'Top Chef' filmed its 2022 finale in Arizona. These local people and places were featured
“Top Chef” has headed to Arizona for its final episodes of Season 19.
The Bravo cooking competition show — which filmed in Houston this season — brought its final four contestants to Tucson for a two-part finale that began with Episode 13, which aired on Thursday, May 26. Episode 14 will air June 2.
The final four chefs this season are Buddha Lo, Damarr Brown, Evelyn Garcia and Sarah Welch. Brown was eliminated before the final episode.
According to the Arizona Daily Star, "Top Chef" filming took place last fall. Visit Tucson incentivized the show to film in the city, reportedly offering $750,000 to cover production costs. Also, Tucson has the distinction of being the country’s first UNESCO City of Gastronomy.
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El Charro Café got a spotlight on 'Top Chef'
Several Tucson institutions and notable Arizonans were featured in the penultimate episode of Season 19.
El Charro Café chef Carlotta Flores was featured in Episode 13, titled “Cactus Makes Perfect," in which she challenges the contestants to create a dish featuring her carne seca.
The spotlight on El Charro is timely, as the legendary restaurant is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. According to its website, the restaurant is “the nation’s oldest Mexican restaurant in continuous operation by the same family.”
Maria Mazon of Boca Tacos y Tequila, who was a contestant last season, also made an appearance for the Episode 13 elimination challenge. The contestants were asked to create one sweet and one savory dish using cactus and chiltepin.
Mazon was a James Beard Award semifinalist in the Best Chef: Southwest category this year. Don Guerra of Barrio Bread — a James Beard Award nominee this year for outstanding baker — and Rene Andrade of Bacanora in Phoenix also join in tasting the chefs' elimination challenge dishes.
Janos Wilder, who was named by the James Beard Foundation as the top chef in the Southwest in 2000, makes an appearance in the Episode 14 finale.
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Where 'Top Chef' filmed in Tucson
The final two episodes feature the JW Marriott Tucson Starr Pass Resort & Spa, Tanque Verde Resort and Pima County Historic Courthouse.
The contestants also took a field trip to Mission Garden, “a living agricultural museum of Sonoran Desert-adapted heritage fruit trees, traditional local heirloom crops and edible native plants,” according to its website. There, they were acquainted with some Sonoran Desert plants in Episode 13.
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Diana Schmedeman, a producer for Magical Elves — the production company behind "Top Chef" — pointed to Tucson being "a visually stunning destination and a culinary hidden gem" as reasons for filming there.
"Having been introduced to influential culinary figures and local growers who help shape Tucson’s scene, we knew we had found everything needed to help inspire our finalists for a memorable season finale," Schmedeman said in a statement.
As Houston Chronicle Food Editor Emma Balter pointed out in a May 19 article, it's tradition for "Top Chef" to get out of its host city as a season draws to an end.
"Even domestic destinations have included flashy places like Hawaii and Las Vegas. But going from Houston to Tucson? Seems a little sad, but y'all have fun," Balter wrote.
How to watch the ‘Top Chef’ Season 19 finale
“Top Chef” airs at 8 p.m. Thursdays on Bravo. The Episode 14 finale will air on June 2.
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Reach Entertainment Reporter KiMi Robinson at kimi.robinson@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @kimirobin and Instagram @ReporterKiMi.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'Top Chef' 2022 finale heads to Arizona: Here's where the show filmed
