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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteTristen Epps-Long won Top Chef season 22 by bringing Trinidadian and Afro-Caribbean influences to the competition’s fine-dining stage. He argues that Afro-Caribbean cuisine is foundational to American cooking—a perspective that gives this article’s “New American” framing its meaning, rather than a formal definition shared by the culinary world. He is not the show’s current champion: Rhoda Magbitang won season 23 in 2026.
Who won Top Chef season 22?
Tristen Epps-Long won season 22. In a profile published by the James Beard Foundation, he described a goal of spotlighting Afro-Caribbean cooking in fine dining and validating Black chefs. His win put that approach in front of a national television audience.
Epps-Long’s perspective draws on Trinidadian family heritage as well as a multicultural upbringing that included Guam, Japan, and the Philippines. That background matters: his food is not reducible to one national tradition, even when Trinidadian and Afro-Caribbean influences are prominent.
What does Epps-Long mean by Afro-Caribbean cuisine’s place in American cooking?
“To me, Afro-Caribbean cuisine is the basis of American cooking,” Epps-Long told the James Beard Foundation. That is his stated interpretation of American food history, not a universally settled definition. His argument places Afro-Caribbean foodways alongside the influences that have shaped what people recognize as American cooking, including Southern foodways.
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The claim also connects history to recognition. Epps-Long’s aim is not simply to present heritage dishes in a polished setting; it is to insist that Afro-Caribbean cooking belongs on the fine-dining stage and is part of the story of American cuisine.
How does he bring heritage into fine dining?
Epps-Long has described researching heritage recipes and applying classic cooking techniques. The result can make a dish both rooted in tradition and legible through the language of contemporary restaurant cooking. He gave sous-vide cooking a protein in palm oil and berbere as an example of using a familiar technique to make an unfamiliar dish read as modern.
Competition dishes that show the approach
- Finale: Oxtail Milanese crepinette with Carolina Gold rice grits, curry butter, and bone marrow gremolata.
- Earlier in the competition: Pepperpot with braised lamb and pickled grapes.
- Earlier in the competition: Maple jerk strip loin with rice grits.
These dishes bring recognizable fine-dining methods and presentation together with ingredients and flavors tied to Afro-Caribbean cooking. They illustrate Epps-Long’s approach; they do not, by themselves, define the full breadth of Caribbean or American cuisine.
Is “New American cuisine” a formal category?
In this article, “New American” is an editorial frame for Epps-Long’s challenge to narrow ideas about what counts as American food. The available sources do not establish a single formal definition of the term or show that his interpretation represents industry-wide consensus. It is more accurate to treat the phrase as a way to consider how chefs bring heritage, technique, and personal history into contemporary American dining.
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Who won Top Chef season 23?
Rhoda Magbitang won the season after Epps-Long’s. Auberge Collection announced her win on June 9, 2026; Hawaiʻi Public Radio also confirmed the result in a July 2, 2026 interview.
Magbitang was born and raised in the Philippines. Her cooking at CanoeHouse draws on Hawaiʻi’s local produce, cultural heritage, sustainability, and Japanese influence. Her culinary perspective is distinct from Epps-Long’s; the two wins are not a ranking of whose food better represents American cuisine. As of October 8, 2026, Magbitang—not Epps-Long—is the newest winner.
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