Maneet Chauhan on TOC V: ‘I walked in knowing what the competition is about’

Maneet Chauhan has done it: She became the first two-time winner of Food Network’s Tournament of Champions, defeating Antonia Lofaso to repeat her victory from season two in season five, after being beaten in the finale last year by Mei Lin.

The TOC V finale was filmed Oct. 27, 2023, Maneet’s birthday, and I talked to her today, the morning after it aired. We covered everything from her use of the randomizer to blind judging, including the obnoxious conspiracy theory that the judges somehow recognized her food and gave her the win as a result.

For the record: The judges don’t even know who is competing on the entire season, and the production goes to great lengths to keep contestants and judges apart. And of course, this kind of idiotic theory suggests judges of Eric Ripert, Lorena Garcia, and Michael Mina’s stature would agree to rig the competition. It’s nonsense—though I did want to give Maneet a chance to respond to it, and I appreciated her answer.

I also appreciated her insight into her process, the effects Tournament of Champions has on viewers, and her colorful chefs coats. The only thing Maneet was reticent to discuss is whether she’ll be on Tournament of Champions season six, though having season season five, I have no doubt she’d be a contender to win a third time.

This interview has been edited and condensed to clean up human speech.

Andy Dehnart: There are very few two-time winners of any reality TV competition. The first was Sandra Diaz-Twine, who won Survivor twice, and now you—two women of color setting these records. The Mount Rushmore of reality TV has your faces on it.

Maneet Chauhan: Thank you so much. Yeah, it gives me goosebumps. I’m like, wow! Last night, we were watching it, and the kids had no idea. They have seen me through five seasons, and they’ve seen me win and they’ve seen me lose. I try to put it across as a learning experience: either/or. So it was just absolutely incredible, incredible that we got to see it together.

You came really close last year. Was it any different going into this season, because you’d made the finals again last season? Did it put more pressure on you?

The pressure has pretty much been consistent, which has been intense. Each and every season has been crazy, but I do think that this season I walked in knowing what the competition is about: you play to the randomizer, you play to all the ingredients, you make sure that the flavor is king. So I do think that that was slightly different this season.

Do you feel like you are competing against your competitors, all the way to Antonia, or are you really competing against the randomizer, trying to make sure everything there shows up on your plate?

I think I’m competing more with myself. Like any competition, it is about that moment, and how ready you are for that competition. It’s what’s going on in your mind. At that moment, will you be able to dive in and make the puzzle of this randomizer work?

I always say TOC is like those exams that you can’t cram overnight; you have to learn the entire year to be able to excel at it. So this is just a culmination of our entire lifetime’s work, what you’ve learned, what you’ve tasted, what you’ve heard. And to pull that from your brain—that huge library that you have in your brain—to pull that at that moment, I think that’s what it’s all about, to crack the code on the fly.

So I do think that I myself am my biggest competition.

In addition to your actual win, you were the winningest chef [in TOC history]. I’m curious about doing these back-to-back, day-after-day competitions.

By the time you get to the final, are you mentally exhausted, or are you more mentally prepared based on the fact that you’ve done so many matches in those days ahead of the final?

I love the fact that this is sudden death. It’s not that you almost won or you almost lost. In a lot of other competitions, you’re in the bottom two or you’re in the top two. And that really makes your mindset.

Over here, the fact that you’re winning really lights a fire under you. You’re like: Okay, I am on a streak. I’ll keep on going. So I think the more you win, the more confidence you get, the more faith you have in your ability to take it across the line.

To go back to the randomizer: I’m curious if you can share what your thought process is like, especially for the wild mix of things we saw on this finale.

In those few moments between when the wheels stop spinning and they load up the fridge, are you already making plans in your head? How does it go for you?

You know, it depends. At times, I land on one of these ingredients and I’m like, this is what I’m going to start off with. For example, in the semifinals, I’m like, okay, chayote, familiar with this, this is what I’m going to start working on.

I think it’s around five to seven minutes before you really start competing, so there isn’t enough time to start forming the entire dish in your mind.

So I start off with what I’m familiar with, how I’m going to tackle that, and then things start falling into place.

This year, they increased the points for the randomizer. I’m wondering—as the queen of the randomizer in this competition—if you think that helped you.

I definitely think it helps. I think it definitely helps because when you’re playing the game, you have to play the game. Not only do you have to show your own flavors, you have to play to the randomizer.

I do take the randomizer ingredients and use them in a lot of different ways. I try to show the versatility of not just the protein or produce, but also the versatility of the equipment. How can you use it in different ways? I think that’s what really helps.

What was the thing that stumped you the most in the semifinal or the final?

I think the word “layered” in the finals really, really stumped me, because when I was thinking of layered, I started thinking of layered breads, like puff pastry.

But at the end of the day, I was working on layering of flavors, layering of textures, which is also what layered is all about. So I think that got into my mind a little bit more than it needed to.

In the semi, I think it was the interactive—just to make sure that the dishes are interactive.

I think also in the finale, the fact that we had to make duo, so instead of making six plates, we had to make 12 plates—12 different dishes with different components. That was crazy. Antonia and I were talking later—both of us walked out literally shell-shocked. We were like: What just happened here?

I don’t want to give too much attention to this, but there are conspiracy theories that your flavors are recognizable, perhaps because not many people use South Asian flavors or create Indian dishes in the competition. I’m wondering if you think the judges are ever able to recognize your work.

So I’ll have an interesting retort to that. It’s been blind tasting and I’ve been winning, right? When it wasn’t blind tasting, I wasn’t winning.

So what does that mean? Each and every person has a distinct style of their own. There are chefs from Asia who’ve got a Thai influence, who’ve got a Vietnamese influence, who’ve got a Korean influence, who’ve got a Chinese influence. The fact that Indian hasn’t become a mainstay so far is interesting.

But then if you look at the last couple of competitions, I have been competing against people who’ve decided that they’re going to make a curry, and they still haven’t won.

It’s not a matter of what my style of cooking is, or what the flavors are, I think what is important over here is that flavor is king. If you manage to get really good flavors, you cook really good flavors, that dish is going to win regardless.

There’ll always be naysayers. And that’s what I love about this competition: the food speaks for itself.

One of my proudest moments in my lifetime is Eric Ripert looking at my dish, eating my dish and saying, This is a happy plate. It still gives me goosebumps when I’m talking to you about it, because in my life, that’s why I have done cooking: to make sure that people around me are happy with food.

The fact that he got that without meeting me, without me telling the story, without me being as over-animated about it as possible? I’m like, okay, this is it. I am done. Right now, I can retire.

We’ve now seen all female finalists and winners in every single season of TOC, and I’m wondering: Do you think we’re seeing a lot of implicit and maybe explicit bias in other cooking competitions that tend to choose white men year after year for their winners? Does the blind judging get rid of the implicit bias and explicit bias that might be there?

I would put it as unintentional bias. There definitely is a bias, but I think it’s an unintentional bias.

If you look at the history of cooking, for the longest time, people have seen—especially in America—men who are white who’ve been in positions of authority, or who have been given the platform where they can show off their creativity.

It’s taken generations for women to reach that. A lot of it has to be because of what societal demands were. A lot of it has to be the self-imposed expectations that women have: I have to do this and I have to do that.

I think it’s an eye-opening experience: five seasons and it’s been five women. If you look at the statistics, even with the 32 chefs, it’s not a 50-50 percent split. There are more men than women. But the fact that we are still rising just shows that the culinary landscape, the culinary tapestry is changing.

It’s a huge responsibility on us, because younger women are looking at us and they’re like, Oh, they have shown that it can be done. There’s no reason why I can’t do it. And that is a huge responsibility.

So I do think that blind tasting is one of the most genius things about this show, among everything else. Absolutely genius.

I’m curious if the experience spills over into your life in other ways. Does being on TOC affect your work as a judge on other shows, or as a chef, or restaurant owner? Or is it something that exists in its own corner?

The belt is at Chauhan Ale and Masala House, which is in Nashville. We’ve been open for 10 years and people still keep coming because they’ve seen TOC and they’ve seen the belt, and they’re like, Where is the belt? The belt has more photographs taken with it than with me.

I think what TOC has done is that it has nudged people to try a cuisine that they have not before. They are like, if this can make it on a national platform, let’s go and try it. What’s the harm? I hear a lot of people say that we’ve never tried Indian food and this is the first time we’re trying it, and we’re so sad as to why we didn’t try it before.

So, absolutely, I think that it’s given [me] a spectacular platform. This morning, I got up to so many of these messages—women like me, who are women of color who have immigrated, they are like, Thank you.

There was somebody who sent me this message [who said] I would go to school with Indian food and I would be made fun of because of the smell. I was crying yesterday when I realized that it was Indian flavors that got you this win.

As I’m telling you this, I’m getting goosebumps. Winning is fantastic, it is amazing, it’s great for your ego. But the fact that you have the ability to make an impact with people, you have the ability to make people feel good about who they are?

That’s one of the reasons why I wear all of these bright jackets and earrings, because, in a way, I’m representing. I am showing that I am very proud of where I’ve come from. I’m not going to hide that. And I’m very proud of where I’ve ended up. If you have a voice, it’s important to use that voice.

That’s beautiful, and I’m glad reality TV is reaching people in that way.

Do you see yourself returning for TOC 6 or beyond? Or is this the end?

Well, we’ll have to wait for next year, won’t we?

Would you want to go back?

I think TOC is such a fantastic franchise. The fact that I’ve been a part of it for five years now is absolutely fantastic. So we’ll have to wait and see what next year holds in store for me.

If you became a producer, or you could tell the producers something, is there anything that you would change or evolve? Anything you think needs some tweaking, or just something you’d like to see added?

I absolutely am in awe of what Brian [Lando] and Guy [Fieri] and the producers have built.

Each and every producer has the ability to make such a beautiful relationship with each and every chef, and I think that’s what makes it so special.

It absolutely has been a phenomenal show and one I look forward to every year.

We didn’t speak too much yet about your two competitors. Anything you wanted to say about either Britt or Antonia or what they did this season?

I mean: incredible. The moment I was standing over there when Guy was about to announce who the winner is, in my mind, it was a déjà vu. This is like last year when I was against Mei Lin. In my mind, I was just practicing how I’m going to congratulate Antonia, because it was such an incredible, incredible round.

What she did was fantastic. She was on fire. She had all of us like sweating bullets. This was Antonia at her finest. This is the food that she cooks. This is who she is. She is this incredible chef that all of us are so proud to call a friend and a colleague.

I was worried. Of course, I was worried. Then Britt, on the other hand, since last year, her food is so beautiful, her techniques are incredible. The round where she made the pasta from scratch was just before we competed. I was looking at it and—pardon my French—I was like, holy shit, I am in for deep trouble if this is what she is doing, this is what she is creating.

So mad respect for each and every person, the other 31 chefs. It takes a lot of guts to compete on this level. I know it; I’ve been there. Everybody has put their heart and soul in it, and I have mad respect for each and every person who had the strength to say that I am going to do this.

It’s not easy. It’s not easy losing. I have lost, and I know how what a toll it takes on you. But just mad respect, mad respect.