Big Island chef shares secret ingredients to her victory in Bravo’s ‘Top Chef’ competition

Chef Rhoda Magbitang has a unique recipe for success on the TV competition show “Top Chef” and in her life: “A sprinkle of victory mixed with a dash of self-sabotage.”

Magbitang, the executive chef at the Mauna Lani resort’s CanoeHouse on the Big Island, won the 23rd season of Bravo’s popular show in comeback fashion. It’s a secret she had kept since October, when the show wrapped up production.

Magbitang, who was born in the Philippines, beat out 14 other chefs from around the United States, as well as from India and Brazil, in the 14-week series that featured a variety of culinary challenges for a $250,000 grand prize and other sweet perks.

When Magbitang was announced as the 23rd Top Chef, she was shocked, emotional and grateful. The prize money and the opportunities that come with the title did not hit her until she returned to Hawaiʻi after the competition. Both are life-changing and she plans to make the most of it all.

“My mom’s dream has always been to go to Switzerland, so I’m probably going to take her there,” Magbitang said. “But beyond that, eventually, at some point, I have maybe some more serious travel plans that involves a lot of restaurants and food and just a lot of discovery in general.”

But to get to the top required Magbitang clawing her way back onto the show after being eliminated in the fifth week.

“I can’t say I’m surprised by my roller-coaster experience in the least,” Magbitang said. “The path I’ve taken is uniquely me, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Of course, I would have rather stayed throughout, but that is not what happened. My experience shows everyone that the path to victory is not linear. It looks different for everyone.”

The 42-year old quickly made “Top Chef” history as the first person to win the first two elimination challenges consecutively. However, the sprinkle of victory began to fade as a dash of self-sabotage diminished Magbitang’s performance over the next three weeks.

According to Magbitang, she began to overthink every challenge and would choose dishes that were difficult to pull off in the unique environments they were put in. In the fifth episode, the contestants were challenged with creating a dehydrated dish while outside at the U.S. National Whitewater Center. Her idea was ultimately too complicated to achieve. She served the judges undercooked monkfish and was eliminated.

Fortunately for Magbitang, “Top Chef” has a companion show, “Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen,” a digital series where eliminated chefs cook for a chance to rejoin the main competition.

Judged by Chef Tom Colicchio, Magbitang composed herself and stopped overthinking as she defeated three different chefs in quick challenges to earn a spot back in the main competition.

Magbitang is the fourth chef to battle back from “Last Chance Kitchen” and win the entire show. This year’s host, Kristen Kish, was the first to do so in season 10, followed by Brooke Williamson in season 14 and Joe Flamm in season 15.

This year’s competition was based in North and South Carolina and featured challenges utilizing regional foods. They included:

• Creating seven-course menus with a team of seven, with increasingly spicier dishes at PuckerButt Pepper Company farms, home of the Carolina Reaper, a legendary chili pepper that once held the Guinness World Record for the hottest.
• Creating Michelin star-level dishes featuring rabbit to honor the Swamp Rabbit Trail and Michelin North America, whose headquarters are in Greenville, S.C.
• Creating dishes featuring at least two Appalachian ingredients and serving them to judges and 200 community members for a one-night event in Asheville, N.C.

“In the moment, I remember missing some of those intense challenges, but looking back, I may have been too stressed and tired to get as far as I was able to get,” Magbitang said.

In the final challenge, Magbitang competed against chefs Laurence Louie from Boston (who earned a James Beard nomination for Best Chef of the Northeast) and Sherry Cardoso from Brazil (who now is a chef and partner at a fine-dining New York City restaurant).

The final three were tasked with creating the best progressive, four-course meal of their lives.

Although she doesn’t cook Filipino food professionally, Magbitang decided to serve a four-course meal celebrating her roots. Each course was a dedication to a person, place or thing involved in the evolution of her career.

Magbitang shocked her mentor when she said she would not be including a dessert.

In one of her interviews in the show, Magbitang said that it would not make sense to make a dessert for the specific people, places and things she was honoring with each dish. Luckily, her risk paid off.

The first course was roasted sweet potato with miso butter, fresh uni and charred sweet potato leaves as a tribute to the beginning of her culinary journey in California. The second course was abalone lugaw, a savory rice porridge inspired by her mother’s cooking.

The third course was tortang talong, a take on a Filipino fried eggplant omelet. It toasted Magbitang’s Filipino heritage and the modern, elevated cuisine she serves at CanoeHouse.

The fourth course was Kaldereta short rib, a braised beef dish that honored her father’s holiday recipes.

After wowing judges Colicchio, Kish and Gail Simmons, Magbitang ultimately won the grand prize, with perks that include a feature in “Food & Wine” magazine, an appearance at the annual Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, a chance to headline her own exclusive dinner at the historic James Beard House in New York, and the opportunity to present at The James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards in Chicago.

“I don’t cook Filipino food professionally, but I wanted to cook from the heart,” Magbitang said. “Since this experience, I have started to lean into my roots even more when I create recipes in my daily life at work or elsewhere. I’m putting my take on classic Filipino dishes, and that has felt really good.”

Since the show began airing, Magbitang has been surprised by fans, including a large number of kids, who want to meet her at the oceanfront CanoeHouse on the Kohala Coast, and by the support she has received in person and on social media.

She said he young people tell me her they love to watch me compete.

“If my time on the show inspires them to become a chef, that is amazing because we need great chefs in the future,” Magbitang said.

She also hopes her experience will inspire chefs to take time away from work and have a healthy work-life balance.

“The saying, ‘you can’t pour from an empty cup,’ is overused, but so true,” Magbitang said. “As much as chefs have this reputation for spending too much time at work and dedicating their lives to the craft, I am a big self-care advocate.”

Magbitang credits her work-life balance as the reason why her passion for her craft has never wavered. The balance she has fostered in her life has helped her grow in her skill as a chef and effectiveness as a leader.

“I would tell up-and-coming chefs that when it comes to being a good leader and a good chef, it doesn’t require all the behaviors that have been attributed to chefs throughout the years,” Magbitang said. “You don’t have to be intense or a perfectionist, you can be gentler and softer, and that’s okay.”

While Magbitang will continue working as the executive chef at CanoeHouse, she has plenty of other endeavors this year.

Magbitang and her fellow season 23 chefs Sieger Bayer, Oscar Diaz and Brittany Cochran, known as the Green Team, have created a collaborative menu for a summer dinner series at the Surf Shack at Mauna Lani Resort. The series began June 7 and runs nightly through Sept. 7, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m..

Magbitang also will host a series of intimate dinners at select Auberge properties between June 20 and early 2027. The dates and locations include:

• Hotel Jerome, Auberge Collection in Aspen, Colorado, on June 20 – The Winner’s Table: One Night with Bravo’s “Top Chef” Season 23 Winner.
• Mauna Lani, Auberge Collection in Waimea, on Sept. 11 and 12 – From Carolina to Kohala: Chef Rhoda Magbitang & Chef Duyen Ha.
• The Inn at Mattei’s Tavern, Auberge Collection in Los Olivos, California, on Oct. 1 – In collaboration with Executive Chef Kevin Malone, Chef Rhoda will return to The Inn at Mattei’s Tavern for a celebratory evening with local farmers and producers.
• Stanly Ranch, Auberge Collection in Napa Valley, California, on Oct. 4 – Grange Harvest Dinner Series.
• Mauna Lani, Auberge Collection in Waimea, on Jan. 7, 2027 – An Evening of Kamayan with Chef Rhoda Magbitang.

Learn more about each of these experiences on the Auberge Collection website.