Your Guide to “Top Chef All-Stars”

Top Chef: All-Stars premiers this Wednesday at 10pm on Bravo (BU cable channel #75), and to help jog your memory of which chefs were loved (Antonia! Richard Blais!) and which were loathed (Spike, Mike Isabella), here is a guide to sorting out the all-stars. They all made it past the halfway point of their seasons, some were fan favorites, and everyone in the group was considered the competition’s frontrunner at one point, so anyone could take what is expected to be an incredible season!

Elia Aboumrad, Season 2 (Los Angeles), Finished: 4^th

Memorable moment: When she accued Marcel of cheating during judges’ table of the finale, part I. The judges declared that they do not care what happens in the kitchen and she was eliminated.

Stephen Asprinio, Season 1 (San Francisco), Finished: 5^th

Memorable moment: When he abandoned his team during the wedding challenge, opting to teach the waiters how to “sweep” a table, instead of actually cooking his dish. During his elimination, Chef Tom proclaimed that this is not “Top Sommelier”!

Richard Blais, Season 4 (Chicago), Finished: 3^rd

Memorable moment: When he had to make a dish for the Second City Improv challenge, based around the random words “confused,” “green,” and “tofu,” he described his beef-marinated tofu as a Seinfeld routine. “What is the deal with this tofu? Is it tofu or is it meat?”

Jennifer Caroll, Season 6 (Las Vegas), Finished: 4^th

Memorable moment: When she was the first woman to win the first quickfire challenge, and Mike Isabella sexistly commented, “A girl shouldn’t be on the same level that I am!”

Tiffany Derry, Season 7 (D.C.), Finished: 5^th

Memorable moment: Her budding friendship with fellow contestant, Ed, though she was engaged, and it was probably blown out of proportion to try to make this boring season seem interesting.

Tiffani Faison, Season 1 (San Francisco), Finished: 2^nd

^{(She is the only contestant who works in Boston, at Rocca, and cooked at Eat Your Heart Out earlier this month.)}

Memorable moment: When her controlling nature was called out by Dave at the restaurant wars judges’ table. Dave gave us the very first Top Chef t-shirt catchphrase with “I’m not your bitch, bitch!”

Carla Hall, Season 5 (New York), Finished: 3^rd

Memorable moment: When shopping in Whole Foods with her team, she kept shouting “Hootie-hoo!” because, apparently, she does that with her husband in public places so they don’t lose each other.

Mike Isabella, Season 6 (Las Vegas), Finished: 7^th

Memorable moment: The infamous sexist comment has already been mentioned, so we’ll go with the time he was the first (and so far only) contestant to ever be in the top and bottom groups of the same elimination challenge, as he helped Michael Voltaggio with the winning bacon dish, but also made a lackluster Greek Salad.

Jaime Lauren, Season 5 (New York), Finished: 7^th

Memorable moment: All of the times the not-so-suave Stefan hit on her, though she reminded him in vain that she is a lesbian.

Dale Levitsky, Season 3 (Miami), Finished: 2^nd

Memorable moment: At the finale, when Chef Todd English commented that his lamb ratatouille was “3-star Michelin in my book.”

Antonia Lofaso, Season 4 (Chicago), Finished: 4^th

Memorable moment: After watching fellow contestants Spike and Mark party platonically in the hot tub, she commented that they seem like a couple guys from West Hollywood, and that she was going to “throw up in [her] mouth!”

Spike Mendelsohn, Season 4 (Chicago), Finished: 5^th

Memorable moment: Upon receiving the advantage that no other contestant could use the same key ingredients he chose, he stole bread, chicken, tomatoes and lettuce away from the others…and almost got eliminated for the resulting bland chicken salad.

Angelo Sosa, Season 7 (D.C.), Finished: 3^rd

Memorable moment: Though his streak of winning the first three challenges was impressive, I choose when he fell ill during the finale, had to miss the first day of cooking, and got an injection in his butt cheek from a Singaporean doctor.

Dale Talde, Season 4 (Chicago), Finished: 6^th

Memorable moment: When his team lost the mis-en-place relay and he slammed the lockers so hard that he left a major dent (and screamed a bone-shattering expletive in the process).

Casey Thompson, Season 3 (Miami), Finished: 3^rd

Memorable moment: When she had to recreate a classic dish from Le Cirque in New York, but Le Cirque’s elderly proprietor, Sirio Maccioni, could only comment on how hot she is, ignoring her cooking skills entirely.

Marcel Vigneron, Season 2 (Los Angeles), Finished: 2^nd

Memorable moment: There are way too many to choose from (his rapping, when Cliff tried to hold him down and shave his head) But I’ll choose the time when he was stung by a sea urchin during the finale, and fellow finalist, Ilan, offered to pee on his wound.

Fabio Viviani, Season 5 (New York), Finished: 4^th

Memorable moment: When he broke his finger while cooking and refused to go to the hospital. He proclaimed (in broken English) that he would rather chop off his finger and sear it on the flat-top to stop the bleeding than leave the competition.

Trey Wilcox, Season 3 (Miami), Finished: 8^th

Memorable moment: When he was eliminated during restaurant wars in what is considered to be the biggest upset in Top Chef history, since he won the first elimination challenge, which is usually an indicator of who would win the entire season.