Results tagged “top chef”

Alfred Portale became Gotham Bar and Grill’s chef in May of 1985. The restaurant had been open for a year: despite a strong opening, business was seriously flagging and the food didn’t taste so good. Portale basically cooked his pants off for six months, at which point the restaurant was re-reviewed and awarded three stars from the Times. It was also around that time that the chef started attracting young, talented cooks with names like Colicchio, Telepan, and Valenti to work in his kitchen. Later, Wylie Dufresne and Chris Lee spent time on Portale’s line, and the talent roster continues to grow.

Last night was the finale of Top Chef New York. The final cheftesants standing were Stefan (aka the European), Carla (aka the chef with love), and Hosea (aka the chef who really hated Stefan), and they were tasked to create a three-course meal—not including the last minute twist, of course. Some thoughts about the finale and season overall below (spoilers are after the jump):

Former Top Chef contestant Mark Simmons has joined Park Slope’s all local, all the time grocery store turned restaurant Get Fresh Table and Market. Simmons, whom you may remember as the talented, softspoken guy from New Zealand who didn’t quite strike anyone with an ultra-competitive edge, has joined Juventino Avila’s locavore kitchen. Born and raised on a sheep farm, Simmons previously cooked with Avila at Double Crown. He cites work at a slaughterhouse when he was a teenager as an inspiration for cooking; Simmons and Avila are also currently appearing together as part of a nose-to-tail butchering/cooking package, part of an online benefit auction. Park Slope of late has sort of become the repatriation grounds for those returning from reality television land: One can now have dinner with Simmons at Get Fresh, then dessert with Naima “Next Top Model” Mora at Cocoa Bar on 7th Avenue.

          

Often armed with not much more than unwieldy liberal arts degrees, the mass exodus of 20-somethings from urban areas to farms outside of the city was a much reported story last year; the underlying idea being that growing vegetables from seed to harvest might be more appealing than hitting up the mediabistro classifieds every two minutes during temp job downtime.

Last night Top Chef celebrated the holiday season, and even though the episode was filmed sometime in July (check out the cheftestants summertime gear)—Christmas miracles were abound! Or at least forced down viewer's throats like Sous-Vide Duck with avocado foam.

Celebrity chef Tom Colicchio, owner of Craft, Craftbar and Craftsteak, and a familiar face to millions for Top Chef, is being sued in Federal court by a former waitress who accuses his company of denying employees a portion of their tips and distributing the earnings among supervisors. Nessa Rapone, a Brooklyn resident who worked at Craftbar from March to May 2007, says the company also "failed to pay proper overtime compensation," and illegally retaliated by firing her when she objected to the policies. According to City Room, Rapone's lawyers say they hope other Craft employees will come forward so the can certify the lawsuit as a nationwide class action. (There are Craft restaurants in Dallas, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Las Vegas and Ledyard, Connecticut.) Colicchio has not yet released a statement.

Top Chef usually has a wedding-related challenge of some sort, and this season's event was to cater the bridal shower of Top Chef judge—and Food & Wine special projects manager—Gail Simmons. Of course, Padma Lakshmi announced she was throwing the bridal shower for Gail. Cue cheftestant Danny saying that Gail would be a "hot bride."

It was an episode full of corporate synergy! Sort of reminiscent of when Project Runway designers had to create an outfit for Today Show contributor Tiki Barber, last night's episode of Top Chef had contestants develop a dish they could demonstrate on TV for the Today Show. Plus there were reminders that the chefs are using...GE Monogram appliances in the kitchen!

Wonder what the Top Cheftestants were in for on the road with the Foo Fighters (in the episode that aired) the other night? Check out this recent concert rider from the band, which The Smoking Gun found out the Foo's tour manager made funny so it's "interesting to the woman in Oklahoma City who has to go out and get the hummus." The rider includes soup, of course ("every lunch should include a soup of the day--please try to to make it a vegetarian selection. Meaty soups make roadies fart."), which was the surprise twist of the Quickfire challenge this week when the band guest-hosted. Too bad the cheftestants didn't have to come up with a "healthy cookie" though, which the Foo's also demand a box of on their list.

Chef Grant Achatz of Alinea in Chicago appeared alongside the Foo Fighters on last night’s Thanksgiving themed Top Chef New York episode (which was actually filmed last summer). Reached last night by telephone, Achatz himself was settling in for Thanksgiving Eve. Spoiler-free insights below.

Last night, Top Chef aired its Thanksgiving-themed episode that featured a holiday meal for the Foo Fighters--and their entourage--as the Elimination Challenge. Grant Achatz, named Best Chef in the U.S. by the James Beard Foundation last year for his Chicago restaurant Alinea, was the guest judge for both the Quickfire and Elimination challenges.

Last night the 2nd episode of Top Chef New York aired, beginning with an oh-so-NY-themed Quick Fire challenge: Hot Dogs! After Padma declares that New Yorkers spend $100M a year consuming the "dish," the cheftestants were put up against the Top Dog (heh) in New York, Angelina D'Angelo (from Dominick's hot dog truck in Queens) and had 45 minutes to cook up their own recipes (which season 4 cast-off Spike says is enough time "to build a cart").

Top Chef aired its season 5 premiere last night, and believe it or not, this is the first time Padma & Co. have filmed an entire season in New York City. Right now there are too many cheftestants at the starting line, so it's a little difficult for any to stand apart when the first half of the episode merely showed (spoiler alert!) them chopping apples. But there are two emerging factions: Team Rainbow (the LGBT folks) and the Euros (Italian guy, Finland guy).

In 1994, Eric Ripert became the executive chef of Le Bernardin after chef-owner Gilbert Le Coze died of a sudden heart attack. The following year, Ripert was only 29 years old when the restaurant was re-reviewed and kept its four-star rating from the New York Times. Le Bernardin has had a total of four four-star New York Times reviews since its New York opening in 1986, and has consistently been awarded a top rating of three Michelin stars since guide inspectors first set up shop here in 2005.

    

Top Chef fever is spreading like salmonella, and who among us can resist the hype, especially considering that the new season of Top Chef, premiering next month, was filmed here in NYC? Last week the Top Chef Truck concluded its tour in Union Square with former cheftestants Richard Blais and Andrew D'Ambrosi cooking for us in the tractor trailer's kitchen. And yesterday a slew of Top Chef stars, past and future, were wrangled for cooking demos and flesh-pressing at the Taste of the Five Boroughs fundraiser for City Harvest. Blogger Life Vicarious was on the scene, which turned into a bloodbath:

We did find Andrew D'Ambrosi at his knife skills demo across Vanderbilt Hall where he was proud to represent the restaurant "rockin' the three stars." And how he represented! Showcasing his non-sissy knife skills at breakneck speed, he started supreming fruit before carving into his finger, began bleeding, turned to the demo sinks disappointed to discover they're just props, was first handed paper towels, then a bandage, then finally left the stage as an EMT arrived, and wanting to shift the focus and cameras away from him and back to his demo partner Spike Mendelsohn he went backstage to be tended by the EMT. (We can't even imagine how an actual sissy would have handled this!)

     

The big Top Chef Truck rolled into Union Square this morning for the last stop on their 20-city tour, with Season Four's rejected cheftenstants Richard Blais and Andrew D'Ambrosi on board to give cooking demonstrations in the kitchen housed within a 48-foot tractor trailer. The two day event, which continues into tomorrow, gives fans of Top Chef an experience that Knight Rider nerds would surely kill for.

Surely you're aware by now that the next season of reality cooking show Top Chef was filmed right here in New York. It premieres next month, and to crank up the enthusiasm, Bravo is displaying some serious marketing flair. This week Top Chef: The Tour, a 20-city barn burner featuring a customized 18-wheeler semi-truck, rolls into town, promising "the ultimate culinary experience" with cooking demonstrations and tastings hosted by former cheftestants.

The fifth season of Top Chef has wrapped up its not-so-secret production in New York City and is set to premiere with a "super-sized" episode on November 12th, Bravo announced today. Padma Lakshmi will once again join head judge Tom Colicchio (who made news yesterday with his forthcoming Tuesday night supper "club"). Gail Simmons from Food & Wine Magazine is also a judge, but perhaps the biggest surprise here is the addition of Toby Young, author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, which was recently given the Hollywood treatment.

Ladies and gentlemen, Chef Tom Colicchio is coming back to the kitchen. Starting two weeks from tomorrow, Colicchio will cook at Tom: Tuesday Dinner in the 32-seat private dining room space at Craft, offering a seasonally-driven, seven to eight course tasting menu for a limited number of guests every other Tuesday. (Set-price starting at $150.) Though Colicchio insists he's never really left the kitchen—despite the vastness of the Craft empire and his Top Chef judging duties—the new venture will certainly afford him the creativity that comes with plating individual dishes (as opposed to the family-style service of Craft).

J.E. Englebert, owner of Prime and Suzie Wong, has publicly threatened chef Ilan Hall (pictured), who won Top Chef during the show's second season. Englebert is outraged because he says Hall reneged on an agreement to run the kitchen at ¡pasé!, a Spanish eatery/lounge planned for Chelsea. According to the Post, Englebert has vowed to "rip his head off for screwing me! I thought we had a done deal... He may be a reality-TV star, but this doesn't give him the right to act like an ass. If he was nervous about putting money into the space, he should have talked to me man to man, not running like a dog with his head between his legs." How do dogs run like that? For his part, Hall says he agreed to "consult a little bit" but nothing more, and calls the situation "bizarre." Which might also describe the cuisine at his upcoming L.A. restaurant Gorbles, which he calls "old Jewish food, date-raped by bacon."

Further evidence that Top Chef contestants are staying at one of the fabulous new Williamsburg condos at McCarren Park was obtained this weekend when production assistants were seen loading cameras and equipment into 20 Bayard. A laminated sign on the dashboard of one of their vans read "Magical Elves," which is a production company that often works for Bravo. The fifth season of the popular reality show is being filmed in New York, but Bravo is understandably tight-lipped about details. Nevertheless, contestants were spotted at Whole Foods yesterday and Craft this morning.

The knives have barely cooled off from the heated Top Chef Chicago contest, but that Top Chef Lazy Susan just keeps spinning. Amidst news that the next season of the high-stakes cooking show will soon start filming right here in New York City, Eater is pushing a rumor that the cheftestants will be housed in Williamsburg. But if stalking the stabby streets of Billyburg isn’t your speed, you can get guaranteed access to past Top Chef stars at the Astor Center, which is hosting a series of cooking classes starting July 7th. Each class costs $195 and gets you a book, cooking demo, a three course "signature" meal, and a chance to stargaze at chefs like Sam Talbot and this year’s winner Stefanie Izard. [Via Grub Street]

While current Top Chef contestants battle it out in Chicago, the series prepares for its next round of the culinary contest/reality show. Bravo has announced its casting call for the 5th season (New York's open call is May 11th at the Culinary Institute of America in Astor Center):

Chefs with a passion for food, creativity, a thorough knowledge of cooking techniques and trends and oodles of charisma are what we're looking for. We want both self-taught cooks and those who have trained at top culinary schools.

           

The festive factor was running high at last night's Taste of the Lower East Side, the 8th Annual fundraiser for the Grand Street Settlement. Forty neighborhood eateries pitched in to benefit Grand Street's programs that assist low-income Lower East Side residents, and they showcased some of their best dishes for the crowd of well over 1,000 people.

Sure, the stress and time pressures of the kitchen inevitably spark infernos of obscenity, but recent shows like Top Chef and Hell's Kitchen have exposed the salty language of star chefs to untold millions. Last week’s Top Chef episode raised eyebrows for its higher-than-normal profanity quotient, when contestants lit into each other with so much F-bombing “the resulting bleeps ran together like a test of the old Emergency Broadcast System,” according to the Times.

On Wednesday night's episode of Top Chef, judge Ted Allen (pictured here with Padma Lakshmi) attributed the birthplace of the Waldorf Salad to somewhere in "middle America," an error that raised the eyebrows of foodies who know the salad's true inventor: Oscar Tschirky, who created it in the late 19th century while working at New York City's Waldorf Hotel (precursor to the Waldorf-Astoria).

The following open letter from The Ghost of Oscar Tschirky does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Gothamist. We would like a plate of Waldorf Salad now, though.

Was your New Year's Eve a recipe for a hangover? Luckily there are a few recipes to cure what ails you, too. Last year we found some facts about hangovers, but learning isn't going to make that first headache of '08 go away.