK Substack! https://www.packyourknives.com/ Rate PYK 5 Stars on Apple or Spotify Follow PYK on Twitter: @packknives & Instagram: @packyourknives COUNT THE DINGS MERCH STORE - Check it out here: https://bit.ly/CTDMERCH Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s a Pack Your Knives’ tradition like no other: The annual Top Chef fantasy draft.  Team Tom has deployed its scouting and data analytics departments to scour the field of cheftestants for the sure bets and hidden gems. Since Kevin got a glimpse of the field of remaining chefs at a mid-season challenge, Pack Your Knives’ Chef’s Table founding members aggregated their draft boards and chose on Team Kevin’s behalf. As always, producer Anthony Mayes is at the podium for the proceedings.  Subscribe to the new PYK Substack! https://www.packyourknives.com/ Rate PYK 5 Stars on Apple or Spotify Follow PYK on Twitter: @packknives & Instagram: @packyourknives Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brew City wastes no time throwing its first beer-focused challenge at the Season 21 field. Nobody seems excited about cooking with hops in the Quickfire challenge, but the chefs who go sweet win favor with guest judge, Top Chef champion, and Friend of PYK, Joe Flamm. The chefs then split into teams to prepare a progressive dinner in the historic Miller Caves of dishes inspired by salty bar snacks — which Tom and Kevin rank. The team with more fine-dining, tweezer-head chefs struggles against their opponents, whose sensibilities are more rustic. Tom takes issue with the judges’ final verdict, while Kevin celebrates the winning chef’s bold risk.  Subscribe to the new PYK Substack! https://www.packyourknives.com/ Rate PYK 5 Stars on Apple or Spotify Follow PYK on Twitter: @packknives & Instagram: @packyourknives COUNT THE DINGS MERCH STORE - Check it out here: https://bit.ly/CTDMERCH Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Kristen Kish Era of Top Chef has arrived! Top Chef Season 21 is here, and Tom and Kevin like the new look. This 'inverted' premiere episode has immunity up for grabs in the Elimination Challenge at the beginning, while a Quickfire cook-off has the loser packing their knives. Tom digs the 5-chef divisional battles, each with their own judges' table. Kevin believes that soup is a 'high-floor, low-ceiling' challenge, while a stuffed pasta challenge is designed to kick a chef's ass. Tom and Kevin agree that Michelle Wallace has serious potential as both Top Chef and fan favorite, winning an 'away game' with her lobster ravioli.  Subscribe to the new PYK Substack! https://www.packyourknives.com/ Rate PYK 5 Stars on Apple or Spotify Follow PYK on Twitter: @packknives & Instagram: @packyourknives Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pack Your Knives is back. And better than ever. On the Season 21 preview, we discuss the new host, new rules and bring in PYK’s Wisconsin correspondent and Milwaukee-native C.J. Krawczyk to give the scouting report on the host city. Tom and Kevin also offer their 3 cheftestants to watch as we launch a new chapter in PYK.  Subscribe to the new PYK Substack: https://www.packyourknives.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pack Your Knives has big news for the upcoming season… Find out more at https://www.packyourknives.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Padma, Buddha and the f'ing liver. In a jam-packed episode of Pack Your Knives, Tom and Kevin recap the contentious Season 20 finale, bid farewell to Padma Lakshmi and launch a campaign for her replacement. Also joining the show are Buddha Lo and Sara Bradley taking us behind the scenes on the finale and this World All-Stars season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our love for this season continues to grow like mushrooms on cow dung. Tom and Kevin recap the infamous Wall Challenge and the mushroom elimination challenge ahead of next week's finale. While reeling from a cheftestant's elimination, Tom shocks the world with a blockbuster trade offer ahead of the final episode. Will Kevin accept? It could swing the entire fantasy season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Breaking news: Tom and Kevin went to a Top Chef dinner in Los Angeles at Craft this week! The Pack Your Knives crew not only got to meet Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons, but also the Restaurant Wars winning team and taste their five-course meal. We recap both the night, the Last Chance Kitchen finale and another banger of an episode of Top Chef as the contestants head off to Paris.  Tom H also goes through the archives and researches whether any cheftestant has won four challenges in a row. The answer may surprise you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ESPN's Mina Kimes drops by Pack Your Knives for a recap of the Beef Wellington episode. Kevin, Mina and Tom wrap themselves up in the drama, investigate the mystical origins of the Beef Wellington and discuss the double-elimination choices by the judges. Plus, we gawk at a particular chef during a "candid" moment while Kevin offers a scouting report on the Kimpton hotels across the country. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With Restaurant Wars in the rearview mirror, Tom and Kevin digest the smoked fish and thali challenges of this week's episode and interview Top Chef producer Thi Nguyen. As one of the brains behind the show, Nguyen shares what it's like to work on Top Chef over the years and why they call her the "police" of the competition. She debunks some myths and pulls back the curtain on the impact of Queen Elizabeth's passing on the production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's Restaurant Wars!!! Or is it? Tom and Kevin air their grievances about the unconventional Restaurant Wars episode and wonder what happened behind the scenes. They rank their favorite dishes and designate the roles that we never got to see. Kevin's squad has an up-and-down performance while Tom's team hums along.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With Restaurant Wars around the corner, Tom and Kevin get their engines rev'd with the incredible Fast X mise en place elimination challenge. Then, Team Haberstroh and Team Arnovitz, each with four cheftestants remaining, fill in the roles of their hypothetical Resturant Wars team. Who's the No. 1 prospect for executive chef? Front of house? Tom and Kevin hash it out and recap LCK. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kevin and Tom get their hands dirty with the Gaggan Anand episode of Top Chef: World All-Stars and take stock of the competition as we near ever closer to the Restaurant Wars mark. Cheftestant Dale Mackay of Saskatchewan fame joins the show to talk about his rollercoaster ride on Top Chef, daily life as a triathlete in reality-television isolation and the difference of this particular season vs. Top Chef Canada. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the most confusing Top Chef episode of the season, Kevin and Tom fight off whiplash and vertigo as they recap the Downton Abbey episode. Tom bids farewell to one of his top picks but discovers a budding crush on another and rants about sandwich toppings. Meanwhile, Kevin does a victory lap on one of his picks who continues to deliver and gets wistful about one of his other cheftestants heading to LCK.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Chef heads to the Kent countryside, where a shocking ending sends a cheftestant home. Kevin takes issue with the cheftestant's fate while Tom defends his squad. Then, World All-Stars contestant and Season 16 finalist Sara Bradley of Freight House in Paducah, Kentucky joins the podcast! We discuss her stat-keeping, experiences on the show, favorite Jewish dishes, raw eggs and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices