Since Top Chef premiered many years ago, it has been one of the best reality shows thanks to how many memorable chefs it has had. While Top Chef is also celebrated for having chefs fans thought should have won, there has also been some negativity around the show. After all, Top Chef chefs have faced strange legal problems, some have gone from loved to hated, and fans feel some winners didn’t deserve the crown.

Top Chef’s producers have also messed up in the past by having mean challenges and awful guest judges. Unfortunately, Top Chef: Destination Canada also has a major problem, since the show’s producers have allowed a pivotal part of the show to be missing.

Top Chef: Destination Canada Needs To Put More Emphasis On The Judges’ Table

With Top Chef approaching the 20th anniversary of the show’s premiere, it is time to celebrate that it is one of the best reality shows ever produced. When Top Chef is at its best as a TV show, there are many aspects of it for fans to love.

For example, Top Chef features all the drama of other competition reality shows, gorgeously shot food, and the fact is that fans can learn from the show. There is another aspect of Top Chef that has always been one of the most entertaining parts of the show.

One of the most compelling parts of Top Chef has always been the scenes that take part at the Judges’ Table. For that reason, it has been very disappointing that Top Chef: Destination Canada’s early episodes minimized the Judges’ Table aspect of the show.

During most Top Chef episodes, the Judges’ Table takes up a significant part of the episode.

However, during Top Chef: Destination Canada, the Judges’ Table sessions have felt severely compacted and like half the footage is missing. Fans see the judges announce who won, name the chefs who are on the bottom, ask them a short question or two, and then soon after eliminate someone.

The severely truncated Judges’ Table sessions have become one of the worst parts of Top Chef: Destination Canada for two main reasons. The most obvious reason is that fans are missing out on some of the Top Chef moments that have historically been the most compelling.

During most Judges’ Table sequences, fans see a lot of high-drama discussions that can be heartbreaking and/or relieving. The reason why Judges’ Table scenes can typically be so compelling is that the show’s producers capture a lot of footage to create the best television moment.

In March 2020, the former two-time Top Chef competitor Sara Bradley told E! Online about how long Judges’ Table sessions can take to film.

“Judges table doesn’t last three minutes and then it goes to commercial, it lasts 45 minutes to an hour on each person sometimes, especially for like, Restaurant Wars, it was really long.”

Thanks to how much footage is filmed during Judges’ Table sessions, they typically feature several minutes of intense back and forth between the chefs and judges.

During most Top Chef episodes, the judges are shown extensively criticizing the worst dishes. In response, the competing chefs either defend themselves, accept their mistakes, or in some rare cases, blame someone or something else.

Then, the competing chefs go into the stew room and are shown looking tense as they wait to learn their fates. Then, the chefs are allowed back into the room where they are either told to pack their knives and go or given a reprieve.

As all of these moments play out on screen, fans may cringe at a fierce criticism, smile as the chefs support each other, or furrow their brow at someone who is being defensive. Most of all, the viewers will likely sit in suspense as they wait to learn if their favorite, or least favorite, chef is being eliminated. With the Judges’ Table sessions going by so much faster, fans are missing out on much of that.

Since Top Chef is supposed to be an entertaining show, fans missing out on a lot of compelling moments is a major issue. However, the biggest problem with the shortened Judges’ Table sessions is that it robs a lot of viewers of their ability to understand the show better.

Whenever a new episode of Top Chef airs, it is watched by some people who are professional chefs and/or very experienced at eating high-end food. Those people are likely to understand the strengths and weaknesses of a dish based on a smaller number of comments from diners and judges. However, Top Chef is also a show that is watched by many more people who’ve never worked in a kitchen or eaten food of the caliber that is featured on the show.

That second group of people learn a lot from seeing lengthy Judges’ Table sequences play out. They see the chefs defending their choices, and they see the judges giving them tough love. All of that is extremely illuminating for most viewers. Shortening or eliminating many of those moments while editing the show has made it harder for some viewers to understand what makes some of the competitors stand above the rest.

Top Chef Needs To Bring Back The Reunion

After the first several seasons of Top Chef, a reunion special would air. However, it has been years now since the show last aired a reunion special. Top Chef: Destination Canada could rejuvenate the show a little by breaking that trend and bringing the reunion back.

During the past Top Chef reunions, there were some arguments that seemed to cause bad blood among the chefs and judges. As a result, the consensus among Top Chef fans is that the drama likely caused the show’s producers to decide to end the reunions.

On the one hand, it is totally understandable that the people involved in Top Chef would want to end anything that could lead to bad blood. That said, Top Chef’s producers may be forgetting that they are making a show that is supposed to be about entertaining fans.

Since Top Chef is a high-quality show, there is rarely much meaningful drama among the show’s competitors. Despite that, the fact remains that viewers almost always have irritations by the end of each Top Chef season they would love to see the competitors address during the reunion.

On top of that, many Top Chef fans loved how juicy the reunions were and miss them.