Why Top Chef: Destination Canada’s Quickfire Challenges Need To Be Fixed

Since Top Chef is one of the best reality shows ever, it has a slew of fans who are deeply invested in every aspect of it. Fortunately for those fans, Top Chef does a lot right, like showcase the show’s most memorable chefs and make fans care about some competitors so much they think they’ve been robbed. On the other hand, the team behind Top Chef needs some tough love, since fans have been disappointed by the show for things like featuring mean challenges.

For fans who are still fascinated by all the ways that the chefs can fail, there is always a desire to fix what is wrong with the show. A perfect example of that is the argument that Top Chef’s Quickfire Challenges need to be fixed in a specific way.

Top Chef Made Quickfire Challenges Less Impactful In A Great Way

Even though it doesn’t really feel like this should be true, the first episode of Top Chef premiered on Bravo on March 8th, 2006. Since the show is closing in on its 20th anniversary, it is remarkable that the format of Top Chef hasn’t changed that much.

Of course, Top Chef has been improved in a myriad of different ways. For example, the people who compete on Top Chef now seem to be a lot more skilled and the show introduced Last Chance Kitchen, which added another dimension to the show.

However, Top Chef still has Quickfire Challenges and Elimination Challenges as the core of the show. While the show’s core hasn’t changed in all those years, Top Chef changed how Quickfire Challenges work in a fantastic way.

For many years, there was something about how Top Chef worked that simply didn’t make a lot of sense.

Throughout the majority of Top Chef’s history, the competitors could win immunity from elimination by winning some of the Quickfire Challenges. However, when the chefs won the Elimination Challenge, they typically only received cash, some kind of trip, or in many cases, nothing other than bragging rights.

Since Top Chef’s competitors all go on the show in hopes of winning the game, that meant that winning a Quickfire Challenge could be more rewarding for them. Additionally, the chefs winning money or a trip they went on after the show meant nothing for viewers since they don’t get to see the competitors enjoying their winnings.

According to IMDb, Top Chef has been nominated for or won a slew of different awards throughout its history. For example, Top Chef has been celebrated by the Emmys, the People’s Choice Awards, the Television Critics Association, and many more.

Considering that Elimination Challenges are clearly supposed to be more important than Quickfire Challenges, that arrangement made no sense. After all, in terms of what fans could see, the person who won the Elimination Challenges walked away in the same position as everyone who wasn’t told to pack their knives and go.

Starting with Top Chef: Wisconsin, there was a rule change that made that situation completely different. Now, the only way to win immunity during Top Chef is by winning an Elimination Challenge.

Top Chef: Wisconsin was the season that aired before Top Chef: Destination Canada. That means that Top Chef: Destination Canada is only the second season that has had immunity up for grabs during Elimination Challenges. Interestingly enough, Top Chef: Wisconsin and Top Chef: Destination Canada are also the only seasons that have been hosted by Kristen Kish.

Since it is the Elimination Challenges that are really meant to be the most impactful, the new rules make so much more sense. After all, the biggest Top Chef reward should always be associated with the most important challenge.

Why Top Chef’s Quickfire Challenges Need To Be Changed Now

Now that immunity can only be earned during Top Chef’s Elimination Challenges, the show’s format hasn’t changed. Episodes still include Quickfire Challenges and Elimination Challenges. The only problem is that the current version of Quickfire Challenges feel like they have virtually no impact.

During Top Chef: Wisconsin and Top Chef: Destination Canada, the rules dictate that results from the Quickfire Challenges now impact the Elimination Challenges.

In theory, that means that when the judges are debating who should win an Elimination Challenges, they should consider the Quickfire Challenge results. More importantly, the judges are supposed to consider the Quickfire Challenge results when deciding who should be told to pack their knives and go.

In theory, having the Quickfire Challenges impact the Elimination Challenges seems like the perfect way to make them matter still.

The only problem is that in execution, it almost always seems like the Quickfire Challenge results have no impact for two reasons.

First off, there have only been a handful of times that fans have seen the judges talking about the Quickfire Challenge during the elimination process. While they may discuss that every time, fans can only go on what they are shown. As a result, it seems hard to believe that the Quickfire Challenge results have much of an impact on the Elimination Challenge results.

Secondly, and more importantly, it simply doesn’t make a lot of sense to believe that the judges can put much weight on the Quickfire Challenge results. After all, typically, the only judge who eats the food during the Quickfire Challenge is Kristen Kish. Therefore, it doesn’t make a lot of sense for Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons, and the guest judge to make their Elimination Challenge decision based on food they didn’t even taste.

In order to make the Quickfire Challenges feel like they matter again, Top Chef needs to put something more concrete on the line. To be clear, making the Quickfire Challenge winners get more money or a trip is not the answer.

While it would feel like a step back to have immunity involved in the Quickfire Challenges again, there are other options. The most obvious way to make the Quickfire Challenge feel like they matter again would be to have the winner gain an advantage in the Elimination Challenge. That said, Top Chef’s producers could get more creative and come up with other things to put on the line.

The important thing to remember is the way for Top Chef’s Quickfire Challenges to matter again would be to put something on the line that fans can see and care about.