Padma Reveals Her Worst 'Top Chef' Dishes Ever
What was terrible? And what was a nuclear disaster? She tells all.
Over several seasons as a host and judge of Top Chef, Padma Lakshmi has tasted the good—and the bad. Now she’s ready to reveal some of the worst creations she’s ever had.
One of her most unfavorable? Michael Midgley’s Quickfire.
"He literally made a Snickers ball and then stuck a Cheeto on top of it,” Padma tells the Dish. That same season—in Los Angeles—Elia Aboumrad also served up something to Padma that was more worthy of the garbage.
"Elia made this thing that she called mole," Padma recalls, "but it was literally broiled chicken breast dipped in chocolate. It was not mole."
When Padma traveled to the east coast for the show, she didn’t have better luck in New York. She says that she hated Ariane Durate’s lemon curd from the Craft lunch challenge, saying "that was just like a nuclear disaster in a glass. And it was neon yellow too. She’s a nice woman but that was a terrible dessert."
Padma also hated a meal prepared by Season Two winner Ilan Hall. "I had a chocolate ganache that he made which had a morsel of liver embedded into the middle of it. It was terrible!" Still, he did redeem himself: she notes that his liver ganache was one her all-time favorites.
"It was this beautiful clam and chorizo fideos that was baked," she says. "I ate all of mine and Eric Ripert’s portion!"
