Casting directors Ron Mare and Heather Allyn have both been working on Top Chef for many years, and this year, their work earned them their first tandem Emmy nomination.
One of the most popular reality shows on television, its strength comes in the casting, and in how Mare (with 3 previous Emmy nominations), Allyn, and their team, which includes fellow nominee Joy Barrett, find and assemble the series’ competitors.
The 2026 Creative Arts Emmy Awards take place on September 5 and 6. Mare and Allyn talked to us from Los Angeles.
Key Insights
- Top Chef casting is a year-round process, with Mare, Allyn and their small team continually tracking chefs’ careers and waiting for the right moment to bring them onto the show.
- Culinary talent always comes first, with casting focused less on outsized reality-TV personalities and more on chefs who have the skill, versatility and ability to communicate under pressure.
- For chefs who aren’t ready yet, finding their own culinary voice can make the difference, whether through pop-ups, career growth or simply gaining more experience outside another chef’s kitchen.
You two work together on this show and others, but you are not actual partners. How does that work?
Ronald Mare Jr.: Yes, that’s true. We’ve done nine seasons together, but Heather and I have worked together on multiple projects outside of Top Chef, just because we’ve both been doing this for so long.
Heather Allyn: Aside from the fact that we’re basically like siblings at this point (both laugh), it’s different than a lot of other reality shows where you’ll have casting producers or directors who do the interviewing, and then there are associates who are finding the people for you to interview. This show has the smallest staff. It’s just five people, and we split up the country, because we’re all specialists.
We track chefs’ careers for years to find out when it’s that moment, so the dynamic with all of us working together is, for this current season … I had the Northeast, but there were people who I’d interviewed in previous seasons who were in different regions, and so I would pass them along. We ask each other, “What do you think about this person? Do you think they’re ready?” It’s a very collaborative experience.
RMJ: This show is unlike any other show I’ve worked on, in that you don’t really stop casting throughout the year. We’re only actively casting for a couple of months, but all year long, we’re sending each other people on Instagram, like, “Have you seen this chef?,” “I just came across this person or an article,” or, people are reaching out to us with, “If you haven’t seen this person, I just had a meal here.” So [with] this show in particular, it’s on the top of your mind year-round.
What is the dining allowance like for this show? Because I’d imagine it’s substantial.
RMJ: Pre-pandemic, we traveled a lot more. That’s just the nature of the beast in all of casting. Pre-pandemic, there was definitely an actual budget for us to be eating as much as we were eating, because honest to God, when we would go on the road, and Heather, you can speak to this too, we’d have three, four, five dinners in one night, and you’re going there like, “Hey, give me one thing. What’s your best thing?” And then they’re trying to impress you, with, “Here’s five dishes,” and you’re like, “I can’t eat all of this. I have to go to three more dinners after this. Please stop doing this to me.”
HA: I always called it the Fat Tour.
Do you seek out people who you think might be good fits for the show?
RMJ: I seek out good meals, and then if that happens to coincide with the show, then yes. But I always reach out to friends and family with, “Where should I be eating?” Obviously, I do the research before I go there. I was just in Toronto for work, and I went to a bunch of places up there that were unbelievable. I think that I seek out food first, and then if the chef is great after that, then that’s how I view it.
HA: The same goes for me. I’m always looking for really good food, but also I think after years of tracking chefs, I’ll be like, “Oh my God, there’s this person, and I knew that they were the chef de cuisine over here, and they just opened their own spot, and I loved their old boss. Let me see what they’ve got.” So it’s a chicken and egg kind of thing.
Is their skill in the kitchen the only factor? Or do you search for personalities, too?
RMJ: It’s talent first. Everything else falls second. You don’t need to be an over-the-top personality on this show. I mean, there are plenty of people who are not who have won Fan Favorite. We don’t even take it into consideration.
HA: It’s unique to this in the sense that it is full-on talent first. What’s also unique about this show is that on other different kinds of competition shows, you can have someone who’s good at one facet of the job, and they can make the show because they’re really great at [something else]. On this, they have to be a triple threat in order for us to even consider them. And then, when we get them on the phone, can they talk?
Most reality shows feature a variety of competitors from all walks of life, but ‘Top Chef’ isn’t quite that way. Does it ever get [repetitive]?
RMJ: I think what really helps is that the culinary world is constantly changing. We’re tracking it and following it, viewing what’s happening, and reading articles about what’s going on. I think that constantly keeps the excitement of finding someone new. We just did season 23, and that’s wildly different from what you saw in season 5. There are ever-changing fads in the culinary industry. It keeps us on our toes, because year after year, it’s not the same, and you get to find different things.
HA: Yeah, and also the way the industry has changed too, from earlier seasons. If you tried to put someone who was doing a pop-up back on season 12, they would look at you like you had three heads. Everyone had to be a restaurant chef, and everyone who does come through has worked in very fine restaurants, but someone working in a food stall has become much more prevalent as the financial realities of the industry have changed. We’re able to actually look at a broader spectrum of chefs, because we’re keeping up with the changes in the industry.
Are there chefs who won’t come on the show?
RMJ: There are definitely chefs who just don’t have any interest in competing, which is totally fine. You don’t want to force anyone to do anything they don’t want to do. If they don’t have the drive to want to compete, because this is not a walk in the park, you can’t just go in there and wing it. You’re going to go home pretty immediately. If we bring it up to somebody and they pass, maybe we’ll try one more time, but we don’t really want to push anyone to do anything that is just not right for them. Because if it’s not right for them, it’s not right for us.
HA: One thing we often do though, is if there’s someone amazing and they’re not right for us, we’ll ask, “Who’s cooking for you that we should be looking at?” Or, “Do you know someone who would be a good fit?” We try to forge a relationship with everyone.
Do people use it as a springboard to something else?
RMJ: Yes, but I think that springboard leads them further into the culinary world. People don’t do this to get TikTok followers. That’s not the vibe. We tell chefs this all the time, that you don’t need to win Top Chef in order to benefit from Top Chef. It’s more about these relationships they can foster with people that they never would have met otherwise.
HA: The ideal competitor for the show is someone who wants to do this to rise with their career. Most really good chefs are inherently competitive, right? When we’re looking for someone who’s trying to make it to the next level, that’s someone I want to know, people who just want to challenge themselves. I remember season 15, Bruce Kalman, who won a James Beard Award, just wanted to get back in the game and compete.
Is there something specific you’re looking for to put on the show but haven’t found yet?
RMJ: I wouldn’t say there’s a specific genre, but there are specific people [for whom] it takes a while to get them to do it. Sometimes they eventually say yes. It really is the show for big names. It’s also all about timing. Maybe they can’t do it because they’re opening a restaurant. Okay, we’ll come back next year. They can’t do it because now they’re having a kid. Okay, we’ll come back next year. It becomes this bigger thing of chasing this person for years, and I can’t wait to get them on. Then it finally happens, and you get excited.
HA: Yeah, it’s the person who said no, and then all of a sudden, the magic happens, and they’re on the show.
What piece of advice would you give to someone who wants to be on the show?
RMJ: If we felt that maybe they weren’t ready, and this happens all the time, we still interview them and have a conversation, because we never want to make a snap judgment. We still do the diligence to make sure that what we’re thinking is correct, and then after that we would just say, “It’s not going to work out this year, but we absolutely want to talk to you again next year.” Keep in touch with us throughout the year. We want to know if anything has changed. Are you still working at the same restaurant? Has there been any sort of write-ups about you? Any accolades, nominations?
It’s not all about that stuff, but sometimes it is about if you’ve only been cooking at one place under someone else, do you know what your food is? Because if you watch the show, [judge] Tom [Colicchio] will call you out on it immediately: “Are you cooking your food? Are you cooking somebody else’s food?” They’ll immediately clock you for it. Heather and the team really try to dig through that and make sure that doesn’t happen.
HA: I say to people all the time, you need to go do some pop-ups and find your voice. See what you can find out for yourself.
After 23 seasons, Top Chef continues to evolve with the culinary industry. Mare and Allyn are always looking for talented chefs who are ready to challenge themselves and take the next step in their careers.
For aspiring competitors, the advice is simple. Keep cooking, keep growing and develop a culinary voice of your own. Talent comes first, but knowing who you are as a chef can be what gets you into the Top Chef kitchen.
