25 Top Chef Recipes to Add to Your Rotation

Richard Blais (Seasons 4 and 8: All-Stars)

"I just think carrots, particularly their tops and roots, are an artistic wonder," Richard Blais says. "The color, the abstract shape—they're gorgeous." He cooks them in a tangy ginger sauce and then sprinkles them with furikake. 

Hosea Rosenberg (Season 5)

In his riff on Black Forest cake, a favorite dessert of his father’s, Hosea Rosenberg tops individual cakes with mascarpone cream instead of whipped cream and luscious brandied cherries instead of jarred ones.

Tre Wilcox (Seasons 3 and 8: All-Stars)

“I grew up on chicken thighs,” says Top Chef all-star Tre Wilcox. “These days I season them with crushed red pepper and star anise and braise them in a sauce with tomatoes and red wine.”

Tony Mantuano (Top Chef Masters Season 2)

For these delicious roast pork sandwiches, chef Tony Mantuano spreads a rub of garlic and spicy Aleppo pepper on boneless pork shoulder or pork leg. 

Hung Huynh (Season 3)

This clay pot rice from Hung Huynh is flavored with ginger, garlic, and scallions.

Harold Dieterle (Season 1)

Top Chef season 1 winner Harold Dieterle's Thai coconut soup recipe is flavored with chiles, ginger and lemongrass, and garnished with plenty of shrimp.

Stephanie Izard (Season 4)

After experimenting with miso paste and flavorful Spanish marcona almonds, Stephanie Izard created a delectable nutty-sweet butter that she serves with meaty seared duck breasts.

Carla Hall (Seasons 5 and 8: All-Stars)

“I adore savory cheese cookies with creamy asparagus soup,” says Carla Hall. “Both are dead simple to make.”

Floyd Cardoz (Top Chef Masters Season 3)

As chef and founder of Bombay Canteen and O Pedro in Mumbai and Tabla in New York, among other restaurants, Floyd Cardoz was considered one of the world's most influential chefs. He was an avid fisherman, and this summery grilled bass with ginger-spiced tomato salad was a favorite of his.

Stephanie Izard (Season 4)

At Cabra in Chicago, 2011 BNC Stephanie Izard channels her love of Peruvian cuisine to deliver inspired takes on traditional ceviche and tiradito. At the restaurant, Izard dresses raw sushi-grade tuna steak with a creamy Kewpie mayonnaise-laced sauce, thinned with lime and orange juices, and studded with spicy serrano chiles. For a twist, try giving the tuna a quick sear in a screaming-hot skillet to add another layer of complexity to the dish.

Nina Compton (Season 11)

For juicy, flavorful chicken, chef Nina Compton soaks her drumsticks in a simple brine for 45 minutes before grilling. This is her summer version of the dish, which changes throughout the year: She uses butternut squash and mushrooms in the fall and fresh fava beans, English peas, and fiddlehead ferns in the spring.

Tom Colicchio (Judge)

This creamy pasta from star chef Tom Colicchio comes together in just minutes, though you’ll have to make the pickled cherries the night before. 

Kristen Kish (Season 10)

Top Chef Season 10 winner Kristen Kish designed this dessert to honor both of her grandmothers, one known for her apple pie and the other for her snickerdoodles. Kish folds spiced apple pie filling into vanilla ice cream, then sandwiches it between chewy snickerdoodle cookies.

Padma Lakshmi (Host and Judge)

This is a light and lovely way to prepare zucchini, which gets quickly sautéed with garlic, shallots, and ginger, then tossed with fresh dill. Padma Lakshmi likes to stir dried pomegranate seeds (called anardana in India) into this dish for a bit of crunchy tang. 

Gail Simmons (Judge)

“In my teens, I spent a summer on a kibbutz in Israel working in my first professional kitchen,” Gail Simmons writes. “I was assigned to breakfast duty and fell in love with scrambling, poaching, and frying eggs by the dozens. Today, one of my go-to brunches is baked eggs in a cherry tomato–pepper mix seasoned with the Mediterranean spice blend za’atar.”

Isaac Toups (Season 13)

The chowchow for this recipe from Isaac Toups can be made up to a week in advance and is delicious with grilled meats or other rich dishes.

Sarah Grueneberg (Season 9)

Top Chef finalist Sarah Grueneberg cooks parboiled spaghetti right in the tomato sauce so it becomes infused with flavor.

Carla Hall (Seasons 5 and 8: All-Stars)

Chef and cookbook author Carla Hall makes her own crunchy crackers to serve with her cheese spread, a riff on a Southern classic.

Bryan Voltaggio and Michael Voltaggio (Bryan: Seasons 5: Masters, 6, and 17: All-Stars. Michael: Season 6)

For a perfectly tender and crusty steak, brothers Bryan and Michael Voltaggio salt their meat up to 12 hours before and let it sit, uncovered, in the refrigerator. This step seasons the meat to its core and pulls out moisture for a better sear. 

Melissa King (Season 17: All-Stars)

This ultra-rich tiramisu from Top Chef Season 17 winner Melissa King is subtly sweet and well balanced by the lightly bitter tannins in the Hong Kong milk tea powder. 

Sheldon Simeon (Seasons 10 and 14)

This recipe from Hawaiian chef Sheldon Simeon is inspired by the food trucks that serve garlic butter shrimp on Oahu’s North Shore. The shrimp are marinated in a mixture of Italian dressing, mayonnaise, calamansi juice, and salt, then grilled and tossed in roasted garlic butter. The result: unbelievably sweet, juicy grilled shrimp. You can make the garlic butter in advance, and use any leftover garlic butter on pasta, fish, or toast.

Joe Flamm (Season 15)

For this creamy Croatian risotto, Top Chef Season 15 winner Joe Flamm was inspired by a dish from Gverovic-Orsan, a seafood restaurant on the Adriatic Sea. Squid ink provides dark color and a gentle brininess. Rather than lots of butter and cheese, this risotto relies entirely on stirring to make it creamy, so stay close by as it cooks. You can substitute the langoustines with 8 large shrimp or 4 halved Maine lobster tails, if needed.

Mei Lin (Season 12)

Top Chef Season 12 winner Mei Lin slow-roasts these ribs in the oven until they’re super-tender; then she glazes them on the grill with a sweet and spicy sauce spiked with gochujang. She also stirs the sauce into pulled pork, serves it with french fries instead of ketchup and mixes it with melted butter to toss with fried chicken.

Brooke Williamson (Seasons 10 and 14)

This delicately sweet and tangy panna cotta from Top Chef season 14 winner Brooke Williamson is the perfect way to showcase plump summer fruits. We use blackberries here, but you could also swap in strawberries, raspberries or juicy sliced peaches.

Kelsey Barnard Clark (Season 16)

Punchy rémoulade cuts through the richness of the crispy buttermilk fried chicken, which is served over a salad of pickled fennel and peaches in this recipe from Top Chef Season 16 winner Kelsey Barnard Clark. Seek out underripe, firmer peaches for the salad—they’ll hold up to pickling best.