A braised kaldereta dedicated to her father — served in the slot where dessert would normally go — helped seal the win for Rhoda Magbitang, the Filipino chef crowned champion of Top Chef Season 23.
Magbitang took the title during the finale, which aired June 8, capping a competition shot across North and South Carolina. She is the first Hawaii-based chef to win the long-running Bravo series, and among the small group of women to claim the title across its 23 seasons.
Her victory carried personal weight. For the deciding meal, Magbitang built a four-course menu drawn entirely from her upbringing and Filipino cooking traditions. She opened with roasted sweet potato paired with miso butter and uni, a nod to Los Angeles, where her culinary career first took shape. A lugaw course followed, echoing the rice porridge her mother prepared for her during childhood illnesses. Her third plate reworked tortang talong, the grilled eggplant dish tied to her earliest food memories. She closed not with sweets but with kaldereta, a tomato-based stew she associates with her father.
That embrace of her heritage marked a shift for Magbitang, who had spent much of her professional life cooking outside Filipino cuisine. Reflecting on the finale brief — to tie each dish to a person or place of significance — she said the choice felt inevitable.
“What’s amazing about Top Chef is that it conjures up feelings, emotions, and food memories that you didn’t even know you had,” Magbitang said. “In the finale, when they asked us to dedicate each dish to someplace or someone that has had an impact on your life and career, it only made sense to go all in on Filipino.”
Her route to the finale was far from smooth. Magbitang surged ahead early, claiming the first two elimination challenges of the season, before being sent off and forced into Last Chance Kitchen. She fought her way back into the main competition from there, adding tens of thousands of dollars in Quickfire winnings along the way.
Food & Wine editor-in-chief Hunter Lewis, who was present for the judging, described the finale as one of the most closely contested in recent memory.
“I didn’t envy the decision that Tom (Colicchio), Gail (Simmons), and Kristen (Kish) had to make, but in the end, they chose wisely,” Lewis said. “Rhoda won because of her consistency, storytelling, and technique.”
Magbitang moved to California at 17, initially intending to teach, before redirecting toward the kitchen and enrolling at Le Cordon Bleu. She went on to cook in a string of prominent Los Angeles restaurants, and in 2024 took the executive chef post at CanoeHouse at the Mauna Lani resort in Hawaii. Looking past the win, she said she hopes her run encourages young aspiring cooks — especially girls imagining themselves on a competition stage one day.
