Every season of Top Chef ranked, from the series' debut in San Francisco to the many All-Stars editions

21. Top Chef: Los Angeles (season 2)

One word defines Top Chef's second season: "Marcel." And, sure, the cocky 26-year-old purveyor of foams is annoying, but his fellow cheftestants despise him to such a degree that it's truly uncomfortable to watch. It's telling that the moment from this season that everyone remembers isn't related to food, but rather a prank in which a bunch of chefs try to pin Marcel down and shave his head.

Bravo's Andy Cohen later revealed that the network opted out of shooting a reunion due to the negative reaction from viewers. "In the big picture 'listening to viewers' category, we are constantly striving to find the balance between the drama and the cooking, and many of you felt we didn’t hit it right this season," he said.

20. Top Chef: San Francisco (season 1)

Top Chef's debut season isn't bad by any means, but there's a lot the producers (and hosts) still needed to figure out. The cheftestants are a wildly mismatched motley crew in terms of skill, and some of the challenges are deeply awkward. (One, in which they're asked to cook a "sexy dessert" for a fetish party at a San Francisco sex boutique, is decidedly unappetizing.) Worst of all, Lakshmi had yet to host, so Colicchio is joined by Katie Joel, who does fine but, you know, isn't Padma.

It's worth noting that this season did give us Stephen, an ostensible villain, comical snob, and future All-Star who clearly would rather have been in a sommelier competition. If nothing else, watch this season for him.

19. Top Chef: Boston (season 12)

No shade to Boston, but this season only springs to life once the chefs head to Mexico's San Miguel de Allende for the finale. There, the final four — Mei, Gregory, Doug, and Melissa — shine in ways they simply couldn't in the gimmick-heavy challenges stateside. Cook a Thanksgiving feast using only ingredients and tools available during the First Thanksgiving? Get real.

18. Top Chef: Texas (season 9)

Top Chef chased its best season — the first All-Stars — with one of its worst. Since "everything is bigger in Texas," the producers stuffed the Lone Star State's season with tons of unnecessary twists. For example, it started with 29 chefs instead of 16, forcing the judges to whittle the group down to the customary 16 during a qualifying round spread across two episodes. Overlong and unnecessary.

But that's nothing compared to the final batch of episodes, which transported the remaining chefs to British Columbia and forced them to partake in a series of silly games — like skiing a cross-country course and shooting targets — to get ingredients. No amount of editing can mask how annoyed the chefs are. They came here to cook, not compete in a biathlon!

17. Top Chef: Wisconsin (season 21)

Look, we love Wisconsin, but it's simply not going to offer the same culinary thrills as Las Vegas, New York City, or Chicago. This is a perfectly fine season best remembered for brand-new cohost Kish, who proves herself a worthy successor to Lakshmi.

16. Top Chef: Houston (season 19)

In 2022, Top Chef returned to Texas — Houston, specifically — for a serviceable season utterly dominated by Australian chef Buddha, who would also go on to dominate World All-Stars. The chefs are talented, but this season is light on personality and drama, with challenges that mostly lack inspiration.

15. Top Chef: California (season 13)

This one could've been good. The cheftestants had impressive pedigrees, and the promise of a season-long journey across the breadth of California was exciting.

But there's something flat about this season, perhaps due to the fussiness of the chefs, many of whom come from hyper-technical backgrounds. This is the kind of season where a chef is scolded for making too many crudo dishes — and where another literally has the tweezers plucked from his chef's coat during service. The food is impressive, but rarely does it actually look delicious.

14. Top Chef: Miami (season 3)

Top Chef: Miami is fine, though mostly unremarkable. Yeah, it's funny when Howie uses a random detail about Ecuadorian line cooks from Kitchen Confidential to push against Anthony Bourdain's critique of his dish, but the food itself mostly fails to inspire. Many of its best chefs — Casey, Tre, CJ — would make more of an impact in later seasons.

13. Top Chef: D.C. (season 7)

Top Chef: D.C. is a weird season. The producers seem overwhelmed by the setting, organizing challenges that include cooking for the director of the CIA and designing astronaut food that can be eaten in zero gravity. Many of the challenges become so encumbered by limitations that the food itself suffers.

The chefs are lacking, too. There are a few standouts — Tiffany is a delight, while Angelo slowly emerges as one of the franchise's true oddballs — but the feuds in this season have an ugly undercurrent. The "pea puree" debacle between Ed and Alex gets a lot nastier than it needs to be.

The Singapore-set finale is a standout, though, with ample drama stirred up after frontrunner Angelo gets food poisoning.

12. Top Chef: Charleston (season 14)

Here's the thing about Charleston: It pits eight Top Chef newbies against eight Top Chef veterans who made it deep into their respective seasons, including their finales. This... was frustrating.

Why? Because there are advantages to knowing how the competition works, the time management involved, and the temperaments of the judges. The twist put the newbies at a distinct disadvantage; it wasn't much of a surprise that the final four consisted solely of vets. Why they didn't just save these folks for a proper All-Stars season is baffling.

That said, this season's challenges are playful, difficult, and historical to the region in fascinating ways. "Trash fish," Gullah cuisine, whole-hog barbecue — it's banger after banger. Shooting a challenge at a former plantation, though? Not the best choice.

11. Top Chef: Seattle (season 10)

There's lots to like in Top Chef: Seattle — an evocative setting, novel challenges, the frustrating enigma that is John Tesar — but its attempts to freshen up the franchise mostly fall flat. After a premiere that unnecessarily thins the herd with a qualifying round, the producers send in three past contestants — season 2's Josie, season 3's CJ, and season 5's Stefan — in episode 2 for no reason.

Their arrival kills the remaining chefs' morale, and underwhelming dishes dominate the season's middle stretch. In one episode, Colicchio even enters the stew room and tells them how disappointed he is.

Kristen Kish, who eventually becomes a host in season 21, is a worthy victor, but her win is overshadowed by a confusing, anti-climactic, Iron Chef-style live finale.

10. Top Chef: New Orleans (season 11)

Ah, Top Chef: New Orleans — the season with a winner so hated that angry fans forced Colicchio to release the judges' scores on Twitter to prove it was legit.

Yeah, Nicholas sucks, but this season is better than its finale might suggest. Nina, Shirley, Carlos, and Stephanie all bring compelling stories (and eye-popping food) to the table, and guest judges like Kermit Ruffins, Dr. John, Leah Chase, and Roy Choi pop with eccentricities you don't often see on the show. Also a delight? New Orleans' own Emeril Lagasse as one of the season's main judges.

9. Top Chef: Portland (season 18)

Top Chef: Portland was shot during COVID, and instead of trying to mask that fact, the hosts and producers go to great lengths to show all the ways they were filming with safety in mind.

While appreciated, it inevitably strips the competition of a bit of its magic. What helps is the assembled cheftestants, a wildly talented bunch that each have a unique and coherent style with a personal touch. Gabe continually made magic out of his various moles, while Dawn worked to weave African influences into her comfort food. And then there's Shota, whose Japanese cuisine stunned with its deceptively simple foundations.

8. Top Chef: New York (season 5)

Top Chef: New York is perhaps most famous for being the only season where two chefs kissed. It deserves better, though, given that its cheftestants are among the most entertaining in the franchise. Standouts include acid-tongued Stefan, daffy Italian Fabio, hunky Floridian Jeff, and motor-mouthed Carla, who would go on to cohost ABC's The Chew.

Yeah, the winner is a bummer — Stefan was robbed — but the journey getting there is a riot. Remember, it's Top Chef, not Top Scallops.

7. Top Chef: World All-Stars (season 20)

Top Chef: World All-Stars pairs memorable chefs from the franchise's international counterparts in France, Spain, Poland, and beyond with a handful of faces U.S. fans know and love, like Houston's Buddha, California's Amar, and Kentucky's Sara. The result is a rich, rewarding season that showcases cooking styles and techniques from across the globe. Even cooler? It was shot in London, making it the first season of Top Chef's flagship to be filmed entirely overseas.

There's minimal drama here — these people are professionals — but plenty of humor, wit, and ingenuity both on the plate and off. I'm still thinking of the soup Charbel made with nothing but onions and chicken jus. Like, how do you make me want that?

6. Top Chef: Kentucky (season 16)

Top Chef: Kentucky isn't a starry season. Aside from Eric Ripert and Emeril Lagasse, the guest judges aren't exactly household names. The cheftestants, meanwhile, traveled not from New York City or Los Angeles, but towns like St. Paul, Minn., Paducah, Ky., and Dothan, Ala. This isn't the Top Chef of yore, where tweezers and microgreens were a necessity. This is a season of humble and rustic food from chefs who know French techniques but still want to cook the food they grew up eating.

To be fair, Top Chef always valued this kind of cooking — see: Kevin's success on Las Vegas — but here, the franchise really began to shine a spotlight on a more diverse range of styles. Sara, for example, weaves Appalachian and Jewish ingredients and techniques into her food. And Eric, a Bronx-born chef born to Ghanian immigrants, sought to “tell the story of the transatlantic slave trade and how those flavors migrated to the South” for his finale dish.

Speaking of the finale, its Macau-set climax makes for one of the franchise's most unique and fascinating final batch of episodes.

5. Top Chef: Colorado (season 15)

Top Chef: Colorado is a standout of the franchise's back half, a warm and fuzzy season with memorable chefs — RIP Fatima — that's blissfully straightforward.

See, after the first All-Stars, the folks cooking up Top Chef seemed to worry that the show was growing stale. As such, they produced several outings beset by gimmicks and gotchas (see the previous entries) that ultimately distracted us from what made the show great in the first place — talented people with big personalities cooking delicious food.

So, yeah, Colorado and its snowy, cozy milieu felt like a return to form, with a focus on technique and ingredients over games and gimmickry. The finale, meanwhile, asked the chefs to do nothing but cook the "best four-course progressive meal of their lives." Hell yeah. That's what it's about!

4. Top Chef: All-Stars L.A. (season 17)

In 21 seasons, we've only had three All-Stars editions — perhaps because the producers would not stop casting veteran chefs following the first All-Stars. But they were all worth the wait, even if L.A. doesn't quite live up to its predecessor.

What's missing? To be honest, it's the drama. There's a little sprinkled throughout, but these all-stars are by and large gracious and amiable. While we don't want our Top Chef seasons overrun with Spikes and Marcels, a little bit of messiness can go a long way in cranking up the entertainment value.

But All-Stars L.A. still brims with memorable moments, including Stephanie's third-time's-the-charm dominance, Jennifer's redemption tour, and the battle of Kevin and Gregory's restaurant concepts.

3. Top Chef: Chicago (season 4)

Top Chef: Chicago gave us some of the most ubiquitous figures in the culinary TV landscape. Richard Blais, Antonia Lofaso, Stephanie Izard, Dale Talde, and Spike Mendelsohn all went on to great success as restauranteurs and TV personalities, and it's clear why after watching Top Chef: Chicago. In addition to being clever and trailblazing cooks — Blais did a lot to spread "molecular gastronomy" awareness — they also exuded the passion, drive, stubbornness, and vulnerability that makes for a great cheftestant.

If there's something that's been more or less diminished in later seasons, it's the personality clashes that inevitably arise both in and out of the kitchen. While your mileage may vary when it comes to the d-r-a-m-a, it's hard to argue with some of the blowouts on this season, some of which still make the Top Chef highlight reels. Dale, we're looking at you.

2. Top Chef: Las Vegas (season 6)

While there was no shortage of talent in previous seasons, Top Chef: Las Vegas feels like an escalation in terms of the caliber of the competing chefs. Truly, the final four in this season — Kevin, Jennifer, and the Voltaggio brothers — are among the best the show has ever seen.

But early on, heavy hitters can make for a somewhat unbalanced competition. One cheftestant, for example, betrays himself by likening his partnership with Michael Voltaggio to "washing Picasso's paintbrushes," never a smart move in a competition. Ultimately, though, the finesse and playfulness of the frontrunners serve to elevate the dishes of their competitors, making nearly every challenge a delicious one.

Vegas has long been a culinary playground, and the glitzy setting scores the series some of its most high-profile judges, including Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller, and legendary French innovator Joël Robuchon. "I'm nervous to even eat with the man," Colicchio said of the latter.

1. Top Chef: All-Stars (season 8)

Top Chef's first All-Stars outing, which gathers nearly every memorable chef from the show's first seven seasons, has everything that makes the franchise great.

Not only does the cast offer a delectable blend of talent (Blais, Antonia), drama (Marcel, Jamie), humor (Fabio, Carla), weirdness (Angelo, Stephen) and intensity (Jennifer, Dale T.), but it consistently subverts expectations, with fan favorites flaming out and dark horses dominating. In "Give Me Your Huddled Masses," one of the franchise's best episodes, two warring cheftestants even discover they're distantly related.

Furthermore, the New York City setting allows for one of the series' most impressive array of guest judges, from Anthony Bourdain, Wolfgang Puck, and Ming Tsai to Lidia Bastianich, Michelle Bernstein, and even actress Lorraine Bracco. Top to bottom, it's a rich, hearty stew of competition, ingenuity, and personality.