Chatting with Top Chef Executive Producer Doneen Arquines

In an expansive sea of food competition shows sail a disparate variety of vessels. There are sturdy but low-profile pontoons, utilitarian catamarans, barely afloat dinghies, and even a handful of noble yachts, but they all pale in comparison to the majestic ocean liner that is Top Chef. After 18 seasons, the gleaming beauty continues to sail effortlessly through the crowded waters, thanks in significant part to a crew that masterfully navigates a competitive landscape. Standing out among that group of talented pros is Doneen Arquines, Top Chef’s Executive Producer who has been on board since the show’s maiden voyage in 2006.

As Season 19 sets sail in the form of Top Chef Houston, what better way to learn about the show’s journey than chat with Doneen? From her roots on the show as a Production Assistant to her current role steering the ship, Arquines continues to enjoy a vantage point that offers a treasure trove of insight into the show’s sustained excellence.

Having been in the Top Chef Kitchen from the beginning and earning a whopping 13 Emmy nominations along the way, I was compelled to ask Doneen Arquines about her journey from PA to EP.

“I started season one as a PA. It was my first job out of college. I’d had jobs before that, but not in production. I graduated from Washington State University, and when I moved to LA, I had a pretty good alumni network, and people were kind enough to share my resume with friends or people they knew that were looking for a PA for shows.

I was lucky enough to interview at Top Chef with the show’s production company Magical Elves. I knew who they were because my summer job in college was working at Joann Fabrics, and Project Runway was it for me when I was in school. So I was like, oh my gosh, that’s the company that produces Project Runway. I want to go; I’m so excited about this. I was so excited about the interview, and luckily they chose me to join the team. So that was my first deep dive into television production, and I fell in love with it.”

For the uninitiated, shows like Top Chef don’t produce episodes year-round. Knowing that I wondered how Doneen could keep working elsewhere while continuing to come back to the show.

“I’m the kind of person who really enjoys working. It’s my life. I like that excitement when we’re in production and all the things that lead up to it. After finishing season one, I went to PA on a few other shows, and then season two rolled back around. The timing didn’t work out for me to start out as a PA on that season because I was working as an AP on a new show, but we were only shooting five days a week. So I would message my friends at Top Chef and ask if they needed any help on the weekend. I’m available. So they called on a Saturday and asked if I could get there in an hour. I went in and washed dishes when they were out doing the ice cream Quickfire at the beach.

Then my other job ended, and Top Chef was still shooting, so they asked if I could start as an AP. I did that starting in the middle of the second season and just progressed from there. Every couple of seasons, I moved up, then I joined the challenge team, and we were responsible for coming up with all of the challenges and finding locations for them. Eventually, I was also in charge of booking guest judges. I got lucky in terms of timing because Top Chef then created a spinoff, Top Chef Masters and because I had been booking all of the guest judges, I had all my contacts and was able to cast Top Chef Masters and roll right into that show. So the timing of Top Chef and Top Chef Masters kept me busy the entire year, and I didn’t have to go look for other work.”

Top Chef fans are both passionate and opinionated, with almost everyone within arm’s reach of a social media platform weighing in on desired locations for each season. In light of that near-obsessive speculation, I asked Doneen about the show’s process for choosing locations.

“We start the process up to six months before we start shooting, and there are a number of factors that go into it. We look for regional diversity because I don’t think you want to see two seasons that feel too similar back to back. And regional cuisines are so diverse in America, so you don’t necessarily want to go to Seattle and San Francisco in successive seasons because their cuisines are very similar.

So it’s really just trying to identify first those things, then big cities that we haven’t been to yet. It helps if tourism wants us to come because they’re helpful in making things happen for us, like being able to go to iconic locations. And when we go into any city trying to shoot and getting permits, being able to have people who want you there who want to help you get the things that you think will be cool to show viewers, that enthusiasm from places we go also plays into our decision.”

Thanks to the miracle of editing, each episode’s Judges’ Table segment is presented within the same relative length of time. But deciding the winner and determining which cheftestant ultimately hears Padma’s dreaded “pack your knives and go” edict certainly has to take more time than we think, right Doneen?

“Back in the day, we had Judges’ Tables that lasted six hours. We structured Judges’ Table differently back then, too, as we just brought out the best first, then sent them back to the stew room when we brought out the least favorites, who we then also sent back to the stew room so the judges could make their decisions. That back and forth took a lot of time, so we started combining it with everybody hearing the judges’ feedback all at once, and that has made it shorter. So we’ve come down from six hours to, I would say, an average of two-and-a-half and three hours.”

Another oft-discussed topic by loyal Top Chef viewers originates with the small type of disclaimer that airs when the show’s credits run each week. Loosely stating that Bravo and the producers may be consulted on elimination decisions, some fans of the show remain convinced that the judges are occasionally overruled in favor of keeping a vital antagonist or popular chef in the competition for creative purposes. Looking to dispel this burgeoning urban myth, I asked Doneen Arquines about it.

“I can guarantee you that it’s not the truth. Every competition show has a legal disclaimer. It’s a legal thing. We’ve had all these chefs who’ve competed on the show come back and be guest judges and All-Stars, so you could ask any one of them if the judges’ decisions are ever influenced from above. They’re not.”

As someone who writes weekly recaps of Top Chef, I find myself often singling out chefs, Brian Malarkey most prominently, who appear to be more interested in cultivating a personal brand than simply competing against the best. So, heading into Season 19 and Top Chef Houston, I wondered whether Doneen sees potential cheftestants as people looking to do the former or the latter.

“I think it’s a combination. You can’t get past that today. Everything is about marketing, so even if you’re eliminated first on Top Chef, just getting onto the show does boost your visibility. There’s always going to be some of that. Some chefs are more outspoken about it than others, but I think, for the most part, people really just want to compete. They wanna see where they stack up against other chefs in the country. The answer that we get from a lot of people is I’ve been doing this for a long time, I know I’m good. I see my friends doing the show, and I want to know where I stack up.”

So just how did Top Chef Houston ultimately select this season’s 15 cheftestants, Doneen?

“It’s a little different these days with Zoom. We basically have a casting team that starts very early in the process, and they reach out to chefs and contacts in the food world. Back in the day, we used to hold open casting calls, but now it’s more pointed. We really are looking for people, through references almost like a job. We’re asking who do you think is good enough to compete? Who do you think is ready for this kind of competition? And now that we’ve also had so many chefs compete on the show, they kind of know who’s ready. They may say, ‘I met this person at a food festival, and they’re fantastic. You should talk to them.’ So the casting team does all of that legwork and narrow it down to somewhere around 30 to 40 people. We then watch and whittle it down from there.”</

To me and many others, Top Chef Portland had a kumbaya feel to it, with far less conflict than I’d ever recalled in prior seasons. I asked Doneen Arquines if that vibe was a byproduct of filming in a pandemic bubble that required the chefs to be isolated together or if it was simply the luck of the casting draw.

“I think it’s a little bit of both. Filming in a bubble was definitely a very unique experience since it was the first time we were coming out of our own bubbles at home. Up until that point, I hadn’t been in a room with that many people in the past year. I think Sasha said it best in the second episode when she said that she didn’t know how to be around people. I’ve been in my house this whole year. What do I do? How do I act? And I think people were just so excited to be around others that it kind of played into it as well.”

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With Top Chef Houston premiering, I wanted to know how the Season 19 group of chefs collectively compares to the Top Chef Portland group.

“As you mentioned, Season 18 was the kumbaya season. I do think that there are a lot of friendships and really great friendships that were forged this season. But I also think that there was a stronger sense of competitiveness within our cast. It has a very strong, competitive drive that I personally enjoyed because these are challenges, and you want people to want to win them. It’s not like, oh, good for you. Like I want to win. So there’s a little bit more of that, more than there was last year. Not that nobody wanted to win last year, but I just think that there’s more. I think people will be surprised by Houston.”

Having had the pleasure of watching the season premiere of Top Chef Houston in advance of its airing, it’s evident that Doneen Arquines and the Top Chef crew haven’t missed a beat. Like a fine wine, the show continues to get better with age.

Top Chef Houston airs Thursdays at 8:00 pm on Bravo.