{"id":379375,"date":"2026-05-27T19:00:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T23:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greenvillejournal.com\/?p=379375"},"modified":"2026-05-27T12:55:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T16:55:41","slug":"my-top-chef-experience-as-a-mystery-judge-weekly-dish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greenvillejournal.com\/food-drink\/my-top-chef-experience-as-a-mystery-judge-weekly-dish\/","title":{"rendered":"My Top Chef experience as a mystery judge: Weekly Dish"},"content":{"rendered":"

The cat\u2019s out of the bag. I was on an Season 23 Episode 11<\/a> of Top Chef that aired May 18.<\/p>\n

The episode features the remaining six chefs starting at Topsoil in Travelers Rest<\/a> for their Elimination Challenge. It drew on the city\u2019s growing reputation for biking along the Prisma Health Swamp Rabbit Trail in tandem with the fact that Michelin North America is headquartered right here in our fair county.<\/p>\n

The challenge was set up Michelin Guide-style with mystery judges dining in as regular guests. I was a mystery judge. The challenge item was rabbit and the chefs prepared their dishes in an outdoor kitchen set up at Topsoil.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the thing: I don\u2019t watch \u201cTop Chef.\u201d In fact, the only culinary shows I ever watched were \u201cNo Reservations,\u201d \u201cParts Unknown,\u201d \u201cGood Eats with Alton Brown\u201d and Claire Saffitz\u2019 \u201cGourmet Makes\u201d on YouTube.<\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t really follow the competition but I\u2019m good at taking direction given a brief stint in a film career. I understand restaurants due to a decade-long tenure serving.<\/p>\n

Given the abundance of brilliant food writers in this city \u2013 some of whom are chefs \u2013 I was shocked to get a call from an unknown number Sept. 19, the first day of euphoria 2025. Euphoria, Greenville\u2019s showcase food and wine festival, is my own personal Super Bowl involving round-the-clock weekend \u201cwork days.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was coming out of a lunch at The Vista when I got the call inviting me to the taping of Episode 11 of Top Chef at Unity Park on Sunday but also to be a mystery judge at Topsoil the following day.<\/p>\n

I headed to Travelers Rest on Monday. There\u2019s a phrase in the entertainment business that goes \u201churry up and wait,\u201d meaning that if you\u2019re on early then you\u2019re merely on time but you\u2019ll still spend a good chunk of that time waiting before you\u2019re on camera which is cool because it allows you to watch the process.<\/p>\n

The morning was spent observing the chefs in the kitchen set up outside Topsoil to guess at what they may be creating on monitors in a sort of video village. I was placed back with the other diners shortly before filming began and mic\u2019d up as we were all ushered into Topsoil. My husband, Daniel, came with me so we just appeared to be two diners.<\/p>\n

We were served a glass of wine before all six rabbit dishes were places in front us each with their own flairs: a rabbit loin with pea stew, roasted rabbit legs with carrot-ginger puree, rabbit croquette with tenderloin, mushrooms and leek sauce, rabbit roulade, rabbit siu mai and jerk rabbit with mofongo.<\/p>\n

My father\u2019s family are Latin American immigrants who moved to the tiny urban suburb of Passaic, New Jersey. When I think of my childhood, it was sprinkled with dishes like Puerto Rican-style chicharron or Peruvian cau cau. They\u2019re the working-class comfort meals that remind us no matter how far we are, home can be right here in your kitchen.<\/p>\n

Chef Sherry Cardoso was raised in New York City and Brazil. She executed her dish with the warmth and familiarity of those comfort meals. It\u2019s pretty clear what my favorite was and which I rated most highly. Congratulations Chef Cardoso.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The challenge was set up Michelin Guide-style with mystery judges dining in as regular guests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4384,"featured_media":381475,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[40714,2],"tags":[],"powerkit_post_featured":[],"ppma_author":[40500],"class_list":["post-379375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-food-drink","category-news","cat-40714-id","cat-2-id"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","yoast_head":"\nMy Top Chef experience as a mystery judge: Weekly Dish - GREENVILLE JOURNAL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A behind-the-scenes look at one writer\u2019s Top Chef experience as a mystery judge during the Greenville-area episode filmed at Topsoil.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/greenvillejournal.com\/food-drink\/my-top-chef-experience-as-a-mystery-judge-weekly-dish\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"My Top Chef experience as a mystery judge: Weekly Dish\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A behind-the-scenes look at one writer\u2019s Top Chef experience as a mystery judge during the Greenville-area episode filmed at Topsoil.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/greenvillejournal.com\/food-drink\/my-top-chef-experience-as-a-mystery-judge-weekly-dish\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"GREENVILLE JOURNAL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-27T23:00:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/greenvillejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Tiare.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tiare-Leiana Solis-Ridgell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tiare-Leiana Solis-Ridgell\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/greenvillejournal.com\\\/food-drink\\\/my-top-chef-experience-as-a-mystery-judge-weekly-dish\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/greenvillejournal.com\\\/food-drink\\\/my-top-chef-experience-as-a-mystery-judge-weekly-dish\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tiare-Leiana Solis-Ridgell\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/greenvillejournal.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/19f369971ca0dcb14521665ef6c7d317\"},\"headline\":\"My Top Chef experience as a mystery judge: Weekly Dish\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-27T23:00:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/greenvillejournal.com\\\/food-drink\\\/my-top-chef-experience-as-a-mystery-judge-weekly-dish\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":562,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/greenvillejournal.com\\\/food-drink\\\/my-top-chef-experience-as-a-mystery-judge-weekly-dish\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/greenvillejournal.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/Tiare.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Food & Drink\",\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/greenvillejournal.com\\\/food-drink\\\/my-top-chef-experience-as-a-mystery-judge-weekly-dish\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/greenvillejournal.com\\\/food-drink\\\/my-top-chef-experience-as-a-mystery-judge-weekly-dish\\\/\",\"name\":\"My Top Chef experience as a mystery judge: Weekly Dish - 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