Behind the Scenes of ‘High Chef’ Season 22’s Restaurant Wars

The next incorporates spoilers for Episode 8, “Restaurant Wars” of High Chef: Vacation spot Canada.

I’m consuming dinner inside a warehouse in Toronto tonight, admittedly a bizarre place to go for a meal. On the heart of an expansive white room, I face a pink wall and a inexperienced wall, behind every a distinct restaurant. Or extra appropriately, I ought to say “restaurant”: To get right here, I needed to stroll down an extended darkish hallway and navigate round a control-center of screens, every with a employee in entrance of it. With concentrated faces, they watch meals from all completely different angles whereas timers tick down. In the intervening time I enter, there are 2 hours and 40 minutes till service ends, and with it, these “eating places.”

After 22 seasons of watching Bravo’s High chefI’m fulfilling my superfan dream: I’m peeking behind the quickly erected partitions as a diner at Restaurant Wars. The long-lasting midseason problem is why I patiently excuse the goofy challenges fueled by heavyhanded product placement, like a latest one through which contestants fulfill a End dish detergent sponsorship by making dishes impressed by crusty meals stains.

I really like Restaurant Wars as a result of it feels just like the present’s fairest check of ability. The episode forces groups of chef contestants to conceptualize and assemble a restaurant in 24 hours — then truly serve the eating public. It compels cooks who’ve been fending for themselves to collaborate, with the potential for clashing egos. Crucially, it is usually the problem that almost all carefully maps onto the contestants’ day-to-day jobs. A End-themed problem is fantasy dreamed up in a gross sales assembly; Restaurant Wars is the closest factor to actual life.

David Moir/Bravo

The parameters of the problem — the variety of required menu choices, the designation of roles, and so on. — change relying on the season, and closely affect how the week performs out. On this episode, contestants should work in two groups to create three-course menus with two choices per course. They need to additionally assign the manager chef, entrance of home lead, and line cooks.

However as a Restaurant Wars diner eagerly awaiting both a scrumptious meal or a disastrous one, I do know nothing in regards to the parameters of this problem, nor any of the cooks on this season. With out the acquainted narrative constructs of a High chef episode to information me, all I’ve to go on is the meals and the service. In that means, it’s like an actual restaurant. At a restaurant, although, I by no means actually know what went on within the kitchen. Whereas I go away Toronto with this real-life expertise (thanks NBC Common and Vacation spot Canada!), it’s months later, solely after the episode has aired that I perceive what actually occurred: when I’ve the weird alternative to let actuality TV reshape my understanding of actuality.

Being a Restaurant Wars diner entails a variety of ready. After a tour of the set, I — and the remainder of the media guests, together with Eater’s editor-in-chief Stephanie Wu — am corralled to a tent within the parking zone. Some diners know people who find themselves engaged on the manufacturing, others are members of the native restaurant scene. Orange Yeti coolers sit predictably full of blue bottles of Saratoga, High chef’s present water sponsor.

After half-hour, at 5:15 p.m., we’re known as again to dine with round 16 different individuals. Half of the media contingent will likely be going to Nonna Pipón (a “granny stylish” Mexican Italian idea; the pink wall), the opposite half to Phlora + Phauna (a “vegetable-forward” idea; the inexperienced wall). My group of 4 will likely be in Phlora + Phauna concurrently the judges: Kristen Kish, Gail Simmons, Tom Colicchio, former High chef contestant Nina Compton, and Janet Zuccarini, the Toronto restaurateur. I weigh the professionals and cons of this. The staff may very well be reserving their finest efforts for this service — or they might focus an excessive amount of on the judges’ desk, to the detriment of each different diner. I’ve seen the latter destiny befall Restaurant Wars groups earlier than.

Proper off the bat, I really feel each awkward and like I’m getting precisely what I got here right here for as I expertise a Restaurant Wars cliche in actual time: The particular person on the host stand can’t discover our reservation and apologizes for the wait. We haven’t been given a set reservation time, and I start to fret. Restaurant Wars might be depressing. The cooks butt heads, the kitchen devolves into chaos, the service staff bears the brunt of their dangerous temper, and the diners draw the quick straw. I’m wondering how sincere I ought to be if the digital camera involves me as a speaking head: Certainly I received’t make it on TV if I say one thing milquetoast, however do I actually need to be on Bravo bashing service delays? We’re seated at 5:35 p.m. One other 10 minutes later, water.

When drinks are supplied, I resolve Prosecco sounds good. It turns into clear that it’s not easy crusing for staff Phlora + Phauna, a minimum of not within the entrance of home. The flushed server tells us that they’ve run out of Prosecco. “Sorry, they preserve altering the script,” this server mumbles. After they stroll away, a second server comes over. This server takes a deep breath, however then realizes their redundancy. “Somebody has greeted you already,” they are saying. We later discover that different tables have rosé, which wasn’t supplied to us. VIPs or one other miscommunication?

For all Restaurant Wars’ comforting repetitivenessthe episode as I watched it eight months later has one large surprising narrative arc. Throughout prep the day earlier than, contestant Tristen Epps, thought of a front-runner with three problem wins, learns that his father has had a stroke and is in a coma; by the next morning, he learns that his father has died. In honor of his father’s assist for his culinary aspirations, Epps decides to proceed with the competitors. His teammates all resolve to succeed with the intention to make Epps’s sacrifice worthwhile. Epps, in a present of each culinary chops and resilience, leads the kitchen anyway, having taken on the function of government chef.

Phlora + Phauna, regardless of the aforementioned service hiccups, triumphs: The judges are legitimately impressed with the cohesion and execution of the menu. Each chef gave them a dish they favored. The judges, who acknowledge Epps’s loss throughout Judges’ Desk, filmed the subsequent day, supply Epps phrases of encouragement. “He’s happy with you proper now,” Compton says. The staff members stand collectively in solidarity, with comforting pats on Epps’s shoulder.

Bravo

Bravo

Sitting on the Phlora + Phauna desk, although, I might not have predicted this end result. What else is there to do whereas ready however to anticipate the worst? So typically the present cuts from hungry diners to pictures of the frantic kitchen, and I think about that may be taking place right here. As we await our meals, rising hungrier, we watch the cameras circling the food-filled judges’ desk. I catch Kish taking a giant look across the eating room. Is she merely charmed by the slick-haired man who’s commanding the entrance of home, or have the judges suspected that one thing’s off and are trying across the room for affirmation? I learn drama into this, simply as High chef has taught me.

Watching the episode again, it’s each and extra. The judges discover the slick-haired chef, Massimo Piedimonte of Montreal, slightly a lot, his service too informal for the idea and considerably uneven. After all our server was confused in regards to the Prosecco: Piedimonte had supplied glasses to the judges as quickly as they’d walked in. “However I seen the group in entrance of us didn’t get that contact,” Colicchio says with a smirk.

By 6 p.m., meals begins to hit all of the tables, all a minimum of one course behind the judges. For the primary course, the collard greens consommé potlikker that’s served with smoked trout is poured tableside. As a lot as our desk appreciates the showy contact, the broth’s temperature is complicated: not sizzling, but in addition not chilly sufficient to depend as chilled. The judges make no point out of this; they discover the consommé “gorgeous.” The mushroom escovitch with Canadian bay scallop is scrumptious; the judges commend its subtlety. For the second course, the potato, celery root, and truffle pithivier isn’t significantly memorable. Colicchio shrugs that it’s “tasty.” The confit butternut squash with XO sauce and grilled pork is a stand-out, although the squash vastly outshines the pork. Zuccarini calls it the most effective squash she’s ever had. For dessert, there’s a corn crémeux with grilled blueberries and blueberry tuile, and a chocolate custard with parsnip puree and sherry vinegar; it’s simply our favourite course. The judges conclude that the whole meal was executed effectively.

There’s clearly a spot between our expertise of the meals and the judges’. The most effective dishes, just like the squash and the desserts, have been good, however I wouldn’t name them superb: I’ve had higher at most eating places so certainly the judges have, too. A few of it needed to be the truth that the judges’ desk obtained extra consideration than the remainder of the diners. However whereas I’d beforehand — and now, I understand naively — assumed that the judges have been providing earnest assessments, after this expertise, I understand that they may have been hamming it up as a lot as Piedimonte throughout dinner. For tv, it’s totally on the judges to convey the standard of the meals for diners who won’t ever eat it — not simply by way of phrases but in addition facial reactions. The dial on “reward” needs to be turned as much as show to viewers that one thing was good. There’s seemingly some stage of exaggeration to assist inform the story.

By 6:50 p.m., remark playing cards hit the desk. We all know nothing about how these will issue into judging, if in any respect. Hoping to not tank anybody’s probabilities, our desk mentions solely that we actually cherished the desserts. And whereas I resolve that the meals tasted compelling, I don’t have sufficient context to know whether or not it may very well be thought of a definitive win. Later, we debrief with the Nonna Pipón crew and be taught they’ve come to an analogous conclusion.

I acknowledge now that I used to be bringing actual restaurant expectations to the pretend restaurant. In reality, everybody on the manufacturing finish realizes that Restaurant Wars is its personal bizarre world. “We’re not judging (that collard inexperienced dish) towards each collard greens I’ve had in my life,” Colicchio tells me in an interview after taking pictures has ended. “I’m judging towards the opposite staff. It’s all on a scale.” Solely when the competitors is basically shut do they get to trivia.

Whereas watching the episode, I understand that I’d filtered my expertise by way of the distorting lens of actuality TV. I assumed a chaotic kitchen, an unclear chief. To an extent that was true, however in the end, I anticipated interpersonal drama, as a result of battle is the Bravo means. Actual life is nowhere close to as heightened. The meals is nice, but it surely’s not essentially memorable outdoors of the expertise. Persons are examined by battle, however they’re not all colluding towards one another. If something, the go to solidifies to me that Restaurant Wars is a real check of ability: It’s an unglamorous expertise for all events concerned.

I’d come to Restaurant Wars to sq. actuality and actuality TV, understanding full effectively that typically understanding an excessive amount of about one thing I really like solely makes me find it irresistible much less. I’ve written about reveals then stopped watching them totally, all of the magic gone. On this case, although, I wanted the TV magic to assist me reshape my perspective. The fact was extra humanizing than my creativeness. “Don’t ever really feel like you must be on,” Kish tells Epps throughout Judges’ Desk. “That is actual life too.” What’s going to make this Restaurant Wars memorable — particularly in comparison with the ocean of 20+ related episodes on this present’s lifetime — wasn’t the meals, however the narrative arc. It was the 4 individuals who’d stepped up and supported one another — no TV egos, simply precise empathy. And okay, one singular squash I’ll be fascinated about for a very long time.