Women & People of Color First to Go on Top Chef

If you've been watching Top Chef Las Vegas, you can't help but notice the obvious. As women and people of color are voted off the show week after week, the contestant pool is increasingly becoming a "good old boy network" much like the top-tier of chefs that serve as guest judges on the show.

But is this intentional or accidental? It all depends on your perspective. A couple of things are clear. A member of the Hindu faith who does not eat or cook beef for religious reasons will never win Top Chef. A member of the Muslim faith who does not eat pork for religious reasons will never win Top Chef. And of course, Vegetarians are completely screwed in this competition.

Women are more likely to be vegetarian. Some people of color don't cook or eat meat for religious reasons. Meat-centric challenges, like this most recent episode focusing on 'classic french proteins', are inherently biased against women and people of color, and one of the reasons Top Chef Las Vegas is rapidly becoming a club for (mostly closeted) white-men only.

These challenges favor contestants who work with meat and are knowledgeable about european cooking techniques and are biased against contestants who may specialize in other ethnic cuisine. When have we seen a Thai Cooking Challenge on Top Chef? An Ethiopian Cooking Challenge?

And selecting a guest-panel of white male judges only makes matters worse.

It seems a particularly cruel joke to recruit a crew of 'Cheftestants' who are diverse in gender, race, and ethnicity, and then set up a series of challenges and select a series of guest judges that stack the odds in favor of the white men.

Top Chef, you can do better!