'Top Chef' Judges Dish On The Show's Worst Meals & What You Don't See On Screen

10:43Tom Colicchio:Don't blame yourself. Thank you very much. You're like, my teeth weren't sharp enough. No, they weren't sharp enough to get through it. You didn't have them sharpened. But knowing what it's like to be on the other side, what's that been like for you? I'm sure everybody asks you this question of like the, you know, having gone from being an actual contestant to being a judge. You know what? I think there is a layer of compassion and empathy, but I also think that everyone processes the competition differently. So how I experience the competition is not like how someone else does. And so everyone's going through different things.

11:21Tom Colicchio:And I think the thing that I always keep in mind is a level of compassion for whatever, however they are processing the challenge. Because I understand, or not even the challenge, the competition. I try to always keep that in mind that everyone is dealing with it differently. And it is really hard. And a lot of different feelings come up that maybe you have never felt before. You're not in very, like, in serious agreement, do you think? We just do that when she talks. I know. Whenever she says, we leave. But do you feel, I mean, what do you feel? compassion as a judge? Do you feel like you want them to perform?

11:55What do you feel?

11:56Tom Colicchio:Compassion if they're having a really bad day. If something's going wrong it's hard not to feel compassion when someone's struggling. But also a lot of the stuff that you see on camera we don't see it. We're not interacting with the chefs at all. We're not allowed to talk to them unless we're on camera. So we just interact with them when they're when we're eating their food. That's pretty much it. So it's really hard to say. Obviously in our first episode we saw Nana breaking down and And Kristen very quickly jumped to try to calm her down and get her back in the game. Which was exceptional because you don't see that a lot in the typical reality show.

12:34Tom Colicchio:It's like they just want to bleed that and let it go and let her struggle. Yes.

12:38Kristen Kish:Or make it worse. Well, I was nodding for two reasons. One, because I do think that Kristen brings an enormous amount of compassion to her role. and I think that comes through and I think we've all benefited from it and really appreciate it because she has been in their situation whether or not it was obviously different and everyone brings their own baggage and everyone brings their own perspective but I also think that because we don't know so much of what's going on behind the scenes until we see it all come together when the show was edited in its final form at the same time that the viewers see it.

13:19Kristen Kish:There's so much that we don't know, but there's actually a reason. We aren't there to coddle them and to make them comfortable. Not that we're trying to make them uncomfortable, but if we wanted them to just cook perfectly and do everything easily, we would just go to their own kitchens. The entire point is to push them out of their comfort zones. That challenges them, and it makes them into incredible cooks. That's sort of the entire point of the show. So we do want to maintain a level of objectivity. Just like when you go to a restaurant, it doesn't necessarily matter if the sous chef's wife left him that morning.

13:57Kristen Kish:You're still paying$40 for your entree. And you'll never know. But if the food's really bad, you're not going back to that restaurant. Well, but I think also, and this came up, and forgive me for bringing up a competitive show, but I've spoken to Prue from Great British Bake Off. We don't consider her. I figured. They're incredible. They're great. And but she also said to that that you're also not there to judge them based on their character. You're not being judged. That's what you are right there to judge them and invest in.

14:26Tom Colicchio:And that's the problem that sometimes the viewers have when they when they look at us and go, how did you make that decision? Did you see them do X, Y and Z? Right. No, we didn't. We're just eating their food. Right. Totally. We don't care. We don't care if they're a total jerk. No, we really don't. Yeah. And I think that that's hard because so much so much of what we're digesting is the viewer is.

14:42Kristen Kish:And people think it's a popularity contest, but it is not. Not from where we sit and we're the ones eating it and making the decisions, right? But how annoying is that when you have to, like, take it from people on social media the next day? Is that annoying?

14:56Tom Colicchio:It's all fine, you know. Yeah. You know, I'm a huge college basketball fan. Oh, boy. And there's some coaches that are just insufferable. And you don't go, the team should have lost because their coach is terrible. No, the game's the game. You play the game. Yeah, the game is the game. And at the end of the game, whoever wins, wins. Yeah. There's nothing we can do about it once it's aired, either. Can't take it back. That I think is the thing that's hard. We'll be right back.

15:40You can spend less time tackling dishes and more time together. Shop now at palmolive.com. Now, speaking of on-air competitive, my team at Delish will kill me if I don't ask you one Traders question. Of course. Because they were like, she was on Traders. She was very respected. Now, I admittedly did not watch Traders, but I know what a cult show it is. What was that like for you? And how is it different being on Traders versus being on Top Chef?

16:07Tom Colicchio:Well, I mean, they're completely different shows. Like, tenseness, I would say. Competing on Top Chef is far more tense and pressurized than competing on traders. Obviously, one is, like, your professional reputation, and the other one is maybe a social reputation. Right. I don't know. Which, you've had a great one. Apparently, you were very, like, people, you were a fan favorite. Well, because I wasn't an asshole. You know? Like, I treated everyone with respect whether the camera was on or not. I played the game to the best of my ability, but without, you know, compromising my character. And I had a good time doing it.

16:42Tom Colicchio:It was a good time. I'm glad I did it. Yeah. I'm glad it's over. Just that whole thing strikes me as a total nightmare. Tell me about the food at Traders, because what I've heard is that there were really beautiful breakfast buffets, but all anyone ate was boiled eggs. Is this accurate? I'm going to tread lightly. I went hard. Don't tread lightly on my account. Well, I went hard on the food at the beginning. Okay. And I was encouraged to maybe be less critical. Excited? Oh, you went hard like you were picking on the food. Yeah, it was bad. I thought you meant you were eating. I mean, the show was over.

17:15Kristen Kish:It was bad. And also, the show's not about the food. Correct. It was a prop, right?

17:18Tom Colicchio:It was hard. The boiled eggs, I'm pretty sure, came out of a bag. They weren't actually freshly boiled eggs, and that's why everyone went for the salmon. I don't eat smoked salmon, so really I lived off protein bars for the front half of the day. and then when we got back from missions, there was some chicken, you know. Some chicken. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Wait, how do you... I did my best and we did turn a corner because I was like, you guys, this is not okay. Like, we are actually like really, really hungry. Yeah, yeah. We're underfed at the moment. And then, you know, when I brought it up, they did start to, they tried to do what they could.

17:53Was this on camera or was this off camera?

17:56Tom Colicchio:Everyone talked about it on camera, off camera. It was a topic of deep conversation.

18:00Kristen Kish:So do you guys have craft services at Top Chef? Of course. We have a team of 150 crew making our show. Oh. Got to feed them. Well, I'm more of just like, I assume there's just so much food coming out of a kitchen, but that's not for you guys. No one else eats it but us. What is craft services like on Top Chef? It's mixed.

18:17Tom Colicchio:Yeah, it's mixed. Some days it's bad. They complain. Some days it's good.

18:20Kristen Kish:Yeah. Different seasons, you know, because we don't shoot in the same place every season. We're in a different city every single season. And so our crew needs to find catering for 150 people twice a day, plus crafty where there's, like, constant snacks and simple meals you can make for yourself. And those are, like, big operations. That's a lot of mouths to feed. And so sometimes it's better than others. In certain seasons we've had, like, amazing caterers who have really been able to do a lot. Sometimes it's been less. We don't eat a lot of it because we are eating on camera. Yeah. We're more just, like, snacking it crafty.

18:54Kristen Kish:But we need to feed our crew.

18:55Tom Colicchio:Once a season, we get together and, you know, buy a, you know, put together a really good meal for everybody. That's nice. Like, what's the, tell me about one special meal. We found, so there were some friends of ours there that had a restaurant in North Carolina, but they also had, like, a fast casual restaurant as well, so we had them cater it.

19:15Kristen Kish:And that was delicious. That was great.

19:17Tom Colicchio:And they also went way above and beyond. They had stations set up, and they were carving meat. What kind of food was there?

19:23Kristen Kish:Tons. It was beautiful. It was like, well, they make amazing fried chicken. The place is called Milk Bread in Charlotte. It's not a secret. And Joe Kindred and Katie Kindred, who own it, really went all out for our crew. I mean, all along the way, they helped us out with so many things during the season just because they know Charlotte so well. And that day, I don't know, they made a million fresh salads and fried chicken. Donuts. They had a beef station, and they make amazing donuts. And they just poured it on for our crew, which was really nice because our crew works long hours and really hard.

19:54I would just feel like the stress, though, of cooking for you three. I can't imagine that craft services is not good because I would imagine that the standards have to be so high. But I'm totally wrong.

20:04Kristen Kish:But it's crafty as crafty. Yeah, we're there. We eat the food on the show's standards have to be high. But, you know, behind the scenes, everyone, you have to, again, you're just like feeding a huge crew. You want it to be fresh and edible and nutritious. But it's just like any other TV show. So the camera crew are not critiquing. I'm sure not. And I'm sure they're just thrilled to be.

20:29Tom Colicchio:One day they did have Olive Garden. Do you remember that?

20:31Kristen Kish:Oh, yeah.

20:31Tom Colicchio:That was amazing. That was a great day. Wait, what? The Olive Garden. The salad, the breadsticks. Really? Yes. The ravioli.

20:37Kristen Kish:I hadn't had Olive Garden in like 30 years. I need to know. I was like, I am getting a bottom of the value. I'm so sorry. I need to know Tom's take on Olive Garden.

20:44Tom Colicchio:You've never been. Never been? No. Why is that surprising? I don't know. I just feel like, I don't know. I guess I just thought it was so. You grew up in New Jersey. We had so many. What part of New Jersey did you grow up in? Elizabeth. Okay. We didn't have an Olive Garden. You didn't have an Olive Garden. There was one on 22. Also, growing up, there was an Olive Garden. There was an Olive Garden. No. But what was your go-to food? Like, what was the go-to food when you were a kid? Do you remember? Like, what go-to restaurant? Well, fast food burger was always Burger King. Okay. When we did that.

21:10Tom Colicchio:No, it was like pizza. My mother cooked. We had to be home every night at 5 o 'clock to have dinner. Interesting. It wasn't a whole lot. So that was, like, important. And then restaurant. There was a restaurant called Spirito's that had been there forever. And it was a red sauce Italian place. We would go there, especially on Friday nights in the summer when my father was playing softball because it was right next door to the softball field. So we would go there. That's awesome. What's a food, what's a snack that sends you back to your childhood? There was always like chips and candy. My mother had a real sweet tooth.

21:38Tom Colicchio:There was always candy and a lot of licorice. You know, there was like the licorice sample thing with the...

21:42Kristen Kish:Oh, of course. The all-sorted. The all-sorted.

21:45Tom Colicchio:Exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah.

21:45Kristen Kish:my grandfather used to always bring those to me like the colored pink yellow and black licorice all sorts those definitely bring me back to my childhood but what about like after school you're coming home after school what were you what was in how did you have a good snack house growing

22:00Tom Colicchio:up we did but you know i was one of two other brothers so if there were snacks around we just you know completely like annihilated they didn't last long right yeah but like what kind of stuff It was like chips and, you know, Doritos and, you know, the usual nonsense. I love it. And we're all the same. Yeah. Stars are just like us. Chefs. That's what I keep forgetting. We're all eating the same Doritos. Yeah. We all got the same bag of chips at home. Where did you grow up? I grew up in Toronto. Oh, okay. Oh, so this is my favorite. I just, I love hearing Toronto's. I love hearing Canadian snacks because.

22:34There's a lot of good Canadian snacks. Well, also just like, we may as well live in two different planets. Yeah. I had a Canadian. Snack-wise, for sure. I'm just like, what did we have? Somebody was on talking about ketchup chips.

22:43Kristen Kish:Ketchup chips are, I was going to, I mean, like, if you really want to know my go-to snack when we talk about that, but I just don't know how many people know them. It was like all-dressed chips and ketchup chips. All-dressed chips and ketchup. And, like, Canadians were eating pickle chips, like, long before America was eating pickle chips. But why aren't Americans eating ketchup chips? I don't know. It doesn't make any sense. It's so normal. You dip your fries. It's the same thing. Well, especially if you probably eat a ton of ketchup.

23:03Tom Colicchio:I mean, I can't imagine how ketchup is sold in the States.

23:05Kristen Kish:In this country, exactly. You know, I don't know. Yes, we ate a lot of those, but we didn't we weren't allowed them in our house

23:12Tom Colicchio:There's a business opportunity here. You're right ketchup chips. Okay.

23:15Kristen Kish:Okay. Here we go All right, if you'll invest with Frito So we had to Google all dressed when we had we had a musician on a few weeks ago And he he was he wrote it broke it down for us and it's really it sounds to me like Like at the barbecue. Yeah, sour cream and onion Altogether salt and vinegar. I think are like really what it's supposed to be a mashup of They're perfect. A Ruffles all-dress chip is the perfect chip, and that is my hill to die on. I have a question on the all-dress.

23:47Tom Colicchio:Is all-dress delicious because it's on a ruffle, or do you think if it translated to a thin crisp, it would also hit the chip?

23:52Kristen Kish:There are thin crisp versions. I think the ruffle makes a huge difference. Somebody also said that. Actually, I think Jude said that as well, who's the singer who was on it. He said that it has to be a ruffle, which I think is wild. But you did not grow up in a good snacks house. No. We never had a lot of that stuff. We didn't, my mother did not allow a lot of that junk food in the house. So I would sneak to my friends' houses to eat it. So when you came home from school, what were you eating? You know, like if I could sneak a box of macaroni and cheese, that would be like really heavenly. Kraft?

24:23Kristen Kish:Kraft, yeah. Okay. And in fact, we called it growing up in Canada, Kraft Dinner. That's what it's called, Kraft Dinner. Here you call it like Kraft Mac and Cheese, I guess, but it's just Kraft Dinner. So if I could get a box of Kraft dinner, like that would be an amazing feat. That would be the ultimate snack. My dad made pickles, like full sour dill pickles. Wow. He was not a cook. This was like one of two things that he made. And there were always, like his pickles were the best. So I snacked on those a lot growing up too. What's your heritage? What was his? Like Eastern Europe. My father's South African actually.

24:54Kristen Kish:But going back, like Eastern European, Jewish. Yeah, yeah. I was going to say, my family is Lithuanian. Lithuanian. My father too. you know generations back yeah yeah what was your snack house like growing up you know i think my

25:07Tom Colicchio:my love of snacks is because i was deprived a little bit as a child that's always how it is we had things but my mom didn't have like a lot of sugar the cereal only cereal we're allowed to have is like um cheerios and cornflakes none of like the frosted stuff same and i think that kind of ruined me because now look at me but look at yeah look at you yeah I'm looking I would get I wish I would always get mini meals as opposed to snacks because we didn't have anything in the house right so it would be I would um 44th Street Bistro I would get a a sourdough bread bowl and it would be broccoli cheddar soup and a side of chicken fingers and you dip the chicken fingers inside the broccoli cheddar soup it's so good that is the game changer or I would do a lot of individual pizzas and put them in the microwave.

25:58Tom Colicchio:You did good. I did okay. One of the best things that you can do, and you can still find, you know, those chewy Chips Ahoy cookies on the red package. You stack four of them. You have to stack them. Microwave, 30 seconds. Oh, my God. Really? They're hot, delicious. We're trying this. But you have to do it on a paper towel. Don't put it on a plate because the bottom gets too soggy. Yeah. So put it on a paper towel. stack for 30 seconds. She won Top Chef for a reason. I get it. I'm also like, if she pulled out a microwaved stack of three chewy chocolates. Four. Four. It has to be four. Crap, sorry.

26:35Also, is there a better invention than the sourdough bread bowl? I'm just going to go on with her just saying. It's pretty great. Love of bread.

26:39Tom Colicchio:So, something you said just kind of sparked my memory. English muffin pizzas. Oh, yeah. Definitely. And popcorn. We had a lot of popcorn. We would make it and then lots of butter. Popcorn in the pot, obviously, because Jiffy Pop? You a Jiffy Pop fan? They've made an appearance and they're just like, dang, this is out of here. It's really annoying. Yeah. It's not very good. Is that how you make popcorn? How do you make popcorn today? I make it. Same in the pot? I have a question because I can't make popcorn, fresh popcorn, without it feeling a little chewy. How do you get it crispy?

27:11Kristen Kish:Crispy? You were asking the wrong person. Like popping. I would ask this person. I get chewy. I'm shaking the pot a lot. No. I need to shake the pot.

27:19Tom Colicchio:Shake the pot until I stop popping. Yeah. Actually, I would have you bag it delicious to make a perfect pot of popcorn. Can you do that for us? I can try. Please try. I don't know what the perfect pot of popcorn is, but I'll try. Popcorn gives me stress in that I'm always afraid that I'm going to pull it. Even when I'm microwaving it, I'm pulling it at the wrong time. Because there's nothing worse than the smell of burnt popcorn. Yes. Microwave popcorn is problematic for that reason. You've got to lower the flame a little bit. Once it starts popping and starts popping fast, then you've got to lower the heat a little bit, and then it won't burn.

27:44Yeah.

27:45Tom Colicchio:Shake it every now and then, but once it starts going fast, leave it alone. I'm just like, this is why I would fail on Top Chef. I'm just like, let's go. Turn this over and go faster. We're going to get moving. You could have any cereal you want right now. What is it? The Reese's Peanut Butter Puffs. Everybody loves those. Really? Everybody. It is so good. The milk is so good afterwards. They're delicious. The ones, you know, like the chocolate balls with the peanut butter balls. Chocolate and peanut butter is like the match made in heaven. I love that, and I have never one time had them, so now I need to have the box of those here at the very least.

28:17What's your go-to cereal?

28:19Tom Colicchio:Kind of a toss-up between shredded wheat and cinnamon life. Wow. Cinnamon life is great. And the way life traps the milk in the life, that is the best. It's in your life. In the life, in your life. It is a metaphor. It is. We should all hold that much milk. God willing.

28:41Kristen Kish:What's your go-to cereal, Gail? I'm a bit disappointing here. Like, I've never been a big cereal eater. What's your breakfast? drink. I prefer a savory breakfast. I will have yogurt with like granola and fruit once in a while. I prefer a savory breakfast. Like I don't tend towards a sweet breakfast. Even though you don't need to make cereals sweet. Like growing up we always had those non-sweet cereals. We had a very Canadian cereal called Shreddy's which is like shredded wheat. Shreddy's. Or Weetabix. Oh yeah. I've only seen pictures of that. That's what my brother ate every morning. God I don't understand it.

29:16Kristen Kish:Or Cheerios. But I never reached for cereal. And, like, you know, I don't know. That Reese's Pieces cereal sounds great, but I don't eat cereal. Like, I love more than anything, though, a crispy rice treat. Like, that to me is one of my favorite snacks. I don't get to eat them a lot. When I was pregnant, that was what I needed, like, immediately. AKA rice crispy treats. Rice crispy treats. I would make them, like, three times a week and bring them to people only so that I could then eat them. So that's a cereal adjacent situation and a snack situation. They were making Rice Krispie Treat cereal, which feels to me like an abomination.

29:57Yeah, that's complicated. But yes, wild. Wait, what's your go-to breakfast? Like, diner breakfast. Diner? Somebody serving you a breakfast. What's your go-to?

30:07Tom Colicchio:Poached eggs are eggs over easy. Just plain. Toast. Yeah, toast. That's good.

30:12Kristen Kish:What's yours? I would say either an egg and cheese with a tomato on a soft roll, hot sauce, tater tots, or I would do also like a poached egg with greens is something that I do make at home a lot. I like if I'm somewhere nicer.

30:29Tom Colicchio:A full Irish breakfast is pretty good, too. Full Irish? Tell the audience what a full Irish is. You have to have black pudding. Black pudding. Yeah. Black pudding, definitely. There's always a grilled tomato. Yes. Mushrooms. Mushrooms, yeah. I do like a British breakfast. That is, that's next level. That I always, I'm like, how do people get their day going? But then Japanese breakfasts are good, too. Oh, my God. Tell our audience what Japanese breakfast is. Yes, one more. It's usually a bunch of different cured fish. It's like a little bento.

30:56Kristen Kish:It's completely savory, and, you know, here people wouldn't consider it breakfast, I think. Cured fish, usually pickled or fermented vegetables. Soup. A little soup, exactly, a warm broth. All right, well, take us home. That hits. Because what's your dine-a-breakfast? I feel like we're going to be kindred on this. What is it?

31:13Tom Colicchio:I mean, any fried potato, fried eggs, the shitty white thin bread with the cold butter packets. Brown gravy on the fries? What? Brown gravy on the fries? No, I've never done that before. Jerseys. Wait, on fries? I always call it fries and brown gravy. Fries and gravy. But the disco has cheese on top of it. Oh, got it. Let's do that. That's adjacent to the poutine. Yes. Yes, yes. Somehow Jersey took it. I'm adding disco to it. I'll take it. Wait, but what? And so no pancakes or waffles? I'm actually sure. No, no, no. I do like salty. Give me a breakfast sandwich, but only on a biscuit or a croissant.

31:52Those are my favorite. I just... God, you guys are so fun. I am so happy you came. Thank you for stopping by. I know you have a busy day, but I appreciate your passion for all levels of food. So thank you for being here. And best of luck with the latest season, season 23? 23, yeah. Wild. Thank you. So happy to have you guys. Thanks so much for joining Snacks. Please make sure to like and subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts. And make sure you follow us on all social platforms at Snacks Podcast.