If you’ve ever wanted to bring the excitement of Top Chef into your own kitchen, these recipes are a great place to start, with dishes from contestants and judges alike. You can try Season 4 winner (and 2011 F&W Best New Chef) Stephanie Izard’s vibrant Seared Tuna Tiradito for a starter, or for dessert, Season 10 winner (and season 21 host) Kristen Kish’s Apple Pie à la Mode Ice Cream Sandwiches. We also have recipes from Tom Colicchio, Carla Hall, Padma Lakshmi, Gail Simmons, the Voltaggio brothers, and more contestants. Here’s how to cook like a Top Chef contestant or judge at home.
Tahini-Tofu Dip with Chili Crunch
Stephanie Izard (Season 4)
This creamy, smooth dip from chef Stephanie Izard creates layers of flavor with a short ingredient list. Roasting the garlic mellows its sharpness — together with the tahini, it brings a subtly sweet and nutty taste to the dish. Tamari provides umami, and fresh lemon juice adds brightness and acidity. After everything is combined in a food processor, a generous sprinkle of This Little Goat Chili Crunch finishes the dip off. Make it the next time you’re entertaining, or for your next snack dinner.
Collard and Fennel Salad with Crispy Plantains
Ashleigh Shanti (Season 19)
Crispy, creamy smashed and twice-fried plantains act as croutons in this fresh winter salad. The two-step frying process allows the unripe green plantains to evenly cook through and develop their fruity sweetness.
Clams in Garlic Sorrel Cream
Eric Adjepong (Seasons 16 and 17: All-Stars)
Chef Eric Adjepong’s steamed clams get a burst of bright flavor from green, tangy sorrel. If you can’t find sorrel, or it’s out of season, Adjepong recommends using fresh basil and adding a little extra lemon juice to mimic its tart, lemony flavor. Don’t skip the warm crusty bread to soak up the delicious sauce.
Hawaiian-Style Garlic Butter Shrimp
Sheldon Simeon (Seasons 10 and 14)
This recipe from Hawaiian chef Sheldon Simeon is inspired by the food trucks that serve garlic butter shrimp on Oahu’s North Shore. The shrimp are marinated in a mixture of Italian dressing, mayonnaise, calamansi juice, and salt, then grilled and tossed in roasted garlic butter. The result: unbelievably sweet, juicy grilled shrimp. You can make the garlic butter in advance, and use any leftover garlic butter on pasta, fish, or toast.
Beet and Pear Salad
Shota Nakajima (Season 18)
This crunchy, refreshing salad studded with purple beets, Asian pear, and hazelnuts is complemented by a fragrant dressing of ginger and white miso. It combines the earthy sweetness of beets with the crisp acidity of Asian pear, and the complementary textures of the ingredients will keep you coming back for seconds. Simply dressed with an umami-forward miso-honey dressing and finished with toasted hazelnuts and Parmesan cheese, this dish can incorporate any root vegetables or tree fruits.
Chicken and Shrimp Laksa
Buddha Lo (Season 19)
Top Chef winner Buddha Lo shares this family recipe for Chicken and Shrimp Laksa, a refreshing and brothy noodle dish popular throughout Southeast Asia. Lo’s homemade laksa paste — made with fresh lemongrass, pungent shrimp paste, and nutty peanuts — forms the base of this fragrant noodle dish, while coconut cream adds a velvety mouthfeel to the aromatic broth. Top it with poached shrimp and chicken, fresh herbs, and fried shallots, and slurp with joy.
Cheddar Cheese Pound Cake with Brandy Caramel Apples
Dawn Burrell (Season 18)
This poundcake created by chef Dawn Burrell gets a bit of a savory edge from the mellow cheddar cheese mixed into the batter and sprinkled on top of the cake as it bakes. It’s excellent with afternoon coffee or tea on its own, but the Brandy Caramel Apples move it clearly into dessert territory (add a scoop of ice cream to take it over the top). You can bake one large cake in a Bundt or tube pan, or bake two cakes in loaf pans.
Creamy Mashed Potato Soup with Dashi
Shota Nakajima (Season 18)
Dashi and soy sauce add umami to buttery leftover mashed potatoes in this cozy soup from chef Shota Nakajima. As a kid, whenever he was hungry, he’d grab anything left over from the previous meal to make soup or fried rice. “I grew up in a Japanese family, and I was taught to never waste anything,” Nakajima says. This soup is his riff on a recipe from his mother. Add milk for a creamier texture, or more dashi for a thinner consistency. Substitute any mashed vegetable you have on hand, such a cauliflower or sweet potato, but be sure to finish the soup with generous pats of melting butter and an extra drizzle of soy.
Seared Tuna Tiradito
Stephanie Izard (Season 4)
At Cabra in Chicago, 2011 F&W Best New Chef Stephanie Izard channels her love of Peruvian cuisine to deliver inspired takes on traditional ceviche and tiradito. At the restaurant, Izard dresses raw sushi-grade tuna steak with a creamy Kewpie mayonnaise-laced sauce, thinned with lime and orange juices, and studded with spicy serrano chiles. For a twist, try giving the tuna a quick sear in a screaming-hot skillet to add another layer of complexity to the dish.
Monkfish Piccata
Tiffani Faison (Seasons 1 and 8: All-Stars)
Monkfish, with its tender, springy bite reminiscent of lobster, is firm and sweet enough to stand up to this lemony butter sauce enriched with white miso. Plenty of briny capers and caperberries help cut through the richness.
Pulling-from-the-Pantry Puttanesca
Zoi Antonitsas (Season 4)
Chef Zoi Antonitsas is passionate about preserved fish. The salty, briny fillets are her favorite powerhouse pantry ingredient. They can make almost anything into a meal—and a delicious one at that. For this quick, flavorful puttanesca, use high-quality tins, like Matiz España brand, for the best results.
Emperor’s Pork
Buddha Lo (Season 19)
The late Aussie restaurateur Tony Lo taught his son Buddha Lo — the winner of Season 19 of Top Chef — how to braise and glaze pork belly in a sweet and savory sauce laced with warm notes of cinnamon and rock sugar, along with soy and MSG. Serve the glazed cubes of pork with steamed greens and white rice to soak up the sauce.
Carla Hall’s Buttermilk Biscuits
Carla Hall (Seasons 5 and 8: All-Stars)
Made with a combination of grated cold butter for flavor and vegetable shortening for tenderness, chef Carla Hall’s biscuits owe their towering, flaky layers to her classic laminating technique. You can freeze the unbaked biscuits on a pan, and then keep them in a resealable freezer bag in the freezer for up to two months.
Kai Jeow Moo Sab (Thai Fried Omelet with Pork)
Leah Cohen (Season 5)
“The first time that I ate one of these omelets was on the street in Thailand,” says Leah Cohen, chef of New York’s Pig & Khao. “I had never eaten a deep-fried egg and I was shocked that it was crispy but still tender. My mind was blown and [the] low-and-slow egg cooking that my French training taught me was turned on its ear.” Two important tips: Whisk the eggs well until light and frothy and uniform in color, and make sure that the oil is smoking hot.
Pork Curry Tostadas
Matt Taylor-Gross
Stephanie Izard (Season 4)
Stephanie Izard pulls from cuisines around the globe for these tostadas, which feature a rich pork curry, smashed avocados, and bright, tart pickled onions and peppers.
Fried Shrimp and Grits
Tiffany Derry (Season 7)
This fun, fresh take on shrimp and grits has incredible texture thanks to crunchy panko breadcrumbs and cheese-y, gooey grits, while the smoky, meaty tomato sauce adds more complexity to each bite. It’s a great way to use up leftover grits.
Rib Eye Aguachile with Ponzu Sauce
Claudette Zepeda (Season 2 of Top Chef Mexico and Season 15 Top Chef U.S.)
Claudette Zepeda uses a reverse-sear technique for this steak served with a salty, umami ponzu sauce. She tops the steak with a fresh tomatillo, onion, cucumber, and cilantro salad that balances the richness of the meat. If you can’t find a pre-cut 28-ounce ribeye, ask your butcher to cut one. Be sure to stock up on charcoal and have three (3-inch) hardwood oak wood chunks on hand to make the most of this recipe. The flavors of this dish are inspired by the pantry of northern Mexico, where Chinese, Japanese, and Korean ingredients are common because people from those countries were in Tijuana. “Mexico is a complex melting pot of people, where the story stops being about why we’re so different and starts being about why we’re so similar,” Zepeda notes. “Chinese laborers built the city of Tijuana; Japanese immigrants established the entire seafood industry in Ensenada. These are the stories that inspire me.”
Lamb Sausage Kefta
Stephanie Izard (Season 2)
Grassy, sweet lamb gets a flavor boost from a warm Moroccan spice mix in this recipe for Lamb Sausage Kefta. Chilling the sausage before cooking helps it hold its shape. As well, the meat stays tender and juicy, and gets nice and browned in the skillet. If you’d like, you can substitute pork in for lamb; the lamb sausage mixture can also be used to make meatballs or burger patties. Serve the kefta with a tzatziki-style dip.
Smoked Ham Hock and Lentil Soup
Nina Compton (Season 11)
“I love making this lentil soup when the weather begins to cool,” says 2017 F&W Best New Chef Nina Compton, chef-owner of New Orleans hot spot Compère Lapin. “The ham-hock aroma hangs around the kitchen beautifully; the smell alone makes you warmer. Adding a little ginger and lemongrass brightens the soup and reminds me of being back home in St. Lucia. Using local okra reminds me of my Louisiana home and adds a different texture.”
Tempura Four Ways
Shota Nakajima (Season 18)
This big platter of tempura vegetables, shrimp, and uni served with tendashi and matcha salt from Top Chef contestant Shota Nakajima is an excellent snacking platter that can double as a meal. The tempura chocolate cookies stuffed with cream accented with Wagyu fat and then fried are an unexpected sweet finish.
Farro Mafaldine with Black Truffle Butter and Mushrooms
Karen Akunowicz (Seasons 13 and 17: All-Stars)
This elegant-yet-hearty dish pairs creamy butter, nutty farro pasta, and a fortifying mix of wild mushrooms with just enough truffle to elevate each forkful. Black truffle paste, available year-round, melts beautifully into the buttery sauce, but when they’re in season (November through February), chef Karen Akunowicz recommends splurging for fresh black truffles, and using a rasp grater to get as much truffle goodness as possible into each perfect bite.
Birria Tacos
Claudette Zepeda (Season 2 of Top Chef Mexico and Season 15 Top Chef U.S.)
In chef Claudette Zepeda’s Birria Tacos recipe, a combination of two meats creates the best balance of tender texture (from the chuck roast) and succulence (from the short ribs). The tacos get slow-cooked flavor from the adobo sauce, which features three dried chiles—guajillo, ancho, and cascabel.
Chickpea Doubles with Tamarind and Scotch Bonnet Pepper Sauce
Kwame Onwuachi (Season 13)
Traditional Trinidadian doubles are served open-faced and quickly wrapped in wax paper, letting the bara steam, and keeping the spicy filling piping hot. Try leftover tamarind sauce in margaritas, drizzled over fresh mangoes, or with roast pork.
Croatian Langoustine and Squid Ink Risotto
Joe Flamm (Season 15)
For this creamy Croatian risotto, Top Chef Season 15 winner Joe Flamm was inspired by a dish from Gverovic-Orsan, a seafood restaurant on the Adriatic Sea. Squid ink provides dark color and a gentle brininess. Rather than lots of butter and cheese, this risotto relies entirely on stirring to make it creamy, so stay close by as it cooks. You can substitute the langoustines with eight large shrimp or four halved Maine lobster tails, if needed.
Poul Nan Sos (Haitian Chicken in Sauce)
Gregory Gourdet (Seasons 12 and 17: All-Stars)
“When I was a kid, we often left Queens on Sunday mornings to visit Mémère, my paternal grandmother, in New Jersey,” chef Gregory Gourdet says. “Along with warm kisses and a few words of broken English, this chicken stew would greet us. Its official name (poul nan sos in Haitian Creole, or ‘chicken in sauce”‘ is quite an understatement. The meat is marinated overnight with onions, garlic, thyme, and chiles along with citrus, and then rubbed forcefully onto the chicken to access the fragrant oils. After the meat takes on all that flavor, it’s stewed with the marinade and loads of bell peppers for a satisfying, thrilling stew. This dish is Haiti, something we make time and time again. I suspect you will, too.”
Za’atar Baked Eggs
Gail Simmons (Judge)
“In my teens, I spent a summer on a kibbutz in Israel working in my first professional kitchen,” TV personality and cookbook author Gail Simmons says. “I was assigned to breakfast duty and fell in love with scrambling, poaching, and frying eggs by the dozens. Today, one of my go-to brunches is baked eggs in a cherry tomato–pepper mix seasoned with the Mediterranean spice blend za’atar.”
Hong Kong Milk Tea Tiramisu
Melissa King (Seasons 12 and 17: All-Stars)
This ultra-rich tiramisu from Top Chef Season 17 winner Melissa King is subtly sweet and well balanced by the lightly bitter tannins in the Hong Kong milk tea powder. If you want to make this dessert in advance, assemble the tiramisu without the milk chocolate garnish and chill it overnight.
Casarecce with Sausage, Pickled Cherries and Pistachios
Tom Colicchio (Judge)
This creamy pasta from chef Tom Colicchio comes together in just minutes, though you’ll have to make the pickled cherries the night before. Pair the finished dish with a tart, cherry-scented Austrian red, such as Zweigelt.
Apple Pie à la Mode Ice Cream Sandwiches
Kristen Kish (Season 10)
Top Chef Season 10 winner Kristen Kish designed this dessert to honor both of her grandmothers, one known for her apple pie and the other for her snickerdoodles. Kish folds spiced apple pie filling into vanilla ice cream, then sandwiches it between chewy snickerdoodle cookies.
Pork Ribs Vindaloo
Floyd Cardoz (Top Chef Masters Season 3)
The late, iconic chef and Top Chef Masters winner Floyd Cardoz created this juicy, saucy dish as an ode to his mother’s pork vindaloo, using ribs instead of the more traditional shoulder. Serve the ribs with crusty bread to mop up every bit of the spiced, tangy sauce
Sauce-Simmered Spaghetti al Pomodoro
Sarah Grueneberg (Season 9)
Here, Top Chef finalist Sarah Grueneberg cooks parboiled spaghetti right in the tomato sauce so it becomes infused with flavor. To get a head-start on the recipe, you can make the sauce in advance — it can be covered and refrigerated for up to five days.
Porterhouse Steak
Bryan Voltaggio and Michael Voltaggio (Bryan: Seasons 5: Masters, 6, and 17: All-Stars. Michael: Season 6)
For a perfectly tender and crusty steak, brothers and chefs Bryan Voltaggio and Michael Voltaggio salt their meat up to 12 hours before cooking and let it sit, uncovered, in the refrigerator. This step seasons the meat to its core and pulls out moisture for a better sear.
Sweet-and-Spicy Spareribs with Korean Barbecue Sauce
Mei Lin (Season 12)
Top Chef Season 12 winner Mei Lin slow-roasts these ribs in the oven until they’re super-tender; then she glazes them on the grill with a sweet and spicy sauce spiked with gochujang. She also stirs the sauce into pulled pork, serves it with french fries instead of ketchup, and mixes it with melted butter to toss with fried chicken.
Crespelle with Ricotta and Marinara
Tony Mantuano (Top Chef Masters Season 2)
In this recipe, adapted from Wine Bar Food by Tony Mantuano and his wife, Cathy, lush ricotta-filled crêpes bake in a rich marinara sauce. The Mantuanos recommend serving the meal with a Tuscan red blend.
Shrimp and Grits with Mustard Seed Chowchow
Isaac Toups (Season 13)
New Orleans–based chef Isaac Toups loves Bellegarde grits for their creamy texture and buttered popcorn flavor. The chowchow for this recipe can be made up to a week in advance and is delicious with grilled meats or other rich dishes.
Sautéed Zucchini with Ginger and Dill
Padma Lakshmi (Former Host and Judge)
This is a light and lovely way to prepare zucchini, which gets quickly sautéed with garlic, shallots, and ginger, then tossed with fresh dill. TV personality, and cookbook author Padma Lakshmi likes to stir dried pomegranate seeds (called anardana in India) into this dish for a bit of crunchy tang.
Crisp and Lacy Onion Rings
Richard Blais (Seasons 4 and 8: All-Stars)
There are all sorts of tricks for making deep-fry batters both delicate and crisp. Sometimes, recipes call for beating in beer or club soda (the little air bubbles lighten the mixture), or adding vodka (alcohol boils off more quickly than water, enhancing a batter’s texture). For these onion rings, chef Richard Blais uses both strategies and amplifies their effect by aerating the batter in a siphon. The results are some of the laciest, crunchiest onion rings you’ll ever taste. This batter is equally good on all kinds of fried foods, like chicken, pork cutlets, fish, and other vegetables.
Hung’s Clay Pot Rice
Hung Huynh (Season 3)
This earthy, mushroom-and-bacon-studded clay pot rice from chef Hung Huynh is flavored with ginger, garlic, and scallions. Soft, slightly sweet ginkgo nuts can be added to the dish as well.