Colorado “Top Chef” contestant wins first competition on season 21 premiere

Chef Manny Barella went into the premiere episode of Bravo’s “Top Chef” Season 21 terrified of being eliminated first.

“I’ve never been more nervous in my life, even when I proposed to my fiancee,” he joked. “As chefs, we fail in private, but failing in public is a whole different animal.”

Barella, a 2022 James Beard semifinalist in the Emerging Chef category, not only made it out of the first competition alive, but he won the first challenge for his green pozole with chicken and charred salsa verde.

“I had that mirror moment after that, where I looked at myself and thought, ‘Maybe I have what it takes,’” Barella said.

Barella previously worked at Michelin-starred Frasca Food & Wine in Boulder, as well as a sous chef for Uchi and exe...