A Sport I Actually Understand

I’ve never really understood sports. I didn’t grow up playing them past middle school, I don’t know the rules well enough to follow a game, and honestly, I’ve always felt uneasy about some of the culture, especially the hatred toward trans athletes.

Without that connection, watching or talking about sports has often felt like a waste of time. Even during a four-year relationship with someone obsessed with baseball, I never managed to care.

Watching the finale of Top Chef, I finally realized why people watch sports.

Like athletes, there’s something awe-inspiring about watching professionals at the top of their game. That’s what Top Chef offers — chefs who are not only skilled technicians, but artists under pressure. Each episode delivers wildly creative dishes and moments of brilliance, all shaped by ridiculous time constraints and unexpected challenges.

Watching Top Chef feels like both a window into the mind of a chef and a crash course in culinary language and global ingredients.

If you’ve never watched the show, Season 22 just finished (no spoilers, I swear!) Filmed across Canada, the season follows the classic format: chefs cook their hearts out in back-to-back challenges, and someone is sent home for even the slightest mistake. But if you haven’t watched in a while, it’s worth noting how far the show has come from its early days of an all-white cast and a heavy obsession with French cooking.

The current host, Kristen Kish, brings something new — a quiet emotional intelligence and deep respect for the chefs. She offers feedback with care and sends people home with humanity. It’s subtle, but it changes the tone of the whole show.

Beyond the technical skill, Top Chef explores food as culture, identity, and constant learning. This season, the connection to place was especially powerful. The first episode challenged chefs to draw inspiration from Canada’s five regions. Later, they honored Indigenous food traditions by incorporating native berries into a dish commemorating ranchers and First Nations people. In one of my favorite episodes, the chefs went foraging around Quarry Lake in Canmore, Alberta, and had to create a dish from whatever they found.

By the final episodes, you feel like you know these chefs — what drives them, and what they’re fighting to prove (hint hint.) The finale had me cheering out loud and in tears.

Thank you, Top Chef, for showcasing the athleticism of cooking and giving a