A Foodie’s Dream Job with Top Chef
Five-time Emmy Award-nominated Nora Cromwell ’11 on why she loves working on the reality show
Nora Cromwell ’11 has worked on her share of reality TV shows: RuPaul’s Drag Race, The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, and Survivor. None of them suited her palate until she joined Bravo’s Top Chef.
Since 2016, Cromwell has successfully paired her passions for food and television with Top Chef, first as a field producer and now as co-executive producer. It’s a sweet gig, largely because the show’s approach is so refreshing.
“Nothing’s ever manipulated. Nothing’s heavily produced. They try and tell stories as authentically as possible,” Cromwell said during a break from filming the show’s upcoming 22nd season. It’s a level of authenticity not found in every reality production company, she added.
Cromwell has been nominated for an Emmy Award in the Outstanding Reality Competition Program category every year since 2020. Even though she’s yet to nab a coveted Emmy statuette, she’s thrilled with the nominations. Besides, there’s no place she’d rather be than associated with Top Chef, a respected part of the food industry.
“Food represents so much history and culture that being able to express all of those things with food is amazing to me,” said the foodie transplanted from the Berkshires to Los Angeles. “And every year, there are people making things you’ve never heard of, no matter how much you think you know. It’s very unique and exciting.”
A job that’s never boring
First premiered in 2006, Top Chef is a reality competition series where professional chefs compete in culinary challenges. Twelve to 15 contestants are judged by a panel of chefs and industry personalities who eliminate one or more contestants each episode until someone emerges as “Top Chef.” Part of the show’s enduring popularity is filming in a different location with a fresh roster of chefs every season.
As co-executive producer, Cromwell is involved from the beginning of each season through post-production. During the two to three months the crew is filming, she logs 12- to 15-hour days focusing on each chef’s needs and story. Her team is with the chefs from when they wake up until they go to bed.
“Whenever they’re cooking in the kitchen, I’m in the kitchen. When they’re shopping, I’m running around shopping with them,” said the 34-year-old. “I’m always on call, especially when we’re out in the field. If something comes up, which it often does, you have to be there.” Cromwell’s team also conducts all of the personal sit-down interviews with the chefs. Her top priority is doing them justice and telling their stories with integrity and respect.
After 13 years in the industry, she’s accustomed to the pace. It’s grueling, she admits, adding with a smirk, “It’s also never boring. That’s what I like about it.”
Landing on her feet
Cromwell never imagined a career in television until a Jan Plan trip to the Sundance Film Festival her senior year at Colby.
She started college at 16 and earned an associate’s degree from Bard College at Simon’s Rock at 18. Cromwell transferred to Mayflower Hill as a junior, spending her first semester in France with the Colby in Dijon program. She was drawn to Colby because it allowed her to design her own major, architecture, while adding a second major in French studies. She imagined graduate school, becoming an architect, and working with her father, a builder and general contractor.
“Going to Sundance was big for me, honestly. Brit Marling [a writer, director, and actor] premiered Another Earth at Sundance that year, and seeing someone who was young and my age making that kind of content was exciting.”
The next semester, Cromwell enrolled in a documentary film-making course with Phyllis Mannocchi, professor of English, emerita, and loved it. The professor trusted her students and encouraged them to think, try, and sometimes fail on their own. Cromwell appreciated that, even the failure.
“I will say that every single thing I made in that class was an absolute atrocity. Truly, sincerely, terrible.” She laughed out loud. “But you know what? You gotta start somewhere.”
At Colby, she learned how to adapt and felt encouraged to nudge herself in a direction that felt right. “I think just being offered the ability to take the leap and try something is kind of what I needed.”
Westward bound
After graduation, she moved to Los Angeles to spend the summer with her sister, who previously worked in television and secured a production assistant job for her with The Bachelor. The entry-level position involved removing trash, taking coffee orders, and delivering food. “The advice I got going into it was just do whatever you’re asked to the best of your ability as quickly as possible.”
She did that—and more.
Motivated to move up, she showed interest in the work of other departments, offered to help, and anticipated needs. Every set, production company, and job is so different, she said. “But once you have the lay of the land, you check your boxes for the day and then see how else you can help.”
When jobs came open, employers often thought of her first. Five years after that entry-level job, she made her way to Top Chef. That was season 14, nine seasons ago.
It may sound like smooth sailing, but it’s been hard work. Cromwell has always been a freelancer and never had an agent. She’s had to advocate for herself each year and for every job. Filming takes her away from her apartment in Studio City, Calif., more than half of each year. The rest of the time she’s immersed in post-production. And yet, with perseverance and grit, she’s found stability in a volatile industry.
Is she proud of herself? “Yeah, I am,” she said unflinchingly. “Definitely.”
Witnessing the industry’s evolution
Working on Top Chef certainly has its perks. No, she doesn’t get to eat any of the food on the set (she subsists on crustless sandwiches and Ramen noodles while filming), but the exposure to so many top-level chefs has upped her cooking game at home.
“At the very least, I’ve learned a lexicon,” she said. Just peek at her Instagram posts to see how expertly she’s applied that learned language.
Beyond that, Cromwell finds that the food on the show “is representative of the way the industry is changing and the way people in the states are eating. What’s becoming popular. You get to see that evolution,” she said.“It’s kind of like, which came first, the chicken or the egg? It’s like, which came first, the scallop or Top Chef? Probably the scallop, but we like to think Top Chef.”
