Pack Your Knives

Kevin and Tom are giddy at the much-anticipated arrival of the Top Chef Season 19 champion, Buddha Lo! They discuss Top Chef reality vs. fiction, where his performance ranks all-time and how to properly cook halibut. Plus, his recent interaction with TMZ at LAX, his Jurassic alligator and how he studied Top Chef. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Another season of Top Chef is in the books! Tom and Kevin recap the season and the final episode with the help of beloved cheftestant Sara Welch. We discuss her Jamaican roots, her bff Buddha, her restaurant Marrow in Detroit and the basics of churning butter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the show hits the road to Tucson, Kevin and Tom marvel at the city’s culinary offerings and welcome PYK favorite Chef Maria Mazon back to the Top Chef stage. A strong chef goes home, but in Kevin’s eyes, the playing field is more level than it seems. Who will be crowned Top Chef next week? Kevin and Tom call their shots as we arrive at the finale.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 In this week's episode, Tom hops on a boat and guides Kevin on the joys of fishing. With the competition whittles itself down to the final four cheftestants, we bid farewell to a poor time-management victim. Tom and Kevin rearrange their power rankings as we head into the surprise domestic location of the finale. And lastly, we run through some VRBO submissions from listeners and Kevin recaps some of his favorite restaurants on his recent road trip.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With a thrilling Last Chance Kitchen finale in the books, Kevin and Tom dive headfirst into the Galveston episode and emerge with a boatful of praise. We welcome back a cheftestant and revisit our chef vs. the field prop with some new information. Finally, Tom, inspired by the show, lets Kevin indulge in the ultimate VRBO parlor game: if you could go on vacation anywhere in the world for $10,000, where would you go? We ask our listeners to send their scouting report to our socials @PackKnives on Twitter and @PackYourKnives on Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The cheftestants go to space (in theory) and the Earth-y dishes raised lots of questions from Tom and Kevin. We discuss a shaky performance from an otherwise sturdy cheftestant and debate whether we'd take one chef over the field. Also: a deep-dive into crumby foods. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of Pack Your Knives, Kevin and Tom recap a heartwarming episode where the judges taste the rainbow and do some soul searching. Kevin reveals a personal story of his classroom etiquette and his favorite restaurants on his recent travels while Tom struggles with the quirky scoring. Finally, Producer Mayes surfaces a Top Chef Reddit post that sparks serious domestic debate from the PYK panel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Podcast discusses Restaurant Wars with insights from Hershy Ash, highlighting team dynamics, strategy, and culinary creativity. They explore experiential retail, missed dining opportunities, and analyze contestant performances while diving into conspiracy theories and making predictions for the winner of Top Chef.

We dig into this week's episode with our PYK pal Joe Flamm, winner of Top Chef Colorado and guest judge of the Jurassic World challenge. Flamm shares some amazing behind the scenes details from his experience on Top Chef Houston and some old callbacks to Season 15. We also discuss best movie scenes involving food and get the goods on the actual winning individual of the challenge. We get Kevin's lowdown on Nigerian cuisine, tier-out the remaining cheftestants and get ready for Restaurant Wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After Top Chef welcomes back an eliminated contestant from Last Chance Kitchen, Kevin and Tom dive into Episode 6's drama -- or lack thereof. The competition show brings in trailblazing women to honor trailblazing women and the chefs deliver satisfactory meals, but hardly anything transcendent. With the help of producer Anthony Mayes, Tom and Kevin try to untangle their feelings about this season of their beloved Top Chef and wonder if its recent softness is a symptom of a broader cultural shift. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices