Throughout Top Chef’s history, the reality show has had highlights and lowlights. On the bright side, there have been many memorable Top Chef chefs and some competitors who were robbed. On the other hand, Top Chef had some mean challenges, winners fans didn’t think deserved it, and horrible guest judges. On top of that, there was a chef who went from loved to hated, fans learned a competitor got in strange legal trouble, and the truth is that Top Chef can be forgettable.

During the show’s latest season, Top Chef: Destination Canada, there has been a lot that has been right about the season. On the other hand, Top Chef: Destination Canada has been disappointing in a very specific way.

Top Chef: Destination Canada Has Been Disappointing Because It Hasn’t Taken Advantage Of Its Location

Throughout Top Chef’s lengthy history, the show has taken fans to different locations all over the world. Unlike some shows that travel the world and don’t necessarily change that much, Top Chef has a long history of mixing things up because of where it goes.

In the past, there have been Top Chef seasons held in warm locales that have seen the chefs preparing food outside with nothing but a barbecue in high winds. Alternatively, one challenge forced the players to chisel ingredients out of ice while cooking outside in a snowy location.

When Top Chef: Destination Canada was announced, the season seemed like it had loads of potential based off its location. However, so far, it has seemed like the season could mostly be called Top Chef: Destination Kitchen.

After several episodes of Top Chef: Destination Canada, the show has mostly featured two locations. It wasn’t until the season’s fifth episode that fans finally got to really see the chefs explore the Canadian cuisine scene.

Throughout the first four episodes, Top Chef: Destination Canada focused almost entirely on the show’s kitchen and the grocery store where the chefs go to shop. The worst part of that is that the Top Chef kitchen has almost always looked pretty much exactly the same as it does during other seasons of the show.

Because it has mostly remained in those two locations so far, almost every episode of the season so far has visually felt like it could have been filmed in any city.

The Most Beautiful Places To Visit In Canada, According to Trip Advisor

• Banff National Park
• Vancouver Island
• Thousand Islands National Park
• Whistler
• The Cape Breton Highlands
• Fogo Island
• Kluane National Park
• Lunenburg
• Jasper National Park
• Charlevoix region
• Gros Morne National Park
• Yoho National Park

It is especially sad that the season has felt so contained because there are so many beautiful locations in Canada that would have added grandeur to the season.

Of course, there is no way that Top Chef was going to spend every episode of the season in a far-flung location. Simply based on the filming requirements, that simply isn’t something that would be feasible.

That said, Top Chef: Destination Canada could have taken a lot better advantage of its location without spending a fortune on travel expenses. Instead, the season could have chosen to highlight the culinary possibilities in a place like Toronto, Ontario, Canada during each episode.

As anyone who has visited the Greater Toronto Area should already know, the city and its surrounding area is a culinary melting pot. Since people move to Toronto from around the world, residents and visitors can enjoy culinary delights from around the globe without traveling far in the city.

With that one Canadian city having so much to offer from a culinary perspective, it is astonishing that the season waited until the fifth episode to take advantage of that. While it is great that the fifth episode of Top Chef: Destination Canada finally sent the chefs around Toronto, that should have happened earlier and consistently. After all, the first five episodes of the season could have all revolved around the chefs exploring one of the culinary influences in Toronto.

On top of not taking advantage of its location, there has been another issue with Top Chef: Destination Canada that has been disappointing to see.

No matter how lovely they may appear to be as people, Top Chef: Destination Canada doesn’t need to feature so many Canadian actors as guest judges. After all, it is hard to take Michael Cera and Sarah Levy judging food prepared by extremely talented chefs seriously.

One Top Chef: Destination Canada Moment Almost Makes Up For How Little The Season Has Taken Advantage Of Its Theme

During the third episode of Top Chef: Destination Canada, the show welcomed a professional hockey player as a guest judge. While there were problems with how the show handled incorporating themes based on the guest judge, Top Chef’s production team did something brilliant.

Based on Natalie Spinnner being the guest judge, the show wanted to reference her career as a hockey player.

Amazingly enough, Top Chef: Destination Canada paid tribute to Natalie by placing the judges table where they ate inside a fake hockey rink.

When it was revealed that the judges table was surrounded by fake hockey boards, that was truly delightful. Not only that, when the set was first revealed, a close-up of the table showed that there were small decorative hockey sticks at each seat.

While the hockey rink set wasn’t enough to make up for how little Top Chef: Destination Canada has taken advantage of its location, someone deserves a promotion.