‘Top Chef’ Legend Hospitalized, Undergoes Surgery

Top Chef‘s Tom Colicchio is recovering after undergoing shoulder surgery.

The award-winning chef and restaurateur took to Instagram on Wednesday to share a post-op photo of himself, lying in a hospital bed and wearing a shoulder sling.

“Good news is I’m in the best shape I have been in since my twenties, bad news s—t breaks down,” he wrote candidly in the caption, revealing that he had undergone an operation to relieve his “swimmer’s shoulder,” a broad name for several shoulder conditions including rotator cuff tendinitis, shoulder labrum injuries and shoulder impingement syndrome.

Colicchio continued, “One hour post op, feeling ok until the nerve block subsides.”

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As the celebrity chef recovers, he has plenty of encouragement from friends, fans and colleagues. “Get better my friend! Glad it’s done!” commented chef and Food Network personality Geoffrey Zakarian, as Australian chef Neil Perry added, “Speedy recover[y], we are old timers now take it easy.”

Top Chef: All-Stars L.A. winner Melissa King also sent her well-wishes, telling Colicchio, “hope you’re ok chef!” as The Restaurant star Rocco DiSpirito commented, “Get well soon, Chef I wanna see you back in action.”

The Bravo Network star even got some advice from Olympic swimmer Summer Sanders, who encouraged him in a comment of her own, “Been there!! You’ve got this! Stay committed to the PT.”

Top Chef Season 22 recently wrapped earlier this month, naming Tristen Epps-Long the winner of the Bravo cooking competition. Looking back on all 22 seasons of Top Chef with The Hollywood Reporter last month, Colicchio reflected on the initial conflict between the judges and the network as the show was finding its footing.

“Early on in our history, we were always pushing back against Bravo. They were more focused on making a reality show than a culinary competition,” he said. “By [Season 6], when we won an Emmy for the most foodie episode we’d ever done — a bunch of French chefs sitting around talking about French food — that was the point where they realized the focus really is on the culinary arts. And if you look at the edit, we spent a lot less time on reality now. [The chefs] don’t even live together anymore.”

He continued later, “I know of other shows where they choose the winner ahead of time and it’s engineered or there’s a discussion about, ‘Well, wouldn’t this person be great for story?’ We don’t factor any of that. In fact, there were times where we’re like, ‘S—t, this person’s going home and they’re really good.’”