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carlylevitz.bsky.social
Not sure where to eat? Check out this comprehensive list of #TopChef -affiliated #restaurants! (And as an added bonus, if you find an error or want to add a new record, you can do that too!)
#bravotopchef #food #foodie #packyourknives #eatlocal #restaurant
www.packyourknives.com/p/comprehens...
Comprehensive list of Top Chef restaurants
We need your help!
www.packyourknives.com
August 28, 2025 at 12:29 AM
carlylevitz.bsky.social
Are we about to lose a front runner on #topchef tonight?

#bravotv #bravotopchef #topchefdestinationcanada #dataviz #packyourknives #topchefanalytics #foodtv #foodtvdata #foodie #restaurantwars

open.substack.com/pub/packyour...
Are we about to lose a front-runner?
Comparing stats right before restaurant wars makes me worried!
open.substack.com
May 1, 2025 at 10:38 PM
carlylevitz.bsky.social
Is Top Chef a young person's game?
#topchef #topchefanalytics #bravotopchef #stats #dataviz #packyourknives #bravotv
@bravotvshows.bsky.social @bravotopchef.bsky.social
www.packyourknives.com/p/is-top-che...
Is Top Chef a young person's game?
Diving into the age trends of Top Chef (and the hidden greatness of Carla Hall).
www.packyourknives.com
April 26, 2025 at 5:18 PM
carlylevitz.bsky.social
How has representation on #topchef changed over time?

#bravotv #bravotopchef #stats #dataviz #packyourknives @bravotvshows.bsky.social @bravotopchef.bsky.social

open.substack.com/pub/packyour...
Increased regional representation on Top Chef
Early seasons had large proportions of chefs from the Northeast and the West - and that’s changed over time.
open.substack.com
April 17, 2025 at 2:26 AM
carlylevitz.bsky.social
Tom and I chatted about the first episode of #TopChef! New episode tomorrow night :)
@bravotopchef.bsky.social @bravotvshows.bsky.social
#topchefstats #topchefanalytics #foodtvdata #dataviz #datastorytelling #packyourknives

www.packyourknives.com/p/premium-ep...
Premium Ep 1: Carly Levitz Data Dive
PYK contributor Carly Levitz breaks down the season premiere
www.packyourknives.com
March 20, 2025 at 12:57 AM
carlylevitz.bsky.social
Top Chef Legacy: Cookbooks and memoirs from Top Chef contestants

#TopChef #DataViz #PackYourKnives #Cookbooks #Homecooking #Homecook #Cooking #TopChefStats #TopChefAnalytics #Cooksky #Foodsky #food #foodie
@bravotvshows.bsky.social @bravotopchef.bsky.social
www.packyourknives.com/p/top-chef-l...
Top Chef Legacy: Cookbooks and memoirs from Top Chef contestants
Cheftestants’ legacy can live on in their written works.
www.packyourknives.com
March 30, 2025 at 6:03 PM
carlylevitz.bsky.social
#TopChef standings heading into tonight's episode! #bravotv #dataviz #packyourknives #destinationcanada #rankings #standings #foodtv #foodtvdata #realitytv #cookingcompetition #analytics

open.substack.com/pub/packyour...
Top Chef: Destination Canada standings
Updated each week starting for episode 8
open.substack.com
May 8, 2025 at 7:37 PM
carlylevitz.bsky.social
Will there be a chance for Tristen or the other chefs to crack the top 10 earners?
#topchef #topchefanalytics #dataviz #infographic #packyourknives #realitytv #bravotopchef
@bravotvshows.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/packyour...
It's not all about the money...
But money sure doesn't hurt!
open.substack.com
May 29, 2025 at 10:15 PM
carlylevitz.bsky.social
Last week's #TopChef ep showed the chefs making risotto. I've got a post on the risotto curse on #PackYourKnives. Here's some fun trivia before you head to packyourknives.com!
@bravotopchef.bsky.social @bravotvshows.bsky.social
#bravotopchef #risotto #realitytv #foodtv #dataviz #datavisualization
What do these top chefs have in common? (background is risotto). Pictures of five chefs: Lee Anne Wong, Howie Kleinberg, Tre Wilcox, Manny Barella, and Bailey Sullivan. They made risotto multiple times on Top Chef (background is risotto). Here's how they did: Lee Anne Wong Season 1: Low (for a risotto paella cake), Eliminated. Howie Kleinberg Season 3: Low, Safe. Tre Wilcox Season 3: Win, Safe (risotto cake). Tre Wilcox Season 8: Eliminated. Manny Barella Season 21: Safe (esquites risotto), Low. Bailey Sullivan Season 22: Safe, Safe. Read (for free!) the full details of the risotto curse on packyourknives.com (or link in bio).
June 9, 2025 at 4:01 PM
carlylevitz.bsky.social
Which #TopChef winner was most successful? Here's a sneak peak at 4 chefs - which belongs with which data?
#bravotopchef #topchefstats #topchefanalytics #foodtvdata #dataviz #datastorytelling #cookingcompetition #realitytvdata #packyourknives
@bravotopchef.bsky.social @bravotvshows.bsky.social
Match the winner with their stats. Pictures of four winners of Top Chef: Melissa King, Buddha Lo, Paul Qui, and Brooke Williamson. Four rows of data, with columns for overall win rate, elimination win rate, individual elimination win rate, and quickfire win rate. Row a: 41.7%, 50%, 44.4%, 30%. Row B: 40.7%, 60%, 77.8%, 16.7%. Row C: 37.5%, 31.3%, 30%, 50%. Row D: 37.5%, 35.7%, 25%, 40%. See if you're right! Link in bio. https://www.packyourknives.com/p/which-top-chef-winner-was-most-successful
March 11, 2025 at 3:33 PM
carlylevitz.bsky.social
Tonight's episode of #topchef brings back the #lastchancekitchen winner. I wonder how they'll do??
#packyourknives #bravotopchef #realitytv #cookingcompetiton #dataviz #dataanalysis @bravotvshows.bsky.social
Outcome rates are compared to what would be expected given the number of chefs in the competition for those specific elimination challenges (the first episode back from LCK). A bar chart shows the outcome rates, with a vertical line showing what would be expected. 25% of LCK winners won the first elimination challenge back (12.2% expected), 25% were at the top, 29.2% were in the middle, 12.5% were at the bottom, and 8.3% were eliminated (12.2% expected). LCK = Last chance Kitchen. Pack Your Knives logo. Methods. Starting in Top Chef Season 9, LCK (Last Chance Kitchen) offered a second chance for eliminated chefs to earn their way back into the main competition. I analyzed the outcomes of the quickfire and elimination challenges in the episode in which the LCK winner first returned. This covers 15 seasons, 22 episodes, and 24 chefs. In these specific episodes, there were a total of 180 chefs competing in the elimination challenges. Thus, 6 LCK winners winning the elimination challenge is a rate of 6/24 = 25%. An assumption I am making about the elimination challenge is that they had just one winner. If that were the case, then it would be expected to have 22 winners out of 22 elimination challenges out of the 180 chefs competing, for a win rate of 22/180 = 12.2%. That is what is shown on the first slide. If we were to assume that the challenges that had more than 8 chefs competing (9 episodes of the 22) were challenges with three chefs winning, the numerator would become 40, for a rate of 22.2%. This is still less than the win rate seen by LCK winners, and thus, why I say that LCK winners have done better than would be expected. Pack Your Knives logo
May 5, 2026 at 12:49 AM
carlylevitz.bsky.social
These were the rankings heading into the double elimination of this week's #TopChef episode. Would you rank the chefs differently? What point system do you use in your fantasy league?
#bravotopchef #bravotv #topchefstats #stats #rankings #topchefdestinationcanada #packyourknives #dataviz #cooking
Infographic of the rankings of Top Chef contestants four elimination challenges and four quickfires into Season 22. From 1st to 12th: Katianna, Shuai, Tristen, Vinny, Corwin, Cesar, Lana, Kat, Massimo and Paula (tied), Henry, and Bailey. How were the most recent winners ranked at this stage of their seasons? Buddha in Season 19 was ranked 3rd and in Season 20 was ranked 2nd; Danny in Season 21 was ranked 5th. Don't miss out: packyourknives.com has more! Who was ranked 1st in past seasons, four quickfires and four eliminations in? How was the winner of S18 doing? How do the scores of season 22 compare to past seasons? Methodology on next page. Methodology: Chefs receive points based on their performance in challenges. To compare between seasons, the scores are calculated keeping constant the number of quickfire and the number of elimination challenges. In this case, four of each. Elimination win = 7 pts Quickfire win = 4 pts Elimination high = 3 pts Quickfire high = 2 pts Quickfire low = -2 pts Elimination low = -3 pts Elimination out = -7 pts. Sudden Death Quickfires & Quickfire Eliminations are considered Elimination challenges. Qualifying challenges and Last Chance Kitchen challenges are not included. The points are the same for individual as team challenges.
April 12, 2025 at 4:07 PM
carlylevitz.bsky.social
Spoiler alert for #TopChef #RestaurantWars winner. We've been doing #powerrankings over on #packyourknives - check out more analysis on packyourknives.com as well as listen to the podcasts. And join the fun at find-topchef.com! @bravotvshows.bsky.social
Track Your Knives: Power Rankings. Spoiler alert for who comes back for Restaurant Wars, if anyone. (There is precedent for doing Restaurant Wars with seven people - Season 10 (Seattle) did just that.) Track Your Knives Power Rankings: table where each row is a chef and each column is a week. Rankings are submitted before the episode airs. E.g., week 8 rankings correspond to how players felt heading into Episode 8. Top 3 each week are highlighted in below table. Players submit power rankings each week before each episode. There were 89 players in week 1 and weeks 2 through 8 ranged from 132 to 142 players. Players rank chefs from 1 (most likely to win the elimination challenge) to last (most likely to be eliminated). Those rankings are then averaged, and then ranked. Average values on next photo. Track Your Knives Power Rankings: table where each row is a chef and each column is a week. Values are average rankings. The best and worst rankings each week are colored orange and blue, respectively. Elimination challenge winners are called out with ^ and the chef with the most people choosing them as most likely to win are noted with a *. Rankings are submitted before the episode airs. E.g., week 8 rankings correspond to how players felt heading into Episode 8. There were 89 players in week 1 and weeks 2 through 8 ranged from 132 to 142 players. Players rank chefs from 1 (most likely to win the elimination challenge) to last (most likely to be eliminated). Those rankings are then averaged, and then ranked. Rank of average values on previous photo.
April 29, 2026 at 11:10 PM
carlylevitz.bsky.social
It's our first week without Top Chef since March. Sigh. I already miss it!
#topchef #bravotopchef #packyourknives #dataviz #realitytv
@bravotopchef.bsky.social
The final four in Season 23 had the 4th highest average % of being on the top* of elimination challenges and the 3rd highest average % of being on the top* of quickfire challenges across all seasons’ final fours. Scatterplot where the x axis is the average % on top of elimination challenges for the final four and the y axis is the average % on the top of quickfire challenges for the final four. Each circle is a season, representing that season's final four. Season 6 is called out as having the highest average % on top of elimination challenges and Season 22 is called out as having the highest average % on top of quickfire challenges. *Being on the top of challenges includes wins, and indicates that they were called out as the judges’ favorites. Percentages are shown as decimals between 0 and 1. **NPT+ is a metric that standardizes chefs across multiple statistics where an NPT+ of 100 represents the average Top Chef contestant. Go to PackYourKnives.com to see how Season 23 compares in terms of staying out of the bottom, overall win percentages, and NPT+.
June 17, 2026 at 4:13 PM
carlylevitz.bsky.social
I'm incredibly proud of my new dashboard: Top Chef Reference! You can interact with it to answer so many different questions - and even choose your own criteria for GOATs! Link in bio #topchef #bravotopchef #packyourknives #realitytv #dataviz @bravotvshows.bsky.social
June 8, 2026 at 3:37 PM
carlylevitz.bsky.social
Laurence joins 28 other chefs who have won four or more elimination challenges in #TopChef
#topchefcarolinas #topchef23 #realitytv #realitytvdata #packyourknives @bravotopchef.bsky.social @bravotvshows.bsky.social
Bar chart of # of elimination wins and the number of chefs across all Top Chef seasons that have won that many challenges. 183 have won 0, 89 have won 1, 46 won two, 21 have won 3, 15 have won four, 9 have won 5, 2 have won 6, 2 have won 7, and 1 has won 8. Bubble over the barchart with the caption: Laurence is the 15th chef to win four elimination challenges. Pack Your Knives logol
May 17, 2026 at 9:15 PM
carlylevitz.bsky.social
Can't wait for tonight's #TopChef episode? Check out my Last Chance Kitchen analysis at packyourknives.com

#lastchancekitchen #packyourknives #destinationcanada #bravotopchef #topchefseason22 #topchefdestinationcanada #realitytv #dataviz

@bravotvshows.bsky.social @bravotopchef.bsky.social
Image is made to look like a newspaper. "name" of newspaper is Pack Your Knives. Volume 22, No. 10, Last Chance Kitchen special edition, 15 May 2025. Extra!! Extra!! Tonight will be only the second time that both the mid-season and end-of-season LCK winners are in the main competition at the same time. Picture of Ashleigh Shanti - mid-season LCK winner, Season 19. Picture of Sarah Welch - end-of-season LCK winner, season 19. Picture of Bailey Sullivan, mid-season LCK winner Season 22. And then an icon and a question mark for who will come back from LCK at the end of season 22. See full article at link in bio.
May 15, 2025 at 6:11 PM
carlylevitz.bsky.social
#JamesBeard award nominees were just released, and it made me wonder - have we seen a change over time in the number of Top Chef contestants w/ this accolade?
@bravotvshows.bsky.social @bravotopchef.bsky.social #TopChef #dataviz #PackYourKnives #FoodTVdata #foodie
open.substack.com/pub/packyour...
James Beard accolades of Top Chef contestants
Have we seen an increase over time?
open.substack.com
April 5, 2025 at 5:31 PM
carlylevitz.bsky.social
NYC, LA or Chi: Which city wins the most on #TopChef? It's not as simple as just the number of winners from each city!

@bravotopchef.bsky.social @bravotvshows.bsky.social #topchefstats #topchefanalytics #foodtvdata #dataviz #datastorytelling #packyourknives

www.packyourknives.com/p/nyc-la-or-...
NYC, LA or Chi: Which city wins the most on Top Chef?
We have the data on chef cities, one of the great underlying debates on Top Chef
www.packyourknives.com
March 18, 2025 at 5:17 PM
janderson31.bsky.social
last Pack Your Knives point

•Some question dodging
•really rogue/random cut midconvo
•way too easy on Bailey cooking RISOTTO poorly
•enhanced cookery knowledge
•much like current top chef, too friendly

Think its gonna be an unfollow for me

#BringBackKevin

#TopChef #PackYourKnives
March 14, 2025 at 9:49 PM