Parents' Guide to

Life After Top Chef

By Joyce Slaton, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 14+

Ex-contestants carry on in saucy, absorbing reality series.

TV Bravo Reality TV 2012
Life After Top Chef Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this TV show.

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What's the Story?

LIFE AFTER TOP CHEF answers the question that's flitted across the minds of many viewers of competition series: What's the point of winning? Do the designers of Project Runway or the chefs of Top Chef go on to better things after the cameras are turned off? Or do they retreat back to the same old life with nothing changed? This series from Top Chef's creators follows four former contestants: Richard Blais, Fabio Viviani, Jennifer Carroll, and Spike Mendelsohn, as they attempt to open restaurants or take care of the ones they've already got, try to balance work with family life and take hard knocks in and out of the kitchen.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: Not yet rated
Kids say: Not yet rated

Genius showrunners Magical Elves have done it again: Life After Top Chef is both smart and absorbing. It's also a rather clever new twist on reality shows. Will Life After Survivor or After Big Brother follow? Reality show viewers can't help but wonder if drama-filled competitions matter at all, and Life After Top Chef illustrates that they do. Sorta. Some of the chefs featured seem to have experienced greater success after being on TV. Fabio Viviani, for example, holds well-attended cooking classes at his Los Angeles restaurant, where a roomful of people laugh at his Top Chef quips. Jennifer Carroll, on the other hand, seems stuck in a down cycle, unable to raise money to open her dreamed-of restaurant.

Viewers get to see the chefs on the show as real people. They bark out orders in the kitchen and drape sauces over meat, then they come home to grumpy wives and teary kids, or sick moms who need help. Life After Top Chef is a lot less glamorous than Top Chef, with its celebrities and picturesque mystery locations. But it's more realistic reality, and the human-sized dramas are no less interesting than the competition. Kids who watch may wind up not wanting to be a chef -- it's a lot harder than it looks on Top Chef! But they will gain an appreciation of those who strive mightily to advance their careers.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about whether a show following former reality show contestants is interesting or not. Did appearing on Top Chef change these chefs' lives? For better, or for worse? How do you think other reality show contestants do after their shows end?

  • Why is Jennifer Carroll typically so much more dressed up than her male counterparts? Does she dress herself? Why in promotional images of the show are the male contestants in chef's or casual pants, while Carroll wears a short skirt? Why would it be impractical to wear a skirt, particularly a short one, in the kitchen?

  • Does watching Life After Top Chef make you want to be a chef? Do their lives look glamorous? Interesting? Easy?

TV Details

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