Its been a couple days since our feature about Tucson and history of its foodie status. The first city in the US designated as UNESCO City of Gastronomy. Today a breaking news feature on Houston Chron reinforces that designation.
Excerpt from Houston Chron story . Top Chef will be heading to Tucson.
A noted Tucson Chef was a top finalist on last year, Top Chef. And Tucson will be site of some of the final season of this years show.
Excerpts from Houston Chron with full story at https://www.chron.com/food/article/Top-Chef-Houston-episode-12-Tucson-finale-17185378.php
“Top Chef” is always full of curveballs, but we didn’t quite see this one coming.
After 12 glorious episodes of the show exploring all corners of Houston’s rich food scene and culture, host Padma Lakshmi announced the contestants would be treated to a finale in … Tucson, Arizona.
It’s tradition for “Top Chef” to leave its host city for the final episodes of the competition, often visiting a wanderlust-worthy destination overseas. In season 17, the crew headed to Italy; in season 16, they went from Kentucky to Macau, China; in seasons 12 and 14, the finales were in Mexico; even domestic destinations have included flashy places like Hawaii and Las Vegas.
But going from Houston to Tucson? Seems a little sad, but y’all have fun.
This was news to us, but Tucson is actually a UNESCO City of Gastronomy, one of only two in the United States. The other one? San Antonio. Cool.
Anyway—back to Tucson. The second largest city in Arizona, and the home of the University of Arizona (which has a top-notch basketball program, we hear), often touts its food scene, which is heavily influenced by Native American culinary traditions and nearby Mexico. Houston is obviously blessed with a range of Mexican and Mexican-derived options, such as fine-dining restaurants specializing in regional styles, breakfast tacos and street foods and tamales galore, as well as our own unique Tex-Mex cuisine.
Houston has it all, but admittedly what it doesn’t have much of is what Tucson is known for: Sonoran cuisine.
For NPR, food writer Gustavo Arellano wrote that Tucson Mexican food is “the most unappreciated Mexican foodways in the United States.”
Filming location
El Charo restaurant was selected for the filming site because of its history as the oldest family-run Mexican restaurant in the U.S.
Show to air
The show will air on Thursday, May 26 on the Bravo network at 8 p.m.
Various viewing parties will take place at a number of Charo associated restaurants in Tucson and Oro Valley, Arizona
SaddleBrooke Arizona 