A very Canadian season of ‘Top Chef' has unexpected political undertones
All this must've made perfect sense last summer when the season was filmed. Yet here we are a seismic election and several tumultuous months later, watching 'Top Chef' accidentally provide a strong showcase for what makes our northern neighbor its own distinct entity.
'Top Chef: Destination Canada' premiered March 13 in a kitchen decked out in red maple leaf motifs and murals honoring indigenous Canadian art. There, a beaming Simmons and her judging compatriots (chefs Tom Colicchio and former chef de cuisine at Menton,
Two weeks in, it's clear the season's leaning hard into its locale. That first Quickfire allowed six ingredients to mimic Toronto's nickname of 'The 6ix' (so called for its six districts). The premiere's elimination challenge featured several powerhouse Canadian chefs offering up special ingredients native to five distinct regions of the country. (I didn't know what a 'crowberry' was before this episode, and now I must taste one ASAP.) In this pre-tariff world, there was no need to provide an asterisk on Canadian pride.
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The second episode doubled down even more. '
As a diehard 'Top Chef' fan, I've loved this season's passion and regional specificity. Still, it's undeniably hard to forget the political context it stumbled into through absolutely no fault of its own. 'Top Chef' didn't
mean
to become a goodwill ambassador. Nonetheless, its thoughtful attention to what makes Canada unique highlights the absurdity of American politicians forcing such an unnecessary rivalry.
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