‘Top Chef’ Producers Dish Up Secrets Behind Quickfire Challenges

variety.com:

Carole Horst For 19 seasons, the gifted contestants on Bravo’s Emmy-winning “Top Chef” have been thrown into the reality competition show deep end with the show’s signature Quickfire Challenge.

While the Quickfire Challenge is not as diabolical as, say, “Chopped’s” baskets, it’s fast-moving, and constructed around themes or local ingredients or even cooking utensils (or lack of).What usually emerges are memorable bites.

But who comes up with the challenges? The “Top Chef” producers — all as passionate about food and storytelling through the culinary arts as the cheftestants — spill the beans.“When coming up with Quickfire Challenges, I first start off with, ‘What’s a fun fact about our host city?

Is it known for ramen? Was the fajita invented here? Does it have the largest Nigerian population? Is their local hero a sports star?’” says Thi Nguyen. “From there, I dig deeper into the backstory to develop a challenge around it.” Nguyen offered a Quickfire example from the most recent season of the show, “Top Chef: Houston,” in which the chefs were asked to cook swallows, which are starches dipped into a stew or soup. “Nigerian cuisine consists of swallows, and has so many rich spices and flavors,” Nguyen says. “But we’re not asking the chefs to make their own swallow — we want them to experience this, take inspiration, and then turn it into their own interpretation.“So how do you make this challenging?” Nguyen continues. “You break them up into groups by the swallow, have them pull from a knife draw and push them outside their comfort zone by introducing them to spices and ingredients that they may be unfamiliar with.