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Top Chef Whips Up a Surprise, But Can He Break the Top Chef Curse?

February 26, 2009 at 10:45 AM | 0 Comments

For the most part, Top Chef's "surprises" got pretty weak in season five—cook with alligator! Cook with oatmeal! cook with Dr. Pepper! Cook with your eyes closed—but we have to say they got us in the finale.

After cocky Stefan dominated most of the season and spunky Carla took over late in the game, Padma and Co. went ahead and gave the crown to Hosea, who until now was mostly known for kissing Leah a couple of episodes back (and kissing Leah again in the closing scene of the finale! What's up with that?)

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Top Chef Gets Its Gumbo On

February 19, 2009 at 10:14 AM | 0 Comments

Top Chef left New York this week to hold their two-part finale in foodie-fave New Orleans, and suddenly everything's upside down: unfunny judge Toby Young is gone while Gail Simmons is magically back, the last three axed chef'testants get a surprise chance to cook their way back into the game, and after representing New York's diversity by spending all their time in a Williamsburg condo and Whole Foods aisles, the show is now out and about all over New Orleans.

All improvements, we'd say, especially the last one.

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Leah Cooks Her Last Supper

February 12, 2009 at 8:54 AM | 2 Comments

Top Chef was down to the final five this week, and each chef'testant had to prepare a last supper chosen by a culinary god. Fabio aced it cooking roast chicken for Lydia Bastianich, Carla wowed Jacques Pepin with her perfect peas, but Leah couldn't impress Wylie Dufresne and was asked to pack her knives and leave.

We thought Leah's poached eggs and bacon looked pretty tasty, so we're wondering, what exactly did Wylie have in mind? So we checked out the menu at his molecular gastronomy super-kitchen, WD-50 on Clinton Street in New York and it looks like Leah just wasn't thinking small enough.

Yes, the photo above is Dufresne' version of eggs Benedict. Fried hollandaise cubes battered with English muffin crumbs, gelled egg yolk, and Canadian ham crisps. Come on Leah, how hard would that have been to do?

Seriously, have you readers dined at WD-50? Let us know if it is worth the hype because it sure doesn't look like it would fill us up.

Related Stories:
· WD-50 [Official Site]
· Checking In At Jamie's Place [Jaunted]

Photo: [Kent Wang]

Chef'Testants are No Match for Eric Ripert

February 5, 2009 at 10:44 AM | 6 Comments

The Top Chef'testants had a particularly tough time with this week's challenge--reproducing a dish from guest judge Eric Ripert's legendary seafood restaurant Le Bernardin. We were a little disappointed with the chefs' output (especially Leah, how did she not go home?!), but the episode certainly did get us salivating to try the real deal--Ripert's classic French dishes like black bass tartare, poached escolar, and pan-roasted monkfish.

So we're wondering--just how hard is it to get into Le Bernardin nowadays? Reservations are notoriously difficult to come by (on the first business day of every month, they become available for the month after that, and their phone lines get busy quickly), but it turns out you can get around that if you're willing to eat super-late. We just did an OpenTable search and found tables for two available tonight at 10pm, and Friday and Saturday at 11. Not so hard after all!

Of course, you still have to be willing to pay for all that fishy goodness. The lunch prix fixe is $68, dinner is $109, while the extravagant chef's tasting menu is $185 a head.

Oh, and bonus news for all you Ripert-heads: Looks like he's enjoying this TV thing. Ripert will get his own show, "Avec Eric," coming to PBS this fall.

· Le Bernardin [Official Site]
· Checking In At Jamie's Place [Jaunted]

Photo: [Bravo]

Jeff Takes His 'Creative Monkey' Back to the Beach

January 29, 2009 at 11:10 AM | 3 Comments

Top Chef New York is finally getting serious. They've gotten rid of the lower half of contenders, the ones we knew never had a chance, and now we're down to the top seven, the chefs who each seem like they could realistically win it all.

In last night's Super Bowl episode, we saw three favorites fall to the chopping block, including the dynamic Euro duo, Fabio and Stefan. But I think we all knew Bravo producers weren't going to let either of those camera hogs go home this early, which was of course bad news for poor Jeff.

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Radhika Loses 'Restaurant Wars' But Still Cooks for Chicago Restaurant

January 22, 2009 at 1:05 PM | 1 Comment

This week's Top Chef was everyone's favorite episode: Restaurant Wars. As is the case in previous seasons, Restaurant Wars is the first episode in which no chef'testants are given immunity in the elimination challenge, and even the favorites can definitely go home.

Once again this year, we saw one of our top picks--Chi-town's cutie chef Radhika--asked to pack her knives and leave. While the judges' decision seemed fair (she clearly had no idea how to run a restaurant), we're still intrigued by her spicy global cuisine, and would be more than happy to eat at a restaurant where she's not running the front-of-house.

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Top Chef Goes To The Farm

January 15, 2009 at 11:36 AM | 0 Comments

After just seven episodes, Top Chef New York has apparently had enough of NYC and headed out to the boonies for this week's episode.

The chef'testants went on a road trip to Blue Hill at Stone Barns, the rural outpost of Dan Barber's West Village eatery, Blue Hill. Set in Pocantico Hills, 45 minutes north of Manhattan, it should be clarified that this isn't so much a restaurant as a "Center for Food and Agriculture." Now that sounds to us like a fancy name for "trendy locavore place," but according to at least one blogger, it's no less than "the most important restaurant in America." OK, you've got our attention!

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Checking In At Jamie's Place

January 8, 2009 at 9:05 AM | 2 Comments

The Top Chef judges have been awfully harsh this season, and we know they love the drama, but they seem genuinely disappointed in their chef-testants this year. (Aside--does anyone else hate new judge Toby Young? Not feeling it at all.)

Anyway, the one person they seem to be giving a lot of face time too is Jamie Lauren, the 30-year-old executive chef at San Francisco's Absinthe Brasserie and Bar. They've been making a big deal about her all along, and even when she screws up, it's kinda obvious they're not gonna kick her off. She won her first elimination challenge last night, and we're betting she's got a decent shot at winning it all. But what about her restaurant?

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Top Chef Travel: Padma Lakshmi Loves the NYC Subway, Street Pretzels

October 7, 2008 at 9:15 AM | 3 Comments

After much summer anticipation, Bravo has finally released the list of chef-testants who will be competing on Top Chef Season 5, confirming all your ferverent stalking.

But the best thing about Bravo's promotion for the new season, which starts November 12, has got to be this ad, in which host Padma Lakshmi thoroughly enjoys a trip on the New York City subway system while seductively devouring a hot pretzel.

Hello, New York!

Related Stories:
· Top Chef Season Five [Official Site]
· Top Chef 5: Stalking Future-Almost-Kinda-Celebs [Jaunted]
· Top Chef coverage [Jaunted]