Top Chef has crowned some great cooks as its champions over the years, but winners aren’t always popular with the general public. Viewers often take a shine to contestants – or cheftestants as they are known on the show – who are amusing or who have an interesting story to tell.
However, this doesn’t necessarily make them great chefs, and fans may have to say goodbye to their preferred cooks early in the series. Luckily, Top Chef also allows viewers to vote each week for their favorites, and the cheftestant who gets the most votes for the season is named the Fans’ Favourite.
Richard Blais
Richard Blais was one of Lafoso’s competitors in season 4 of Top Chef, as well as returning for and winning the Top Chef: All Stars series in 2010.
In addition to being witty and charming in front of the cameras, Blais was also popular with Top Chef fans for his sense of theatre, including some clever uses of liquid nitrogen to unexpectedly freeze unusual ingredients. Despite all this, his popularity seemed to last for only 10 minutes when he said in his all-stars head interview that people ed him from his season as he should have won but he chocked. The arrogance dipped his ratings.
Nyesha Arrington
Young chef Nyesha Arrington embraced her Asian heritage when she appeared on season 9 of Top Chef deg some truly imaginative dishes which put her spin on Korean classics. Despite being knocked out of the competition on the say-so of the judges relatively early in the series, Arrington was still voted fan favorite by viewers thanks to her creative cooking and her lively and bubbly personality. Her popularity took a hit, however, when she wasn't such a team player, when their venison was undercooked, saying that that's all her teammate Dakota Weiss "had to do", and she messed it up.
Casey Thompson
The third season of Top Chef was based in Florida and Colorado in 2007, and runner-up Casey Thompson also won the coveted fans’ favorite award. Her understated approach to the competition seemed to go down very well with viewers, and the fact that she made mistakes late in the series which could well have cost her the title earned her some sympathy points. Fans felt, however, that three times was enough to appear on the show, and Thompson needed to be retired.
Antonia Lofaso
Top Chef semi-finalist Antonia Lofaso had already enjoyed an impressive career before she became a TV star, having worked as a manager at Sean Combs’ New York restaurant while she was training. Lofaso’s first Top Chef appearance came in season four, which started in Chicago and ended in San Juan in Puerto Rico. Although Lofaso didn’t win the fans’ favorite vote, fans loved her professionalism, camaraderie, and pleasant nature, which made it easier to ignore Lisa Fernandes' tantrums.
Carla Hall
Fan-favorite Carla Hall started life as a catwalk model, which makes for an unusual career path for a chef who loves to cook dishes that are packed with flavor. Hall finished runner-up in season five of Top Chef and was easily one of the most recognizable figures who has ever appeared on the show, thanks to her quirky “Hootie hoo!” catchphrase.
Fans loved Hall for being genuinely low key, loved cooking, and being a strong competitor without ever getting into the "muck".
Fabio Viviani
Fabio Viviani has created a career for himself as a TV star after his appearance on the fourth season of Top Chef, filmed in New York in 2008. The Italian-born chef was eliminated at the semi-final stage of the competition, but he was voted the fans;’ favorite, and his Italian charm certainly had a lot to do with his popularity! Viviani returned for an All-Stars season of Top Chef in 2010 and was one of the stars of a series that followed the careers of chefs who had appeared on the cooking show.
Sheldon Simeon
Hailing from Hawaii, Sheldon Simeon first appeared on Top Chef in season 10 in Seattle before making a comeback in season 14, which was filmed in Charleston. Although Simeon failed to win either series, he was voted fans’ favorite twice thanks to his cheerful, funny, and sunny disposition, and his ion for the traditional Filipino food that he cooked on the show. Sheldon became even more popular when Josh Valentine was mean about Sheldon getting a manicure, almost ruining one of Sheldon's greatest pampering moments.
Sam Talbot
Season 2 of Top Chef was the first time that viewers were able to choose a fans’ favorite through online and phone voting, and the honor went to Sam Talbot, a young chef from Charlotte, North Carolina who finished third overall.
Talbot had won fans over right from the start with his stories about his struggles with Type 1 diabetes, great personality and many of his recipes on the show reflected his ion for healthy cookery. He made a return to Top Chef in season 14 and has also published a memoir and cookbook about food and diabetes.
Kevin Gillespie
Atlanta chef Kevin Gillespie made it to the final of season 6 of Top Chef before losing out to eventual winner Michael Voltaggio – though Gillespie did at least pick up the fans’ favorite prize as consolation. His sense of humor made him a hit with TV viewers and his fellow contestants. That sense of humor also got him through some tough times when Gillespie was diagnosed with renal cancer in 2017, and he made a return to Top Chef: All Stars in 2020, getting knocked out in the semi-final. Bravely fighting cancer while keeping up with the Voltaggio's until the end of the season, resonated quite well with the audience.