Here’s What All 18 ‘Top Chef’ Winners Are Doing Now
Unlike other cooking shows where you may see home cooks try to make opulent desserts, precocious child chefs get yelled at by Gordon Ramsay or industry pros forced to cook a meal from baskets filled with marmite and goat’s brains, the Emmy Award winning Top Chef is actually trying to suss out who is a great chef.
As the pandemic raged last year and no vaccines existed at the time of filming, the hosts, cheftestants, crew and rotating panel of guests judges bubbled together in Portland, Ore. like the NBA did in Orlando in 2020, to film the show’s 18th season. Though, at times, the season felt a bit claustrophobic without the cheftestants being able to interact with the world around them, some extremely talented chefs emerged from the pack. It concluded with what felt like a lovely ending with the three finalists competing not to defeat one another, but to get the best cooking out of each other. That harmony was quickly marred by the fact that the winner, Gabe Erales, had been fired from his job at Austin’s Comedor for alleged harassment. Since then, the show has largely distanced itself from the champion. But he’s still in the process of opening his own restaurant, so as we tune in to see who will be crowned the 19th Top Chef winner, we’re checking in on Erales and previous champs to see what they’re up to now.
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Harold Dieterle (Season 1: San Francisco)
That first season was still ironing out the wrinkles a little bit, with no Padma Lakshmi to be seen yet (Katie Lee, Billy Joel’s now ex-wife, was the host). In the finale, which was held in Las Vegas, Dieterle defeated Tiffani Faison with a menu that included olive oil poached bass and pan-roasted quail. After winning, Dieterle ran three restaurants in New York’s West Village: Perilla, Kin Shop and the Marrow. Despite solid reviews for each of the trio, he eventually closed them all, shuttering Perilla in 2015. He returned to New York in 2017 as the consulting chef at the gluten-free Italian restaurant Tali, but it closed in June of 2018. Dieterle now has a restaurant consulting business.
Ilan Hall (Season 2: Los Angeles)
In a season that had some controversy, with a hazing incident of one of the contestants and Bravo not actually producing a reunion show because viewers didn’t like the chefs, Hall prevailed. After winning, Hall opened the Gorbals in LA, where he mashed up his Scottish and Jewish heritage with dishes like bacon-wrapped matzo balls. He expanded the concept to hipster enclave Williamsburg, Brooklyn, but he has since closed both locations. In 2015 Hall opened the vegan Ramen Hood in LA’s Grand Central Market. He also hosted a cooking competition show of his own, the testosterone-filled Knife Fight on the now-defunct Esquire Network.
Hung Huynh (Season 3: Miami)
Huynh, who had cooked at Per Se and Guy Savoy before competing on the show, beat fan favorites Casey Thompson and Dale Levitski in the three-way final. After leaving the show, Huynh worked for the restaurant and nightlife company EMM Group for four years, helping it grow the seafood restaurant Catch around the world, from New York to LA to Dubai to Mexico City. Upon departing EMM, Huynh worked private events, and in 2016 he took a job as the culinary consultant for Hilton at Resorts World Bimini in the Bahamas. In late 2019 he opened the Asian fusion restaurant Warrior on LA’s Sunset Strip.
Stephanie Izard (Season 4: Chicago)
Izard won the season held in her own backyard of the Windy City, defeating Richard Blais in the finale. Since then, she’s gone on to build an empire in Chicago’s thriving West Loop restaurant scene. In 2010, she opened the perpetually packed Girl & the Goat, where she serves delicious, creative and globally inspired dishes such as wood oven roasted pig face, grilled butter chicken and duck tartare. Soon after she opened the Little Goat Diner and her Chinese restaurant Duck Duck Goat. In 2019 at Chicago’s new Hoxton Hotel she opened her Peruvian-influenced Cabra, and in 2020 she opened Sugargoat bakery and expanded her offering with meal kits delivered nationwide through Goldbelly. Last year she opened her pandemic-delayed Girl and the Goat in Downtown Los Angeles and has also brought her Peruvian restaurant Cabra to the city as well.
Hosea Rosenberg (Season 5: New York)
Season 5 was filled with chefs who would become fan favorites for years to come, including Fabio Viviani and Carla Hall. However, Rosenberg beat them all. The New Mexico-born chef returned to Colorado and has opened Blackbelly in Boulder, later expanding it to a butcher shop as well. In November 2017, Rosenberg opened Santo in Boulder, a restaurant devoted to the food of his home state, serving dishes such as Navajo fry bread and green chile pork and potato stew. In April of 2020, Rosenberg shared on Instagram that his daughter Sophie was suffering from a rare skeletal disorder called Multicentric Carpotarsal Osteolysis (MCTO). He and his wife started a foundation to raise funds and awareness around MCTO.
Michael Voltaggio (Season 6: Los Angeles)
The LA-based chef with a fondness for molecular gastronomy squared off all season against his brother Bryan, edging out his older sibling in a finale that showed their contrasting styles of cooking. Voltaggio recently hosted the Travel Channel show Breaking Borders, where he went to conflict areas around the world to see how food could bring people together. He recently closed his flagship restaurant, Ink, and quickly reopened in a space nearby, but with a more relaxed, convivial environment and menu. However, he shuttered that restaurant in April 2018. He also joined forces with his brother to open a fast-casual fish sandwich concept called Strfsh and the Voltaggio Brothers Steak House at MGM National Harbor in their home state of Maryland. And they hosted the six-part competition reality show Battle of the Brothers in 2021 on Discovery+.
Kevin Sbraga (Season 7: Washington, DC)
Sbraga was a bit of a surprise winner during the DC season, considering he only won one elimination challenge during the whole competition. The drama of the finale was slightly tempered with Bravo accidentally posting a video on its site the day of the episode that revealed the winner before the show had aired. After winning, he opened multiple restaurants in Philly and one in Jacksonville, Fla., but he has eventually shuttered them all, closing the last one, the Fat Ham, in July 2017. In the summer of 2018 he opened his hot chicken spot Sonny & Sons near Purdue University in Indiana, but the food hall where it was located closed because of Covid-19.
Richard Blais (Season 8: New York)
After losing to Stephanie Izard in the finale of Season 4, Blais came back to the show in its All Stars season, where every chef was a contestant who had lost in previous years. Using his love of molecular gastronomy, and sporting a bad fauxhawk haircut, he prevailed his second time around. He continues to hang around the show, regularly appearing as a judge. In 2014, he opened modern American restaurant Juniper & Ivy in San Diego, while being the creative director of Flip Burger Boutique, with outposts in Atlanta and Birmingham. He currently has an expanding fast-casual fried chicken restaurant called the Crack Shack, which has six locations around Southern California and Las Vegas. And in March 2021, he opened Ember & Rye, a modern steakhouse inside the Park Hyatt Aviara north of San Diego. The competition reality show he hosts with Gordon Ramsay, Next Level Chef on Fox, has been renewed for a second season.
Paul Qui (Season 9: Texas)
Few contestants have been as dominant as Qui was when he won nine of 17 challenges during the season that took place across the Lone Star State. And this wasn’t weak competition here. He defeated Sarah Grueneberg, who a few years ago won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Midwest; Edward Lee, who hosted his own season of Mind of a Chef; and Nyesha Arrington, who worked for Michelin two-starred Melisse before opening her own acclaimed restaurants in LA. Qui went on to earn accolades with his eponymous restaurant in Austin, but a disturbing 2016 domestic violence incident led him to close Qui, and then reopen it as Kuneho. In November 2017, he announced he would be closing that restaurant as well. In Houston, he opened Aqui in 2017, but it also closed. In December of 2021, Qui partnered with Norwegian chef Christopher Haatuft to open the sustainable seafood concept Golfstr?mmen inside Houston’s Post Market.
Kristen Kish (Season 10: Seattle)
Kish benefited from being on the first season in which Bravo deployed the web series Last Chance Kitchen, where eliminated chefs faced off in a tournament to gain re-entry to the competition at the finale. Kish, having performed very well early in the season with four wins, was eliminated five episodes before the finale. But she battled back to defeat Brooke Williamson, who until Kish had returned, dominated the field, winning three straight challenges. For a few years, you mainly found Kish roving to different events, hosting Travel Channel’s 36 Hours with former soccer player Kyle Martino, and in 2017 she published her first cookbook: Kristen Kish Cooking. In June 2018 she finally opened a new restaurant called Arlo Grey in Austin at the Line Hotel. And this year she cohosts a competition cooking show with fellow Top Chef alums Justin Sutherland and Jeremy Ford on Tru.Tv called Fast Foodies, where the trio compete to remake a celebrity guest’s favorite food.
Nicholas Elmi (Season 11: New Orleans)
Defeating Nina Compton, who has gone on to create the outstanding restaurant Compère Lapin in New Orleans, Elmi wasn’t exactly a fan favorite when he scored the upset victory. However, since his win, Elmi has returned to Philadelphia to make his mark on the city’s dining scene. Elmi’s modern French-slash-American restaurant Laurel has earned him accolades both in the City of Brotherly Love and nationwide. With the success of Laurel, he opened the bar ITV and Royal Boucherie. Late 2019 he released his first cookbook, Laurel: Modern American Flavors in Philadelphia. Recently, Elmi headed out to the Philly burbs to open the all-day café the Landing Kitchen and the Mediterranean spot Lark.
Mei Lin (Season 12: Boston)
A protégé of Season 6 winner Michael Voltaggio, Lin defeated Gregory Gourdet of Departure in Portland, with a menu that included the rice porridge congee, which was topped with carnitas. Since her victory she’s traveled the world hosting pop-up dinners with fellow chefs, tests recipes for her forthcoming restaurant in Los Angeles and has even been spotted hanging out with Oprah. Her restaurant Nightshade in LA’s Arts District opened in January 2019 and was one of our Best of the Best winners that year. That restaurant closed during the pandemic. But now she has another hit on her hands, with her fast casual Szechuan hot chicken spot Daybird, which has seen consistent lines since it opened last year. Also, a totally unrelated fun fact about her season: One of the people she beat went on to lose their restaurant after alleged arborcide.
Jeremy Ford (Season 13: California)
One of the many Jean-Georges Vongerichten protégés to compete on Top Chef, the bro-ish Ford brought a cockiness and a modernist touch to the season that spanned locations up and down the Golden State. He started out hot, winning two of the first four challenges, but cooled slightly down the stretch before righting the ship and defeating Charlie Palmer disciple Amar Santana in the finale. After his victory he started planning his own restaurant in Miami, leaving Jean-Georges’ Matador Room to open Stubborn Seed on South Beach, which was one of Robb Report’s best new restaurants a couple years ago. In late 2018 he first discussed plans for a more casual seafood restaurant in the Miami area that had a scheduled opening of 2020, and then 2021, but an updated timeline hasn’t been released during the pandemic. Earlier this year he partnered with the renovated PGA resort for his take on the modern steakhouse, the Butcher’s Club. Along with his kitchen projects, he’s co-hosting a cooking competition show with previous winner Kristen Kish.
Brooke Williamson (Season 14: Charleston)
After the bitter sting of defeat in Season 10, Williamson returned to the competition in 2016 to avenge her loss in the final. Her experience paid off as she was a strong competitor throughout and eventually notched the overall win. Back home in LA, she hasn’t tried to chase Michelin stars with a bunch of fine-dining spots. Instead, along with her husband, Nick Roberts, she focused on neighborhood spots like her bar and restaurant Hudson House, gastropub Tripel, Hawaiian-inspired restaurant Da Kikokiko and multi-part concept Playa Provisions. However, the pandemic has been brutal to Williamson’s business: She shuttered two of her restaurants, sold a third and is now holding on to Playa Provisions with a smaller staff.
Joe Flamm (Season 15: Colorado)
The lovable former executive chef at Michelin-starred Italian restaurant Spiaggia in Chicago defeated Le Bernardin alum Adrienne Cheatham in the final to become the 15th Top Chef. Flamm took a circuitous route to the Colorado season finale. He won the coveted “Restaurant Wars” challenge only to be bounced immediately after a sudden death Quickfire when he cooked subpar cauliflower risotto for the great David Kinch of Manresa. Through the cooking competition Last Chance Kitchen, where eliminated contestants compete in mini-challenges for the chance to reenter the competition, Flamm proved victorious, returning to take on the four remaining contestants. Though he stayed on at Spiaggia for a time, he had a foot out the door; Flamm told us after his win that he’d like to open his own Italian restaurant in the Windy City. He did just that with Rose Mary, a wood-fired Croatian-Italian restaurant that debuted in Chicago’s Fulton Market in 2021.
Kelsey Barnard Clark (Season 16: Kentucky)
The chef-owner of the restaurant and catering company KBC in Dothan, Alabama, made her mark on Top Chef‘s 16th season by cooking southern fare combined with the skills she learned cutting her teeth under Gavin Kaysen at Cafe Boulud in New York. She returned to her home state to open her own restaurant and came into the competition with her infant son, Monroe, cheering for her at home. In the finale held in Macau, she defeated chefs Eric Adjepong and Sara Bradley to take home the title. After winning, she returned home $125,000 richer to keep running KBC. During Covid-19, the catering arm of her company has taken a hit with people canceling big events. She’s discussed how PPP money helped keep her staff paid when takeout was the only option for KBC. She’s since reopened for in-person dining and in October 2020 welcomed her second child. And in 2021 she dropped her first cookbook, Southern Grit.
Melissa King (Season 17: Los Angeles)
“The term fusion has a bad wrap,” Melissa King said last season. “I really want to change that.” In the finale in Tuscany she made her point the best way possible, bringing together China and her surroundings in Italy for a four-course meal that wowed the judges with its skill and elegance. She defeated Bryan Voltaggio and Stephanie Cmar in the end to claim the title of Top Chef. However, the excitement had to have been tamped down a bit as her victory was revealed at a time when restaurants were crushed under the weight of the pandemic. Since winning she has been able to build up her collection of virtual cooking classes, and she also went into the Portland bubble to be one of the rotating judges.
Gabe Erales (Season 18: Portland, Ore.)
When he was at the helm of Comedor in Austin, the restaurant earned the spot as one of our Best New Restaurants in America in 2020. Erales’ modern take on Mexican—which includes him cooking at the Noma Mexico pop-up—showed him as someone in control of his technique and flavors. He was able to impress the judges throughout his season, with a creativity and consistency that earned him the title of Top Chef. However, Erales was dismissed from Comedor by owner Philip Speer in December 2020, not long after filming for season 18 had wrapped. “Effective immediately, Comedor executive chef Gabe Erales is no longer with the restaurant due to repeated violation of our policies and for behavior in conflict with our values,” Speer wrote in a statement announcing the termination. Erales later admitted that he retaliated against an employee at the restaurant whom he’d had an affair with, reducing her work hours after the relationship ended. Erales is currently working on another Austin restaurant, Bacalar, that has not set an opening date yet.
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