TVSquad

Amid the real housewives and matchmakers, millionaire real estate brokers and house flippers, there is one unscripted series that has been top shelf on Bravo. With Project Runway not on Lifetime, the best of Bravo's reality is Top Chef. In the five seasons past and the current season playing out, Top Chef has been a winner for the cable net, so it's not a big surprise that today Bravo renewed Top Chef for a seventh season.

If I were a drinker, I'd drink to that. Top Chef is in the midst of season six, which is shaping up to be one of the best yet. The location, Las Vegas, has opened up a lot of options for challenges, including a French food episode that might have been one of the most intense ever on the series.

The seventh season will air in 2010, but no date has been announced. The network also hasn't said where it will set the next Top Chef, although auditions begin in San Francisco on October 18.

If there's one thing I would suggest to the producers for the next installment, it's this: please, please find some more qualified and experienced female contestants. The history of Top Chef has included Tiffani Faison and Lee Anne Wong from season one, for instance, and they were in it till the end and were both excellent competitors.

Later seasons included Betty Fraser, who while not a refined chef, was a memorable participant. In season four, Stephanie Izard became the only female to ever win the title of Top Chef. But this year's women are just not equal to the men, except for Jennifer. She might win, but the odds are probably against her.

So, while I look forward to more Top Chef, I'm also hoping to even better contestants of both sexes.

[Check out Slashcontrol for clips from Top Chef.]