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......

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......

Photograph of Mark Simmons, Top Chef contestant and sous-chef at Public, and WD-50 chef and owner Wylie Dufresne 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......

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. Most......

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). Yesterday, Gothamist took the rare step of publishing one of the thousands......

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. On last night's episode of “Top Chef” you slammed cheftestant Ryan’s “Waldorf Salad,” calling it a debacle in not so many words. You deemed the failed dish all the more insulting because the episode’s block party took place in the Waldorf Salad’s supposed culinary cradle, a......

We recently received a press release in the Gothamist feedbag announcing the arrival of “Top Chef: The Cookbook.” Being a major Top Chef junkie, we were pretty excited about this one. The official scoop is that the book, the "official companion cookbook" the #1 food show on cable will arrive in March and have: More than 100 Quick Fire Challenge and Elimination Round recipes from the first three seasons of the series; "In-depth discussions" with......

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. From the undoubtedly reputable site called RUPissed? come these hangover cures, and except for the Vegemite you can probably find most of these things in your apartment (or within a one block......

Jen has already posted her Top Stories for 2007-- but here's the list according to you, the readers: By Comments* 1. Pet Food Recall After Cat and Dog Deaths, by Jen Chung (614) 2. Rev. John Carmichael, Church of Scientology, by Jen Carlson (312) 3. Wild Wednesday Weather, by Jen Chung (255) 4. Maple Syrup Was Better: Smell of Gas Covers NYC by Jen Chung (191) 5. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Mooninites Don't Scare......

Crave on 42nd: Top Chef Season One's Dave "I'm not your bitch, bitch!" Martin has found a home in New York serving comfort-driven American bistro fare. He reprises one of his Top Chef dishes -- the Black Truffle Mac ‘n’ Cheese, with black truffles, brandy and fontina slow cooked with fresh thyme and oregano, and the menu offers wood grilled pizzas, burgers, and hearty entrees, like "Sassy Sea Bass," farm raised bass, dry rubbed and......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on Rockaway Ave. in Brooklyn, a pedestrian fatally struck on Cypress and Flushing Aves. in Brooklyn, and another pedestrian fatally struck on Fish Ave. and Boston Rd. in the Bronx. A former judge and WWII veteran who lost his mind, his legal autonomy, and then his fortune. The sad conclusion of his troubles are that two historic theaters have been closed. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly does some......

The Michelin Guide announced selections today for its third New York Edition, which officially goes on sale Wednesday. The new edition features 565 restaurants (and 54 Manhattan hotels.) Of the eateries, 42 were awarded stars ranging from one to three; a mere 3 restaurants merited the highest 3-star rating (Jean Georges, Le Bernardin and Per Se), while 6 others made the 2-star cut. But star-gazing aside, the guide comes in handy for diners on a......

What’s worth watching on food-relatedTV this week? Tonight on No Reservations--in another repeat--(10pm on the Travel Channel), Bourdain goes to Brazil. ">Martha Stewart has Chef Tom Colicchio on Tuesday making Cornish game hens. The show airs Tuesday through Friday this week at 1pm (NBC). Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares is on Wednesday at 9pm (Fox). This week, Ramsay makes over Seascape in Islip, NY. The LA Times calls the show “noisy and dissident.” All the TV......

The Top Chef Miami finale is upon us and we're going to weigh in with some thoughts. There will be spoilers, but they'll be after the jump. Top Chef has entered The Survivor zone - Padma Lakshmi is in Chicago, locale of the next Top Chef season, for the live finale. Does that mean Dale has a hometown advantage? We'll see! The three finalists, Dale (of the last mohawk standing), Hung (hyper and arrogant)......

READING: Our interviewee from yesterday, Adrian Tomine, will be reading tonight at Book Court. The graphic novelist not only has his work in some of the more prestigious rags, he's also got a full length graphic novel, titled Shortcomings. 7pm // Book Court [163 Court St, Cobble Hill] // Free At a very different reading in Manhattan, Chris Matthews will be promoting his new political memoir Life's a Campaign: What Politics Has Taught Me About......

Tonight another season of Top Chef will come to an end as a new connoisseur of cuisine is crowned with a big white hat. So who's it gonna be? Dale, Hung and Casey are the three remaining chefs, and last week they gave us some easy recipes to cook in a small NYC kitchen, the dirt on Newark, and told us how they've been preparing to face Padma & Co. one last time. Dale When......

What’s worth watching on food-related TV this week? Tonight on No Reservations (10pm on the Travel Channel), Bourdain goes to Shanghai (repeat episode). This week on Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares (Wednesday at 9pm on Fox, Ramsay makes over the Mixing Bowl Eatery in Bellmore, NY. On Top Chef, part 2 of the two-part season finale airs Wednesday at 10pm (Bravo). Rocco’s back as a guest judge, along with Todd English and Michelle Bernstein. The Village......

What’s worth watching on food-TV this week? Tonight on No Reservations (10pm on the Travel Channel), Anthony Bourdain goes to Tuscany. Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares (the US version of his BBC show) is on Wednesday at 9pm (Fox). This week, Ramsay makes over Dillon’s in NYC—this is the makeover over which Ramsay was sued (and charges were subsequently dismissed). Want your restaurant Ramsified? Go to the show’s website for a downloadable application form. On Top......

Faces who are new to Greenpoint might best recognize Paloma for its owner and chef, Camille Becerra, a Season 3 Top Chef contestant (and early departure). Others might just head there for their touted “Urban American Cuisine,” a mix of restaurant, artspace, and convivial Greenpoint gathering spot that serves up food, drink, and oftentimes live music and DVD and television projections. Gothamist visited with a table of friends on a recent night after a......

What’s worth watching on food-TV this week? Tonight on No Reservations (10pm on the Travel Channel), Bourdain goes to South Carolina. He’s also got an upcoming holiday special that features Queens of the Stone Age (wearing Christmas sweaters from QVC, no less). We can’t wait for that one. Read about it in ">Rolling Stone. On Top Chef, Episode 12 airs Wednesday at 10pm (Bravo). The guest judges are Sirio Maccioni and Andre Soltner. Grub Street......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: Airmail in Brooklyn, truck vs train overpass in 31st St & 20th Ave in Queens, an amputation at Grant St & St Pauls Ave in Staten Island and a bomb scare at Broadway and Mercer (NYU) in Manhattan. A former deputy mayor under Rudy Giuliani is now an "ambassador" for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. But it's not that shocking, since Fran Reiter had lead the Liberal Party before joining......

Last night Top Chef began with a Quickfire Challenge consisting of everyone cooking Padma breakfast...we swear she thinks of the challenges when she's stoned (see: the onion cutting relay. C'mon!). After the "food awakening" they were in for a rude awakening. Sent to New York City, the contestants seemed genuinely happy when they saw the Manhattan skyline...but their dreams were dashed when they were held in New Jersey for a day at Newark Airport. Cooking......

This week on food-TV, we've got: Tonight on No Reservations (10pm on the Travel Channel), Bourdain goes to Buenos Aires and Patagonia, Argentina. On Top Chef, Episode 11 airs Wednesday at 10pm (Bravo). Chef Jimmy Canora is the guest judge. Frank Bruni blogs about the show in the Times, calls Howie “the season’s best villain, the toque you’d love to choke.” And Bourdain is guest judging again this week as well; says that this episode......

Tim Gunn's Guide to Style officially premieres tonight, but Bravo served it as a surprise aperitif to Top Chef last night. The gist: Gunn gives a makeover à la What Not to Wear's Stacy and Clinton, the Queer Eye guys, and the popular girl that takes the ponytail out and glasses off of the unpopular girl in every teen movie. His first challenge: a woman that wears Juicy Couture sweats. There is no way to......

What’s worth watching, food-wise, on TV this week? Tonight on No Reservations (10pm on the Travel Channel), Bourdain goes to Hong Kong. His show is followed by Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, who goes to Alaska to eat jellied moose nose and reindeer pizza, among other things. On Top Chef, Episode 10 airs Wednesday at 10pm (Bravo). There are seven remaining contestants, and this week Michael Schwartz is the guest judge. And PBS continues their......

Bruni goes to Franny’s in Brooklyn, rates it a top pick, awards it two stars, and calls himself a newly converted “besotted Franny’s believer.” Says Franny’s simplicity—they serve crostini, cured meats, pasta and pizza (along with a few other items)—“is deceptive. The restaurant finds transcendence in dishes and genres that wouldn’t seem to yield so readily to invention or open the door to so much pleasure.” And Cuozzo says Little Italy is “drawing unaccustomed buzz”......

What’s worth watching, food-wise, on TV this week? Be warned: it’s the dog days of summer, so there’s not much new on the air… Tonight on No Reservations (10pm on the Travel Channel), Bourdain goes to Cleveland, Ohio, where Michael Ruhlman shows him around town. Serious Eats recaps last week’s ep (visit to French Polynesia), shares the recipe for poisson cru. Top Chef is a repeat this week. It’s the “All-Star” episode where top competitors......

What’s worth watching, food-wise, on TV this week? Tonight on No Reservations (10pm on the Travel Channel), Bourdain goes to French Polynesia. Serious Eats reviews the series—and his trip to Brazil—here. On Top Chef, Episode 9 airs Wednesday at 10pm (Bravo). This week, Chef Geoffrey Zakarian is the guest judge. On last week’s episode, no one was eliminated. Grub Street hates it when everyone makes nice. We agree: it doesn’t make very good television. And......

Last night food blogger Andrea Strong played the role of her (really mean) self in the Restaurant Wars episode of Top Chef. She was there as an "undercover blogger," an accurate title given by Padma - as Strong got less screen-time than random walk-ins. The competition split the contestants into two teams each with the task of creating a restaurant. Strong gave comments about the decor, service and meals that were read aloud during the......

This week on food-related TV, we’ve got: Tonight on No Reservations (10pm on the Travel Channel), Bourdain goes to Brazil. For a critical take on the show—you’re basically just watching a guy eat and it’s boring—read the Post here. Episode 8 of Top Chef airs Wednesday at 10pm (Bravo). Daniel Boulud is the guest judge this week. Read EW’s wrapup of the previous episode here. Last week NY’s final representative on the show, Sara, got......