Gail Simmons believes that "Top Chef" has created a generation of monster-diners — and she would know. The veteran judge of Bravo's hit culinary competition series, which is now entering its 21st season, has experienced the culinary world in its many different facets, from authoring a cookbook to now serving as the series' executive producer. She's seen the way that food media, including "Top Chef," has made everyone with a fork and a social media account think they can do her job.

“There's pros and cons I think to all of it. There is the problematic issue that now everybody's a critic. Everybody can go on social media and take down a restaurant if they don't get what they want.” she told Salon Talks in a recent interview. “It makes everyone think that they can. There's a lot of damage that they can do if they don't understand food and real food criticism.”

She continued: "When I said we created monsters, I was serious.”

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The series itself is undergoing some major changes this season, namely that longtime host Padma Lakshmi departed and has been replaced by season 10 winner Kristin Kish.

The show is also featuring a city never highlighted on the series before: Milwuakee, Wisconsin.

“I think Milwaukee was actually a great location because it is something that I think will surprise our viewers,” Simmons said, “The season before our 20th season, we were in London, and everybody knows a lot about London. London is one of the great cities of the world. It's massive and it's a huge food city on the world stage. Milwaukee, less so, but there's a lot going on. It's really up and coming and I think that this will change people's views about the city.”

Watch my "Salon Talks" episode with Gail Simmons here or read a Q&A of our conversation below to hear more about returning to the Midwest, how the state of Wisconsin made her fall in love with custard, and what the new host Kristen Kish hopes to bring to the table.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Congratulations on the 21st season of “Top Chef.” Everybody's excited and looking forward to everything you're going to have going on in Madison and Milwaukee. How does it feel to just be so successful for so long?

It definitely is unexpected that we have been on the air for so long. Television shows come and go, but to have 21 seasons under our belt feels pretty amazing. I think television has changed so much in that time. Twenty years is a generation and we've surpassed that in seasons. We, I think, have seen such a massive change in television, in food, in eating and cooking, and it's awesome to think that we had a small piece to do with it. I think at this point, “Top Chef” can take the credit for contributing to the changes in the way that America eats, in the way that we think about food, talk, cook. We've created a generation of incredible, talented chefs, so many of whom have been on our show and gone on to do the most extraordinary things and we're really proud of that.

“Top Chef” really had one of my friends who's a chef, swirling his noodles up, slicing the hot dog diagonally and making it stand up again.

That's right. We created monsters, but we're actually really proud of it because I do think that even though sometimes we can't believe that there's a lot of silly language and food can get really crazy of course on social media and things like that, we are proud of the fact that it also made people so much more aware of what they eat, of the way that they cook, of what they eat, when they go out, where they go, and I think in a way, the show changed the economy of restaurants in America.

Absolutely. This is the first time you guys have been back in the Midwest since season four of Chicago. I recently spent some time in Milwaukee and Chicago. Culturally, the cities are very different places, night and day. How would you define each individual place by their food?

"At this point, "Top Chef" can take the credit for contributing to the changes in the way that America eats, in the way that we think about food, talk, cook."

Well, Milwaukee was interesting. Truthfully, I had never been there before until we went to shoot there, so I sort of love that, when I go to a city with very little preconceived notion of the food scene.

If anything, I underestimated Milwaukee. When you go to a city like Chicago, it has such a big reputation from a food standpoint. Obviously, there's so many heavyweight chefs there. Chicago is really the epicenter of a lot of incredible food and many movements about food have been started there. It has incredible, massive communities of immigrants and populations that have done so much for the food industry, and Milwaukee is like its lesser known little brother.

Colder little brother too.

It's cold, it is, but it really showed me a totally different picture of the Midwest, and I think the Midwest is a massive obviously swath of this country with a lot of people and a lot of history. When you think about Milwaukee, sure, you think of beer and you think of cheese, and when you think of Wisconsin, you think of sausages. Whatever you think, there's a reason that they're all there, and that's part of what is awesome about “Top Chef” is that we go to a place and we don't just eat hot dogs. We learn the history of the hot dog, why it's significant, who brought it? What's the story there and how do we make our chefs dig a little deeper to create something from that that we've never seen before?

So I think Milwaukee was actually a great location because it is something that will surprise our viewers. The season before our 20th season, we were in London, and everybody knows a lot about London. London is one of the great cities of the world. It's massive and it's a huge food city on the world stage. Milwaukee, less so, but there's a lot going on. It's really up and coming and I think that this will change people's views about the city.

Wisconsinites are prideful and you already mentioned the bratwurst, but I want to talk about cheese curds, frozen custard, the beer. What is your favorite Wisconsin staple?

Frozen custard without a doubt. [It’s] delicious. We were shooting in the middle of summer and our new host Kristen and I went for frozen custard several times a week. It is delicious. I would argue that it is better than soft serve. It is the richest, most decadent, delicious ice cream I've ever had. A frozen treat, let's call it.

So you can only get it there?

You can only get it in the Midwest.

This is why people need to get down there.

Mm-hmm, eat a frozen custard.

What about the cheese? What do you think about the way Midwesterners take their cheese very seriously?

They take cheese very seriously. More seriously than I'd ever really known. But there's also a reason, right? First of all, the custard and the cheese have something in common. The dairy industry is very much alive in Wisconsin, and that dates back dozens........

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