Tom Colicchio Says ‘Top Chef’ Has Become as Important as a James Beard Award

Top Chef , which has been nominated for 57 Emmys over its 23 seasons, last won in 2010, taking home the top prize of best reality competition program.

The long-running Bravo cooking-competition series is nominated in that category again this year as well as being up for best reality host (past Top Chef winner Kristen Kish in her third season as host), best casting and directing for a reality series.

But longtime judges Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons think Top Chef deserves to win in part because it’s far “more complicated” than some of the other reality competition nominees. Related Stories TV 'I Love Lucy' Set for TV Academy's Inaugural Legacy Award Movies There Are Scores of Great New Animated Shows. The Emmys Won't Nominate Them.

“Our show is not done in a studio. It’s much easier to shoot a show in the studio. We shoot maybe one or two episodes when we stay in the studio. But we’re out on location. We’ve got to pick up and build a kitchen, move 150 people on a crew, trucks, and it’s hard to do,” Colicchio recently told The Hollywood Reporter . “Some of the other shows, you’re in a castle. You’re on a set. It’s good show, but still, it’s a set.”

Simmons echoes this as she talks about the challenges of making the “on location” series, which for its Emmy-nominated season 23, filmed in North Carolina and Greenville, South Carolina.