TV • PAGE 21
THE BULLETIN • MARCH 25 - 31, 2021
Portland, Ore., serves as backdrop
for Season 18 of ‘Top Chef’
BY GEORGE DICKIE
Tom Colicchio
In a normal season of “Top Chef,” Tom Colicchio is
out and about.
When he’s not filming the Bravo competition series,
he can be found checking out a host city’s restaurant
scene, attending local shows and sporting events and
generally enjoying everything the area has to offer in
the one-and-a-half to two-month location shoots.
But thanks to the pandemic, Season 18 in Portland,
Ore., was not a normal season. When he wasn’t
shooting, the New York-based chef had to quarantine
in his rented accommodations. And when he did
manage to get away on his own, it was to go fishing for
steelhead and trout with only his dog by his side.
The new season gets underway Thursday, April 1,
in the City of Roses, where 15 executive chefs and
restaurateurs will bring their unique skill sets and
diverse flavors to bear in challenges including feeding
hundreds of frontline workers, celebrating the city’s
Pan-African cuisine and crabbing on the Oregon coast
in tribute to state native and culinary icon James Beard.
Colicchio, who returns as head judge alongside Gail
Simmons and host Padma Lakshmi, says the season
went well and Portland served as a worthy backdrop
for the competition.
“It was great,” he says, “because we were in Portland
but also got out of Portland. We were on the coast
for a while. We were in wine country for a little bit
so we got around. So Portland, it’s a great place.
Unfortunately for us, for me, I couldn’t go out and
eat, (and) there’s some great restaurants. In fact, I have
friends who opened restaurants there and I couldn’t go
to any of them because I was kind of in lockdown.”
Shot in September and October of 2020, the series
took advantage of the region’s bountiful seafood
and produce, particularly fruit, to incorporate into
challenges and brought back past chefs including
Richard Blais, Carrie Baird, Kristen Kish, Edward Lee
and Brooke Williamson to serve on the elite judging
and dining panels.
Despite all the restrictions, Colicchio enjoyed the
season and is proud of the show’s production staff for
making everything work under difficult conditions.
“We didn’t even know if there was going to be a
season,” he says, “and we managed and got through
it. ... And having so many of the ex-contestants come
back was really interesting because they have such a
different perspective, having been on before, and so
their comments are really good. And that was a lot of
fun. It was good to see some of them again because
I typically don’t see them for the most part after the
season’s over. So it was really good to be able to see all
of the chefs.
“You know, and it’s been a tough year for restaurants
in general,” he continues, “and for the time there, it
had sort of taken my mind off the fact that restaurants
were all closed and struggling to get by.”