Pack Your Knives

Kevin and Tom get their hands dirty with the Gaggan Anand episode of Top Chef: World All-Stars and take stock of the competition as we near ever closer to the Restaurant Wars mark. Cheftestant Dale Mackay of Saskatchewan fame joins the show to talk about his rollercoaster ride on Top Chef, daily life as a triathlete in reality-television isolation and the difference of this particular season vs. T...

With the most confusing Top Chef episode of the season, Kevin and Tom fight off whiplash and vertigo as they recap the Downton Abbey episode. Tom bids farewell to one of his top picks but discovers a budding crush on another and rants about sandwich toppings. Meanwhile, Kevin does a victory lap on one of his picks who continues to deliver and gets wistful about one of his other cheftestants headin...

Top Chef heads to the Kent countryside, where a shocking ending sends a cheftestant home. Kevin takes issue with the cheftestant's fate while Tom defends his squad. Then, World All-Stars contestant and Season 16 finalist Sara Bradley of Freight House in Paducah, Kentucky joins the podcast! We discuss her stat-keeping, experiences on the show, favorite Jewish dishes, raw eggs and more. Learn more a...

Kevin and Tom put their green velvet blazers on and recap Episode 4 of Top Chef World All-Stars. We get introduced to the glory that is Paul A. Young and deliberate on the value of an English biscuit. After a scouting report on the Tottenham Hotspurs stadium experience, Kevin and Tom hash out the Elimination Challenge and remark about the parity of this season.  Learn more about your ad choices. V...

With three episodes in the books, Kevin and Tom put it on the Ritz for Top Chef's pub crawl. With a double elimination on tap, Kevin and Tom scout the pairings and give their take on the dishes. Has any cheftestant separated themselves from the pack? Kevin and Tom get into it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kevin and Tom welcome in Top Chef South Africa's Lorna Maseko to help recap the show and share her experience of being the guest judge in the All Star Season's second episode. If you were planning a culinary trip to Africa, Kevin and Lorna give you the scouting report. If you weren't planning one, you will now. Finally, Kevin and Tom take stock of their fantasy rosters and bid farewell to a famili...

It's our favorite time of the year at PYK HQ: Draft Day! After watching the season premiere of Top Chef Season 20, Kevin and Tom partake in their annual PYK draft of cheftestants while recapping the episode. Who goes No. 1? Where will the elimination challenge winner go in the draft? Where will Buddha, Dawn, Amar and Sara land? Who has the best roster? It's all happening. Learn more about your ad...

Top Chef is back! And so are Tom Haberstroh and Kevin Arnovitz. To get you ready for Season 20: London All-Stars, Tom and Kevin span the globe and preview the 16 cheftestants on the board. Which cheftestants are back? How do we feel about London as a food city? Wait, is there really a Top Chef Finland? All that and more on the PYK season preview. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.f...

Kevin and Tom are giddy at the much-anticipated arrival of the Top Chef Season 19 champion, Buddha Lo! They discuss Top Chef reality vs. fiction, where his performance ranks all-time and how to properly cook halibut. Plus, his recent interaction with TMZ at LAX, his Jurassic alligator and how he studied Top Chef. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Another season of Top Chef is in the books! Tom and Kevin recap the season and the final episode with the help of beloved cheftestant Sara Welch. We discuss her Jamaican roots, her bff Buddha, her restaurant Marrow in Detroit and the basics of churning butter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the show hits the road to Tucson, Kevin and Tom marvel at the city’s culinary offerings and welcome PYK favorite Chef Maria Mazon back to the Top Chef stage. A strong chef goes home, but in Kevin’s eyes, the playing field is more level than it seems. Who will be crowned Top Chef next week? Kevin and Tom call their shots as we arrive at the finale.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaph...

 In this week's episode, Tom hops on a boat and guides Kevin on the joys of fishing. With the competition whittles itself down to the final four cheftestants, we bid farewell to a poor time-management victim. Tom and Kevin rearrange their power rankings as we head into the surprise domestic location of the finale. And lastly, we run through some VRBO submissions from listeners and Kevin recaps som...

With a thrilling Last Chance Kitchen finale in the books, Kevin and Tom dive headfirst into the Galveston episode and emerge with a boatful of praise. We welcome back a cheftestant and revisit our chef vs. the field prop with some new information. Finally, Tom, inspired by the show, lets Kevin indulge in the ultimate VRBO parlor game: if you could go on vacation anywhere in the world for $10,000,...

The cheftestants go to space (in theory) and the Earth-y dishes raised lots of questions from Tom and Kevin. We discuss a shaky performance from an otherwise sturdy cheftestant and debate whether we'd take one chef over the field. Also: a deep-dive into crumby foods. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of Pack Your Knives, Kevin and Tom recap a heartwarming episode where the judges taste the rainbow and do some soul searching. Kevin reveals a personal story of his classroom etiquette and his favorite restaurants on his recent travels while Tom struggles with the quirky scoring. Finally, Producer Mayes surfaces a Top Chef Reddit post that sparks serious domestic debate from the PY...

It's Restaurant Wars! Our friend and restaurant consultant Hershy Ash stops by for our annual Restaurant Wars viewing. Kevin, Tom and Hershy break down the Restaurant Wars experiences from Matriarc and No Nem while scratching our collective heads at a certain chef's performance. Hershy offers a lighthearted conspiracy theory and makes a prediction about the winner of Top Chef. Learn more about you...

We dig into this week's episode with our PYK pal Joe Flamm, winner of Top Chef Colorado and guest judge of the Jurassic World challenge. Flamm shares some amazing behind the scenes details from his experience on Top Chef Houston and some old callbacks to Season 15. We also discuss best movie scenes involving food and get the goods on the actual winning individual of the challenge. We get Kevin's l...

After Top Chef welcomes back an eliminated contestant from Last Chance Kitchen, Kevin and Tom dive into Episode 6's drama -- or lack thereof. The competition show brings in trailblazing women to honor trailblazing women and the chefs deliver satisfactory meals, but hardly anything transcendent. With the help of producer Anthony Mayes, Tom and Kevin try to untangle their feelings about this season...

A tentpole challenge is presented on this week's episode, but Tom and Kevin are trying to figure out why this season doesn't seem to be hitting its mark. Tom mourns a surprising elimination, which prompts Kevin and Tom to do a mock redraft of contestants. Who goes No. 1? And can a Last Chance Kitchen juggernaut jolt the season into shape? Five episodes in, the PYK crew are hoping that's the case....

Kevin and Tom unpack what goes down as one of their favorite challenges of Top Chef in Pack Your Knives history: doppelgänger dishes! But first Kevin and Tom reveal their favorite biscuits in America and then praise a sense-deficient cheftestant’s rise. A terrific double-elimination challenge cripples one of the fantasy teams and Mayes’ squad provides hope to resolve Kevin’s lone complaint about t...

Kevin and Tom recap the Asian night market episode and survey the landscape. Kevin unveils his night market power rankings, dominating Tom’s impromptu trivia. The two discuss Sam the Potato Man’s polarizing behavior. Meanwhile, trade discussions continue as producer Anthony Mayes picks up his very own cheftestant. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tom and Kevin break down the second episode of Season 19. With Evelyn on the mind, Tom investigates hometown advantage. A trade is proposed and the two are officially engaged in negotiations.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After a season premiere chock full of surprises, Kevin and Tom take part in their fifth annual PYK draft of cheftestants. Who went No. 1 overall? And which pick created the most controversy? Kevin and Tom give their first impressions on the cast as another season of Pack Your Knives gets underway. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

And we’re back! With the season premiere of Top Chef Season 19 Houston around the corner, Kevin and Tom give a scouting report on Houston and the 15 cheftestants. Which cheftestants seem to have a leg up? Which Top Chef alumni are returning? And what’s the dirty little secret about bone marrow? Kevin and Tom dig in and get ready for another season of Top Chef. Learn more about your ad choices. Vis...

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