Today In TV History

Today in TV History: ‘Top Chef’ Went Brother vs. Brother in Vegas

Where to Stream:

Top Chef



PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: Top Chef, “Sin City Vice” (Season 6, Episode 1). [Stream on Hulu.]

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: As with many (most, even) reality competition shows, there’s a divide between the good (usually early) seasons and the bad (usually late) seasons. You generally have to be as long-running and resilient as Survivor to be able to go through the kinds of ebbs and flows where good and bad seasons mix and mingle in a show’s timeline. For Top Chef, it’s generally considered that the seasons that existed before the All-Star season (seasons 1-7) were superior. Which would make the Las Vegas-set sixth season one of the last of the good ones.

So does that make it a great season? Eh. One of the problems with Top Chef as it’s gone along is that it stuffs its seasons with so many chefs, it’s nearly impossible to form any attachment to anyone who leaves in the first six episodes (if not more). But the Vegas season had a few major things going for it. One was chef Jennifer Carroll, who was that rare Top Chef commodity: the badass female chef who didn’t get axed too early. The show had becomes notoriously boys-clubby, especially when it came to the winners, and it looked for a while like Jen might be able to pull it off.

But, no, the Vegas season ultimately came down to a brother-versus-brother showdown that was all too dramatic to pass up. The Votlaggio brothers were so perfectly night-and-day that you might have cast them in a lab. Bryan was the straight-laced, clean-shaven, technically proficient one; Michael had stubble and a bandana and a bad attitude and tattoos and a leather jacket and a sneer and rode into the kitchen on a motorcycle and roasted his eggplant with a flamethrower and wasn’t polite to moms and littered and called Tom Colicchio “cue ball” and kissed Padma Lakshmi on the lips when he ended up winning the season. It was a wild time for everyone.

In the end, Michael won, because on reality TV, quiet precision is never as desirable as wild watchability. Let that be a lesson for all future contestants. Tattoos. Hats. Rudeness.

[You can stream Top Chef season 6 on Hulu.]