What Happens To Unused Food On Top Chef?

One of the most popular cooking shows on TV, Top Chef, has been around for a long time. As per Insider, the show wrapped up its 17th season last June and remains a crowd favorite. Its host, actress Padma Lakshmi, shared something interesting about being on the show. She said that she easily puts on at least ten pounds every season on account of the fact that she is required to eat everything that the contestants make while filming the show. Who knew?

Of course, the show is an intense experience for everyone involved, including the participants who go to great lengths to prepare dishes that impress the judges and make them stand out for their culinary talent. But guess what? Most of the participants end up surviving on junk food like chips and cup of noodles thanks to the fact they're too tired to prepare full meals after a long day on set. 

But if the chefs, judges, and host aren't polishing off all that leftover food what happens to it? Here's the answer.

Whenever there's extra food on set, the culinary producers get to take it back with them. Basically, even though plenty of ingredients are bought for the contestants, only a tiny amount is actually used on Top Chef. One of the producers, Shannon Wilkinson said that getting access to extra food is one of the definite perks of the job (via Seattle Met). "Since these challenges were often weeks apart, we would take any leftover product that would have spoiled back to the hotel and have dinner parties...we'd go back to our hotel and eat caviar and foie and lobster."

Unfortunately, not all the food items could be saved and they were forced to toss the products that spoiled during filming. That said, the team still got together with the rest of their colleagues such as the camera guys and the lighting staff to share the meals they cooked after they finished filming. Sounds like fun, right?