Top Chef and I: Candice Kumai, Season 1

A quarter of the way through season 1, and the excitement has only just begun! Another session is in store among the first group of Top Chef contestants. This time around, I will be going over Candice Kumai's duration on the show's initial season, so get ready for more wonder to polish up within this culinary competitive universe! As always, I advise you to read the guidelines before diving into these posts. That way, you get an understanding of how I'm going about these dives that have been nothing short of fun to do.

Profile

Candice Kumai

Residence: Pasadena, CA

Position: Culinary Student

Synopsis

Episode 1 (Who Deserves to Be Here)

Yes. Culinary student Candice Kumai does model, but she has plans to break out of that world and venture forth to the culinary world. As the youngest in the competition, she has ambitious goals. She also has a mega wardrobe that barely fits in the San Francisco pad the cast is given, so she sure is on the right track...

Not Pictured: Candice's wardrobe...for good reason

During the quickfire of working in Hubert Keller's restaurant for 30 minutes, Candice only manages to make it through 10 of those minutes before being asked to leave for being too slow. Afterward, she becomes one of the first to cook during the elimination challenge of preparing a signature dish and states how ready she is to show her peers what she's made of.

Presenting a chicken shitake roulade to the judges and peers, there are differing opinions on it. While competitor Stephen Asprinio thought it was bad, fellow competitor Brian Hill didn't. Regardless of the two differences in opinion, Candice ends up in the bottom by the judges for making an uncompelling dish. In the end however, she stays in the competition when the judges decide that fellow contestant Ken Lee is the one that served the worst dish that night.

Episode 2 (Food of Love)

Disappointed that her skills weren’t shown to their fullest, Candice approaches the next task by…thinking of paradise? After all, she does admit that her fruit plate for the fruit display quickfire was inspired by what she would want on her island getaway (pineapple hearts included). After landing in the middle, Candice goes into the sexy dessert elimination challenge by adding another piece of wardrobe to her collection. Unlike the rest of her outfits, this one won’t take up space in the closet because it’s edible.

A decorated cake shaped out of a bra and panties for the guests, pineapple hearts included, becomes Candice’s vision turned reality in this challenge because allowing people to eat her up apparently aligns with her ambitious culinary goals. (*barf emoji*) Ok, maybe not. She is covered in full on LA glamour at the fetish party, but that doesn't stop the guests from lusting over her as if she's publicly displaying her dish on her body for a sweet ride down south California.

insert awkward laughter

Unlike the last elimination challenge, Candice lands in the middle this time (marking her safe from elimination). 

Episode 3 (Nasty Delights)

Despite being the youngest person in the competition, Candice wants to grow further as an adult capable of handling whatever is being said to her. She never said anything about handling whatever is being thrown at her though. So low and behold is she thrown for a loop when she is asked to cook with octopus for the quickfire, butchering the delicacy and the pronunciation of her curry dish all in the same time span.

Weird pronunciation aside, Candice's quickfire performance lands in the middle for a second time. From then on, she is paired with Lisa Parks, Cynthia Sestito, Miguel Morales, and Stephen for the kids elimination challenge. Cynthia leaves the competition to take care of her dad before their plan takes action, and Andrea Beaman (the previously eliminated contestant) is brought back in as her replacement. Oh wait. I’m jumping ahead of myself.

She sure got her wish of being able to handle whatever is being said to her, but she lets the tension go for the better of the team, and ultimately wins with her team when the kids prefer their meal from the other team’s. 

Episode 4 (Food on the Fly)

At this point, Candice is very stern to prove to the other chefs her capabilities to the point that she really has her sights on winning, and what better way to prove her worth than at a gas station? Her and her girlfriends got this joint down to a science, alright? She knows that her expertise in cheap products (wait what) will certainly prove her worth in the competition. The end result? A "gas station gazpacho" guest judge Jefferson Hill claims to be cheesy despite not having cheese in it. Can't say if that's just stupidity from him or ingeniousness from Candice for managing to evoke half & half into a cheese flavor. Whatever it may be, his cheesy comment is what separates Candice from everyone else…as the bottom ranked chef in the challenge.

Fueled from the embarrassment of being grilled cheesed rather than just straight up grilled, Candice goes for a risk and makes a quiche for the microwave elimination challenge because she likes quiches and “moms she knows like to make them." That doesn’t sound like the response you give to show how good you can be in the kitchen, but I digress. When the time comes closer to serve to her audience of Junior Leaguettes, she questions how the microwave will affect her quiche overall.

To put her dish in Layman’s terms, it was a flop. A flop that got her in the bottom alongside Lisa and Stephen. As critiques are being expressed, judge Tom Colicchio comes forth with this settlement when the two conversate on what went wrong.

Damn. Coming at her for inability to use a microwave properly. Well, he gives the idea that the microwave had nothing to do with it later on, and with that, Candice gets ousted from the competition (though truthfully Tom would've loved to send all dem asses home).

Episode 10 (Reunion)

Candice comes back to the reunion show where she bashfully reacts to unseen footage of Brian hounding at her booty, but her front and center moment comes later on when the banter between her and Stephen during the kid elimination challenge is spotlighted. With the show revealing that the argument lasted a whopping 37 minutes (highlighting the best parts presumably), Candice reflects on the banter as a learning experience. Little did she know, Stephen was more than willing to offer her a sincere apology.

Finally, when asked about the top 3, Candice wanted Lee Anne Wong to be a part of it instead of Tiffani Faison. As for a winner, she is torn between Harold Dieterle and Dave Martin for the title.

Analyzation

Still being a part of culinary school as a young fresh chick pigeonholed Candice in such a poor position, and all she wanted to do was show that she’s got skills. While that didn’t prosper every single time for the judges or viewers alike (How can you not notice that thin ass goop spreading on her panty cake?), it didn’t stop her drive to continue.

The thing about the beginnings of Top Chef I'd already pointed out with the Ken Lee retrospective was how food heavy it wasn’t. The persistence in selling yourself during the challenges while you display your food gave the impression that the next Top Chef is a brand rather than purely someone who can cook. Compared to some of her competitors at the time who merely just wanted to open restaurants, it would eventually become super beneficial for Candice, and she didn’t even know it yet. Perhaps that’s why her interaction with the junior league looked fairly decent on her despite straight up losing that round.

It's moments like these that thrive well off her calling Top Chef an “experience” instead of seeing it as something that can make or break her. Despite not appearing on the program since her run, Candice has gone on to be known as the "Golden Girl of Wellness" with various ventures that guide and help the everyday person take control into leveraging a clear state of mind. With numerous accolades under her belt, her time on Top Chef has merely been a part of her identity rather than being her sole identity. Yet, the foreshadowed forthcomings cultivating upon her as she was competing makes her experience far from holding any merit.

How having people like Stephen (who was younger than Candice at the time, mind you) sensitize a taunting dominance become a precursor into what she would have to deal with on social media and higher-ups in the industries she works with. How her being too slow on the line at the first quickfire become a precursor into recognizing how much better she is when she takes time to execute things. How competing against Andrea, who was someone already content with building on a brand, become a precursor into what’s possible when you find a passion and put it into fruition. Perhaps the most fun one to recognize is her overall experience being on the show with Cynthia. It's funny that I mentioned wisdom in my retrospective on her because it's something Candice herself echoes later on her podcast Wabi Sabi.

Cynthia from Top Chef was always my real friend. Interestingly enough, Cynthia Sestito and I from season 1 of Top Chef had the largest age gap between the two of us on Top Chef, and yet we became the closest. I believe I was the youngest person to ever be on the show, and she was one of the wisest. - Candice Kumai talking about her experience with Cynthia during Top Chef on her podcast Wabi Sabi

The show doesn’t guarantee success, but it does give you the avenue to be successful. With Candice, she showed that hard work can transform the avenue from a one-way road to an island getaway, pineapple hearts included.