Top Chef Canada is back for Season 13, and this year, the GTA has a particularly strong presence in the kitchen.
The new season brings together a mix of first-time contestants and returning Top Chef Canada alumni, all competing for the national title. And there’s a little extra pressure on the hometown contingent: last season’s winner was Toronto chef Coulson Armstrong, who took the top prize before returning to the show this year as a guest judge for the premiere.
Armstrong is the Culinary Director at Matty Matheson’s Our House Hospitality Company, and he’ll have a front-row seat as this season’s chefs begin their run through the competition. For the Toronto-area contestants, there’s also the added challenge of representing a dining scene that has become increasingly difficult to ignore.
Toronto proper is represented by Sebouh “Seb” Yacoubian, the chef behind Midtown restaurant Taline. Yacoubian’s cooking draws on Armenian and Middle Eastern influences, and his restaurant has built a following for its take on the food. Now he’s taking that cooking beyond Toronto and into one of Canada’s most high-pressure kitchens.
Then there’s Lifini “Lif” Kalikutty, chef at Little Italy neighbourhood restaurant Contrada. Kalikutty brings another Toronto perspective to the competition, while also representing the wider GTA — a region that has increasingly become part of the city’s food conversation.
Rounding out the local lineup is Milton-based private chef Giovanni Meyer of Pinch of Black Salt. His appearance gives the GTA’s suburbs some representation, too, putting a chef from outside Toronto’s core up against cooks from across the country.
The local connections don’t stop with the contestants. Toronto chefs Rob Rossi and Masaki Saito, both Michelin-starred, are also set to appear as guest judges during the season.
Of course, having a hometown-heavy cast doesn’t make the competition any easier. The chefs will still have to make it through the show’s elimination challenges, work under serious time constraints and cook for judges who have seen just about every possible way for a dish to go sideways.
For Toronto’s three contestants, though, Season 13 offers a chance to put their restaurants and cooking in front of a national audience. And with last year’s title already sitting in Toronto, there’s a very obvious question hanging over the new season: can the GTA do it again?