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Popular reality cooking competition Top Chef Season 20 aired a brand new episode on Thursday, March 16, 2023, at 9 pm ET on Bravo.
It documented the remaining All-Stars chefs from all over the world across different franchise series participating in various challenges. They gave it their all to create dishes to impress the judges. While some were successful, others failed to make their mark.
On this week's episode of Top Chef, chef Dawn Burrell, who was a finalist on season 18 of Top Chef Portland, became the second contestant to be eliminated from the All-Stars season. She is a long-jumper-Olympian-turned-chef, and after becoming a U.S. Olympic Track and Field athlete, the chef reached new heights in her culinary career and has also earned several accolades.
Season 20 of the Emmy-winning series is hosted by Padma Lakshmi along with judges Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons.
More about chef Dawn Burrell and her journey on Top Chef
Chef Dawn Burrell was a finalist on Season 18 of Top Chef Portland. She represented the country at the 2000 Summer Olympics, but soon shifted gears to pursue a career in the culinary industry, inspired by her travels all around the world. She wished to combine flavors from her travels and compliment her dishes with fresh and seasonal ingredients.
After returning as an Olympian long-jumper, chef Dawn Burrell enrolled in Culinary Arts at the Art Institute of Houston. She gained a significant amount of experience working with renowned chefs, including Chef Tom Aikens in London and Monica Pope at T’afia and Sparrow Cookshop in Houston.
The Top Chef Season 20 contestant then began working at Tyson Cole's Uchi in Houston. She went on to become the sous-chef at Uchi's sister restaurant in Austin, Uchiko. Dawn was then recruited by a modern Southern restaurant, Kulture, in downtown Houston. She continued to showcase her expertise in global comfort food and earned a James Beard nomination for Best Chef: Texas in 2020.
After making her debut in Top Chef Portland, which ended filming in July 2021, she became a partner at Lucille's Hospitality Group. Dawn is currently working to open her first restaurant in Houston called Late August.
In an interview with Fan Sided, she opened up about her renowned nomination and being an Olympian athlete, stating that they were the two goals she aimed to achieve and did so with her focused training and discipline.
"I put myself in places and under tutelage of experts in whatever field I am focused on. I don’t ever stop striving and learning. I’ve continued to use this same formula, and it’s still working for me.”
When viewers were introduced to chef Dawn Burrell on Top Chef Season 20, a flashback revealed that one of the major reasons she lost in the Portland season finale was because she couldn't put the food on the plates in time. While she succeeded in the first episode, the chef was ultimately eliminated this week.
In the elimination challenge, Dawn struggled to cook the rice for her congee until the last minute. Fellow contestant Amar Santana pointed out that her dish was "one dimensional." The judges echoed the sentiment and felt that the dish lacked the creaminess of the congree and tasted more like black rice soup.
In an interview with CultureMap Houston, the Top Chef contestant reflected on her elimination and was disappointed to leave the show after a rice-based challenge.
"“I love rice. I think that it’s a bridge in life and culture. To have been eliminated on a challenge and an ingredient that I hold so dear was really a shocker for me. It did not feel good at all.”
Season 20 of Top Chef has been dramatic with each passing episode. In the coming weeks, the contestants will be challenged with even more difficult tasks that will test their culinary abilities and creativity. Viewers will have to wait and find out which chef is able to take it all the way.
Don't forget to tune in to a brand new episode next Thursday, March 23, 2023, at 9 pm ET on Bravo.
