Padma Lakshmi is the host of"Top Chef," which is now the top-rated food show on cable.

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"Top Chef," the Bravo reality show that promised to do for chefs what "Project Runway" did for aspiring fashion designers, was summarily dismissed by many foodies and reality-show fans when it premiered in 2006. You couldn't tell what the food tasted like just by looking at it, so what was the point, they sniffed. And a bunch of people chopping onions and boiling pasta didn't seem to offer the same potential for drama as high-strung fashionistas running around with scissors and half-dressed models.

Now, as the show is midway through its third season, we think those critics need to, ahem, eat their words. Not only has "Top Chef" gained a fierce following (it's the top-rated food show on cable), but it turns out you don't need to taste cauliflower-infused ice cream to be able to form an opinion on whether it's any good. And apparently, chefs can throw each other under the judges' bus just as entertainingly as designers.

Also, just as "Project Runway" teaches the masses about fashion, "Top Chef," underneath all the manufactured contests and product plugs for Glad containers, actually imparts a good bit of useful knowledge about cooking, entertaining and the restaurant business. Who needs culinary school? Here are the top things we've learned from watching "Top Chef's" current Miami season.

● What an amuse is.

An "amuse-bouche" (often shortened by foodies to just "amuse") is the French tradition of sending out a tiny, complimentary hors d'oeuvre before the first course simply to amuse "la bouche," or the mouth. In the very first challenge of this season, the chefs were asked to make one, using just the ingredients, and tools, they could find on a cocktail party buffet. So what makes a proper amuse? We're told it's supposed to be a bite or two, something exquisite and balanced, just enough to tickle the palate. So: A single oyster with a pineapple mignonette, yes. A wee bit of Italian ham wrapped around dried figs, fig jam, and gorgonzola? Seems tasty. An apple, awkwardly carved into a soup bowl and filled with what looks like a cup of fruit gazpacho? Well, given that some of the other chefs were openly snickering at cheftestant Clay Bowen's offering, we're guessing not.

● Never use the scented candles.

Vanilla candles smell yummy — in the bathroom. On a dinner table where you're being served a delicate tuna tartare — not so much. When the chefs divided into teams to create a restaurant in just 24 hours, chefs Dale Levitski and Hung Huynh were responsible for decorating the space. Off they went to a home décor store (they didn't say so, but we thought we saw Pier 1 gift bags), where Dale immediately fell in love with some scented pillar candles, a choice that surely had even the most casual viewers wondering what he was thinking. A few scenes later, head judge Tom Colicchio proves our point, asking aloud what moron puts vanilla-scented candles in a dining room. To drive home the point, diners are shown practically gagging at the strong, appetite-killing odor.

What's a chef competition without some food that most viewers have never heard of, much less eaten? On the very first show, the cheftestants were supposed to make surf-and-turf. This being "Top Chef," of course, they didn't get to work with filet mignon and lobster. Instead, the proteins (the word chefs like to use instead of "meat") were an array of odd, vaguely alive-looking stuff that looked like it came from a farmers market in Shanghai. When the most common items offered include rattlesnake and frog legs, you know you're going to learn something. But to us, the most satisfying lesson from that contest was seeing cheftestant Hung pick the geoduck, which we've seen before only at sushi places and been too afraid to order. Now, however, we not only know how to pronounce it (not like the geo in geography, as we'd heretofore guessed), but what it is (a large, particularly ugly saltwater clam).

In each season, there's an ingredient that seems to hold special power over the judges. Last season, it was saffron; a chef named Ilan Hall threw that expensive spice in almost everything, and he ended up winning. This year, the magic ingredient is much more down-to-earth. Cheftestant Tre Wilcox won a recent challenge with a terrific-sounding dish of shrimp with a tomato-chipotle sauce, balanced on cheesy grits. But guest judge Ted Allen (yes, the food guy from "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," glad to see he's getting some extra work) summed up the true reason for the dish's success: Tre wrapped the shrimp in bacon. As bacon fans, we completely agree. It can save anything, from a sandwich to a salad to a breakfast taco. And, in the weeks to come, expect to see the chefs work bacon into more salads, soups and meats (er, excuse me, proteins), but not, if they know what's good for them, into any desserts; they saw where that cauliflower ice cream took Hung.