I dined at ‘Top Chef’s Restaurant Wars episode in Charlotte. Here’s how it went.
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‘Top Chef Carolinas’ was filmed in Charlotte
Bravo’s hit reality TV show “Top Chef” filmed most of Season 23 in Charlotte and a few episodes in Greenville, SC, to create “Top Chef Carolinas.” The show’s announcement said: “This season will showcase the finest in southern hospitality, embracing the rich history, agriculture, and outdoors, as a new batch of accomplished and renowned chefs vie for the ultimate Top Chef title.”
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If you’re a reality TV fan, you may have always wondered just how real the shows you’re watching are. And if you’re a “Top Chef” superfan, watching every twist and turn of the Season 23 competition filmed in Charlotte, you’re in the right place to hear all about it.
I’m taking you with me behind the scenes of one of the Bravo culinary competition’s most exciting episodes: Restaurant Wars.
For the unfamiliar, the show’s Restaurant Wars episode involves a 36-hour superhuman effort in which the chefs split into two teams, each creating their own temporary restaurant from scratch.
What takes years of planning for many restaurateurs is crammed into this tiny timeframe, complete with design choices, menu creation and shopping, and on top of that, an actual restaurant service.
One chef serves as executive chef, while another works the front of the house as general manager. Everyone pitches in, and everyone cooks — although they often rely on each other to finish dishes, especially the GM.
CharlotteFive was among the media outlets invited to the dining experience in Charlotte, along with dozens of superfans, influencers, city leaders and others lucky enough to snag a seat. I was also included in a set tour, peeking in on the inner workings of how the production all comes together.
Participants — including me — had to sign nondisclosure agreements that barred us from revealing any details of the episode before it aired.
Setting the stage in Charlotte
Outside The Casey by Beau Monde in North Charlotte, restaurant guests gathered under tents in the September heat, seeking relief from bottled water chilled in coolers around the perimeter after checking in for the experience. Media members and a few influencers were ushered inside, taking a seat at a table right inside the door to await further instructions.
Soon, a few of us were whisked away for a private tour of the hustle-and-bustle production set.
Temporary walls set up around the event space split the building into two makeshift restaurants, with crews crammed in everywhere else. No square footage went unused, and both teams shared the same kitchen: one in peach aprons, the other in burgundy.
We peeked into the kitchen for a quick look at them cooking, prompting a producer into panic. He waved his hands in the air at us from the background, trying to shoo us away from the busy teams running from stove to prep tables, until he got closer and realized one of the show’s publicists was with us.
Nearby, the event space’s bar area held a bounty of snacks, with fresh fruit and other quick bites overflowing along the length of the bar.
A few feet away, another makeshift room was sectioned off, holding a buffet of catered meals included stacks of packaged salads and warming trays filled with mashed potatoes and veggies, with dozens crew members chowing down and milling about, looking intensely focused.
As the competition unfolded, about half a dozen TV production staffers crammed into a small room watched from computer screens and two oversized monitors showing 14 different camera angles. A lone audio guy was crammed near the doorway behind a sizable piece of equipment.
On the screens, we all watched as host Kristen Kish and judges Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons made their first restaurant stop at the peach team’s restaurant, Carolina Queen, with guest judges in tow: James Beard Foundation CEO Clare Reichenbach and restaurateur Michael Mina, who is opening a Bourbon Steak location in Charlotte
During the few moments we were allowed in the room as the judges dined in the Carolina Queen restaurant — staffed by chefs Sherry Cardoso, Duyen Ha, Anthony Jones and Laurence Louie — I could overhear snippets of the judges’ comments.
“A lot of béarnaise and a lot of okra,” Simmons said.
“Oh no,” I thought to myself. Colicchio had just told me a few days before that he hates okra, a fact he repeated in another episode featuring local produce from Deep Roots CPS Farm. Sure enough, the word “slime” came rolling out of his mouth moments later.
“The shrimp are slightly overcooked,” Colicchio added after a short while.
Dining at restaurant wars
Soon thereafter, we were escorted back outside to enter the competing restaurant, Tierra Reina. The chefs leading that restaurant were Oscar Diaz, twins Brandon and Jonathan Dearden, and Sieger Bayer, who was previously eliminated but returned when Jennifer Lee Jackson was sent home for medical reasons.
Once inside, we stood at the host station for about 10 minutes, waiting to be seated as takeout orders shuttled toward the door. That was a new twist this season — adding takeout on top of the dine-in guests.
Seats were filled with people who reached out to the show’s production company, Magical Elves, friends and family of Bravo staffers, a handful of journalists and influencers, and a few who’s who of Charlotte’s tourism scene.
While we couldn’t hear any of the judges comments while they dined nearby, we could certainly watch their growing displeasure with the crowd gathered at the door. Colicchio yawned twice waiting for service, which backed up as waiters ran a slew of takeout orders out to the front.
Our party waited 10 minutes to be seated and was served wine shortly thereafter, but the food came out at a snail’s pace.
To give you a sense of that timeline, all three courses were ordered at the same time, with the reservation starting at 4:45 p.m. At nearly 6 p.m., our entrées finally reached the table. It was about 7 p.m. when my tablemates and I were filling out comment cards on the meal after finishing dessert.
‘Top Chef’ Restaurant Wars food
Diaz — North Carolina’s Durham cheftestant — served as the general manager running the front of the house for the night. As he visited our table, he explained that Terra Reina — the Queen’s Land — was crafted with “a Mexican thru-line” that highlighted both those ingredients and those of the Carolinas.
Tierra Reina’s first course offered a choice between aguachile verde with snapper and a tostada with Carolina Ruby sweet potato.
I went with the aguachile verde, topped with grape, serrano and a strip of plantain, garnished with shaved red onion and radish. The sauce, poured tableside, gave a spicy kick to the dish, and the heat of the serranos lingered on the palate.
Thanks to the generosity of WCNC’s Michelle Boudin, I also snagged a bite of the tostada appetizer, accented with salsa negra crema and basil atop a corn chip, with a little cilantro for accent. There were no complaints to be had with either dish, but I felt I chose well.
Amid the downtime between courses, Diaz darted over to our table to check in with us, venting out a touch of the competition’s pressure, joking: “Somebody tell me I’m pretty.”
Next up was more food. Tierra Reina’s entree choices were Veracruzana or barbacoa, made with beef tongue and cheek.
Like many in the restaurant, I ordered the Veracruzana entree, an eye-catching dish of cod with chochoyote (a small, round masa dumpling), a castelevetrano olive tapanade and capers in a tomato sauce. In fact, so many diners made that selection that the entire room carried the aroma of fish at one point. The more I ate, the saltier it got, and although that didn’t stop me from savoring every bite, I noticed many didn’t finish the sizeable portion.
Kristen Wile of Unpretentious Palate kindly offered me a bite of her toothsome barbacoa entree, wrapped in a collard leaf and served with mayocoba (a creamy, yellow-green canary bean) and a red and green salsa duo. The seasoning level didn’t match that of the fish, offering a nice break from that briny punch.
For dessert, I chose the arroz con leche, made from Carolina Gold rice, canela (the Spanish word for cinnamon) and cherry, which Diaz helpfully noted was a gelee made from Cheerwine. The other option was a crémeuxso, a Mexican spin on a French custard with mole, pepitas, coffee and benne (sesame seeds).
Near the end of our meal, Diaz again paused at our table, pulling out a vibrantly colored handkerchief to dab the sweat dripping down his forehead.
“I feel like a preacher,” he said to the table as we prepared to head back out into the summer heat. “Can I get an amen?”
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