Top Chef Challenges Fans Would Love to See

Top Chef is a top-rated reality show on Bravo, and certainly one of my favorites. And while I love watching the chefs endure new food challenges week after week, sometimes the directives get stale. We know that every season will have a wedding challenge, restaurant wars, and some naïve chef will be sent home for being bullied into making the dessert. After seven seasons, it's time for Bravo to spice things up a bit with some new and unexpected challenges. May I suggest these?

Skinny Celebrity Challenge
This challenge would not only create some delicious food, it would be a humanitarian effort to those starving celebrities that grace the pages of the tabloids each week. Gather up women like Tori Spelling, Rachel Zoe, and Victoria Beckham, take into consideration their self-imposed dietary restrictions, and see which chef can healthfully fatten them up the best. Not only would the competition be an interesting one, it would be an exclusive coup for Bravo just to get those women eating on camera.

Dog Food Challenge
The latest season of Top Chef in Washington DC gave us a new challenge: make a dish for adults that translates to a palatable and healthy baby food version. While this was interesting and new, why not take into account all of those people who call their canine companions their babies? Since so many insist that their pooches are people, too, create a challenge in which the chefs must create a gourmet human dish with a four-legged-friendly counterpart. Serve it up in dog bowls with silver spoons-bon appétit! Plus, who wouldn't want to see Padma indulge in some high-end puppy chow?

Hangover Challenge
It seems that every week, a new celebrity is going into rehab for drug and alcohol abuse. (Lindsay Lohan, anyone?) Why not lend a hand to these desperate folks by creating foods that will help them feel better the morning after? Assemble the Top Chefs into the kitchen in the early am, give them their challenge, and usher in a handful of half-drunk, bleary-eyed celebrities into the dining room, armed with Bloody Marys and mimosas. See which chef's dish can make them feel like themselves again the fastest, and which ones send the celebs running to the facilities. Depending on how this challenge goes, it could turn into Top Chef melded with Fear Factor, which would be sure to bring in ratings.

Super Nanny Challenge
We've all seen the Top Chefs cook healthy meals for summer camps and school cafeterias full of hungry kids. But let's face it-those kids are old enough to know how to be somewhat diplomatic in front of television cameras. Why not spice up the kid challenges by having the chefs cook for the top ten terrors of the show, Super Nanny? These kids know how to throw a tantrum like nobody's business, so we know they're not going to hold back in the face of disgusting food. Watch the chefs create healthy dishes that have to taste good for these kids, serve them, and then watch the food and language fly. Priceless.