Parents' Guide to

Top Chef Duels

By Joyce Slaton, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 12+

Family-friendly cooking competition with some trash talking.

TV Bravo Reality TV 2014
Top Chef Duels Poster Image

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What's the Story?

TOP CHEF DUELS brings together some of the most talked-about contestants from Top Chef and Top Chef Masters. In each episode, two chefs will face off in three culinary battles: two that they devise to confound the other, and one given to them by the judges (Gail Simmons, Curtis Stone, and Wolfgang Puck). Each of the first two rounds carries a $10,000 prize; the chef who takes home the competition's top honors wins the chance to compete in the season finale for $100,000 and bragging rights.

Is It Any Good?

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

These are good chefs making delicious-looking food, which is fun to watch if you're hungry or want to be inspired to cook or eat. But even some of the people on-screen are aware of how low the stakes are. These are people who are already famous and successful; will $10,000 or even $100,000 really do anything major for their lives? It adds a certain flatness to the proceedings and makes you not want to root for anyone.

Still, if your family tends to like cooking competitions, this one is entertaining, as cooking competitions go. The judges give the competitors interesting challenges, such as making food so aromatic the judges can eat and enjoy it blindfolded or creating dishes that look like one thing but taste like another. Perhaps your family will be inspired to challenge each other to weird cooking contests. Eating the results would be interesting, anyway.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about why the chefs who participate do so. Is it only for the prize money? To promote their restaurants and television shows? What other reasons could there be?

  • The winner of Top Chef Duels is judged by a six-person panel. Would a two-person panel be better or worse? Explain why having more or fewer opinions is important in a contest.

  • Who do you think does the dishes on Top Chef Duels? Or procures the food? Is it anyone we see on-screen?

TV Details

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