Life After Top Chef — Season 1
8 Episodes · Premiered October 3, 2012 · Ended November 28, 2012
Episodes
If you thought the pressure let up after leaving the Top Chef kitchen, think again. In the premiere episode of Life After Top Chef, viewers catch a glimpse into the personal and professional lives of memorable former cheftestants -- Richard Blais in Atlanta, Jen Carroll in Philadelphia, Spike Mendelsohn in D.C., and Fabio Viviani in Los Angeles. Top Chef: All-Stars champ Richard Blais is beginning construction on a new restaurant, but will his demanding career take too great a toll on his family life? Spike Mendelsohn was born into the restaurant business, and his outrageously opinionated family never lets him forget it. With two successful restaurants, the family empire is expanding, meaning a whole new slew of family feuds. "Fan Favorite" Fabio Viviani is expanding his own culinary brand with cooking classes, endorsement deals and social media, vying to become a male version of Martha Stewart, but are his workaholic ways disconnecting him from real happiness? Jen Carroll is no stranger to pressure, but after she's quit her job to open her own place, her investors start dropping out, leaving her to once again cook for somebody else. Then, competition calls as all the former cheftestants reunite at the Aspen Food & Wine Festival to cook for one of the toughest crowds in the culinary universe. Can they live up to their Top Chef reputations, or will they crash and burn?
After some last minute schmoozing and boozing in Aspen, the chefs return home. Never one to rest, Fabio dives into production meetings and a charity cooking class at a local church, but when a crazed client chews him out, will Fabio finally lose his trademark cool? Richard checks in on his Flip Burger boutiques and is appalled to discover his staff is lazy, his cooks are clueless, and his reputation is going up in flames. Spike fears his nosy parents will interfere with his new bistro concept, that is, if they ever stop taking jabs at his personal life. Jen's desperate quest for investors leads her to the Charleston Food & Wine Festival, where she serves up lambs and clams to the culinary elite. After a touching visit with her mom, we see where Jen gets her determination.
Richard interviews potential chefs for The Spence, only to run into an old enemy. Then, he struggles to get out of the doghouse with his frustrated wife by granting her unsettling birthday wish -- a day at the gun range. Spike heads to Canada for a family wedding and enrages his mother when he shows up late. Jen feels the pressure preparing a charity dinner for Cole Hamels and the Phillies, but with high-profile celebrities and athletes expecting the best, can Jen knock it out of the park? Fabio's busy schedule is interrupted by the arrival of his Italian mother, who's got her own advice on how he should be living his life. Along with his life coach, she stages an intervention to set his priorities straight before his stress does him in.
After a teary farewell with his mother, Fabio jets to New York for a celebrity chef appearance on Good Morning America filled with VIP treatment and screaming Times Square fans. A few blocks away, Richard cooks at the prestigious Food & Wine Best New Chef event to promote the Spence and impress his critics. But with hundreds of hungry diners and no food leaving the kitchen, panic sets in and Richard freaks out. Later, he confides in Fabio and fellow Top Chef alums Carla Hall, Angelo Sosa, and Dale Talde over a revealing dinner. Frustrated with her stalled restaurant, Jen flees Philadelphia on a road trip with Spike for an outrageous crash course in lamb farming. But when the moonshine flows and the two get tipsy, will these flirty friends become chefs with benefits?
A frazzled Richard conducts a nerve-racking menu-tasting for his picky partners and critiques construction of The Spence. Fabio meets a beverage maker in hopes of striking it rich with his own martini drink line before an overbooked charity dinner leaves his high-profile diners asking, "Where's the duck?"Spike and Jen wrap up their road trip with a lesson in oyster farming. Then, it's back to D.C., where Spike scouts his new bistro location and serves up a tasting only to have his parents derail his every decision. Meanwhile, Jen decides to launch a pop-up restaurant to woo investors and get her career back on track.
With only a week left until its opening, Spike and his family scramble to get Good Stuff Crystal City ready for the public. Jen puts her pop-up restaurant on hold to travel to L.A. and help Fabio cater an extravagant charity dinner, but when their sous-chef is two hours late delivering their dishes, the diners get restless and Fabio is infuriated. Richard forces his chefs through a gauntlet of cooking tests to find their skills tragically lacking, prompting him to second-guess his cuisine, instincts, and career.
Fabio and Jacopo try to make a splash in the beverage business with a VIP tasting of their new martini line. Richard's perfectionism rears its hypercritical head when he challenges his chefs with a demanding mock service. Spike goes on the warpath when he discovers the new Good Stuff griddles are incorrectly installed and his mother is to blame. Overbooked and understaffed, Jen struggles to impress investors with the launch of her pop-up restaurant. But with an ambitious six-course menu and unfamiliar kitchen, did the "Concrete Blonde" bite off more than she could chew?
In the season finale, it's the opening day of The Spence and Richard is more on edge than ever as he battles a packed house, his rookie staff, and a broken smoker. Can he live up to the diners' lofty expectations, or will his dream restaurant go up in smoke? Meanwhile, Spike and his family make a mad dash to open the doors on Good Stuff Crystal City only to discover that none of their staff knows how to cook their signature burgers. Fabio feels his paternal instincts kick into overdrive as he celebrates with his life coach's family. Jen treats her mother with a family trip to the salon. It's Top Chef déjà vu as the four former cheftestants are summoned one last time to battle it out in a Quickfire-style cook-off for First Lady Michelle Obama.