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Go Behind the Scenes of Top Chef’s “Infamous Wall Challenge” in Paris
Bravo’s Top Chef producers give an exclusive “look behind the kitchen door” of the Quickfire challenge at the Eiffel Tower.
Season 20 of Bravo’s Top Chef has been filled with shocking twists and major firsts, and on Episode 13, the cheftestants experienced another jaw-dropping change in the competition as they headed to a new location.
After filming most of the season in London, Sara Bradley, Ali Ghzawi, Gabriel Rodriguez, and Buddha Lo arrived in Paris, where they were greeted by Padma Lakshmi at the Eiffel Tower. “In just over a year’s time, the world’s greatest athletes will be coming together here in Paris for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, where they’ll be competing in the ultimate test of their endurance and skills. Sound familiar?” Padma said. “Thanks to Delta Air Lines, the official airline of Team USA, the four of you will be doing the same in Paris here over the next two weeks.”
For their final Quickfire challenge of the season, Padma explained that the chefs would be taking on “the infamous wall challenge.” In the video above, which gives an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the making of the challenge, supervising producer Frank Crane notes, “Top Chef fans will recognize the Delta Air Lines wall challenge from Top Chef Masters and Top Chef Season 14 in Charleston.” As in the past, the Season 20 final four chefs were responsible for creating a dish while coaching a mystery teammate on the other side of a wall to make the same exact dish.
Delta flew in some very special guests to compete alongside the chefs in pairs: Paralympic swimmer Mallory Weggemann, Paralympic track-and-field athlete Hunter Woodhall, Olympic gymnast Suni Lee, and Olympic hurdler and sprinter Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. While most of the paired teams accomplished the goal of the challenge, Ali and Mallory won with their potato leek soup with crème fraîche. (Check out the video above to watch the athletes share how they felt about competing in the culinary challenge!)
Watch the video to get a “look behind the kitchen door” of the challenge, including the moment it started to rain, the athletes’ reaction to finding out everything in the pantry “[was] in French,” and how they felt about working with the cheftestants after the challenge concluded.
