Pack Your Knives - Podcast Rankings and reviews

This show pulls some great guest/cheftestant interviews and the scoring system is a fun framing device, but I have to agree with a few of the interviewers below. Kevin & Tom definitely have some underlying sexism and ethnocentrism that I’m sure they themselves wouldn’t recognize (and would probably be a bit defensive about) as it can be fairly subtle. Lowered expectations and backhanded compliments for female chefs, plus unwillingness or “inability” to pronounce non-English names. C’mon guys, these names are said repeatedly during the episode. Jot it down phonetically and make SOME effort. It’s a bad look to be so dismissive.

One of my favorite podcasts ever - the one I keep refreshing my feed to see if the new episode has dropped. Kevin and Tom are great together; two entirely different personalities but a shared love of food, Top Chef, and their fantasy league! I hope they change their subscription model next season - the cost is way too high and it only makes your episodes less relevant when I have to wait until Monday to hear them.

I have been a Top Chef fan since the beginning, and finding your podcast has made that experience all the richer! It’s SO much fun to listen you your recaps and interviews! I wish they would hire you two to provide commentary during all of the challenges! I’d love too hear you guys recap and reminisce over some older seasons, like Chicago, the first All Stars, Seattle, Boston and Charleston. You’ll find no lack of drama and competition those!

This show is such a fun recap and Eric explains techniques so well!

I realize that Kevin and Tom want to monetize their podcast. But they’ve completely sold out. This 40 minute episode had seven minutes of ads. Additionally they are now only providing certain content behind a pay wall. Needless to say, I will not be paying for that.

However, one of the biggest problems with this season of the podcast is that Kevin chose to go out to Wisconsin for some of the top chef events, so they cannot do a draft and do their fantasy league competition because he knows what will happen this season.

Their fantasy draft IS their show! These are a couple of sports guys who translated their love of sport to top chef. What are they thinking? This is a pure nod to Kevin’s ego at the expense of their format.

While I listen to their recaps, I also really enjoy their fun fantasy competition. I feel like this podcast can no longer provide impartial analysis of the show and of the contestants because they are too heavily embedded with the show.

Really disappointing change in their format and coverage and I think they’ve alienated their fan base

I understand I'm a salty poor person and that is a major reason for the low score- with the new season they are releasing a severely diminished PYK, with the rest behind the paywall of their new website. It really stinks when a podcast removes what would be regular content and releases it for only paying subscribers to their new website. I was a dedicated listener (and re-listener when I rewatched old seasons) and what was a weekly listen will now be much less, and that stinks! I understand making people pay for new/extra content, like every other podcast with a Patreon, which releases a regular episode and offers bonus content for paying subscribers- it stinks to find I’d have to pay $ for what would be regular content. C’est la vie, I’m just salty.