From Scratch

The prize money gets the attention, but winners of Bravo’s Top Chef also get the often-mentioned feature in Food and Wine magazine, where Top Chef judge Gail Simmons is an editor. The feature on Season 3 winner Hung Huynh is just out today.
We learn he quit his job as sous chef at Guy Savoy in Las Vegas […]

Beauty is only a light switch away.”
Top Chef Season 3 finalist Dale Levitski, during the cast reunion October 10. A nosy viewer wanted to know if the gay chef is still single (yes) and what his type is. His answer was one of the tedious reunion’s few bright moments.

Sphere: Related Content

From Midtown to Downtown, restaurants owned by or associated with chefs we’ve come know from television are sprinkled around Manhattan like dots on a map. Actually, they are dots on a map now.
Gridskipper has published a handy and typically irreverant guide to those eateries, complete with opinionated commentaries. It’s obvious immediately that there would be […]

The new edition of Michelin’s Guide to New York City is out and Top Chef head judge Tom Colicchio has lost the one-star rating for Craft, his flagship restaurant. But Gramercy Tavern, which he opened with a partner in 1994, enjoys one star, as do Mario Batali’s Babbo and Cafe Boulud (as in Daniel).
Two stars […]

After what seems like a year instead of four months, the Top Chef Season 3 finale is tonight, after Bravo gets everyone caught up with yet another day-long marathon. The finale, drawn out as the season has been, runs 1:15 instead of the usual hour (but expect a one-hour version for the many replays), and features a […]

New York Magazine has finally reviewed Perilla, the restaurant opened by Top Chef Season 1 winner, Harold Dieterle. Writer (and Grub Street blogger) Adam Platt says he put it off as long as possible, not wanting to eat the sort of food that seems to have become endemic to reality show cooking competitions.
Instead, he was surprised […]

The Weekly Standard has published what I think is a top-notch article about our culture of celebuchefs, from the vaunted to the wannabe vaunted competing on shows such as Top Chef and Hell’s Kitchen. Called Bam! Making Sense of America’s Celebrity Chef Culture, this long article goes beyond criticism of superficial food-related shows and overexposed […]

If I didn’t know Bravo’s got its ducks in a row for Season 4, I’d think this season of Top Chef is never going to end. After interrupting the season not even half way through for that silly “reunion” and after stretching the restaurant war to two episodes, there is no episode again next week. […]

Bravo to Bravo for coming to its senses and giving Anthony Bourdain his own blog for the rest of Top Chef Season 3. He’s been filling in as blogger for head judge Chef Tom Colicchio and his sharp writing is always worth reading, in my opinion. Sometimes his frustration jumps off the page, as it does […]

We’ve all heard the camera adds ten pounds. During this past week’s (inexplicable, except as filler) mid-season Top Chef reunion the head judge, Chef Tom Colicchio, put a reality-show spin on the adage: 
The camera adds ten pounds of bitch.
I doubt I was the only one who thought immediately of Season One’s Tiffani. I’m so glad she lost. […]

Two months after it opened, The New York Times has reviewed Perilla, the restaurant launched by Top Chef Season One winner Harold Dieterle, and has awarded it one star (”Good”) on a scale of zero to four.
Critic Frank Bruni says the “cautious list of entrees” could have evolved from a focus group. About the restaurant […]

Yes, just my opinion but at some point Top Chef needs to eliminate two people in one episode. This series is becoming tedious, almost painfully so; beginning with 14 contestants instead of 12, as in Season 1, has not done a thing to increase my enjoyment. To the contrary.
There are so many contestants there are some […]

I always enjoy Chef Tom Colicchio’s weekly Top Chef blog posts on Bravo’s annoying website; some weeks I enjoy the blog more than the episode. This week, Anthony Bourdain is a guest blogger subbing for Colicchio and it’s a delightful read. His culinary background and guest-judging stints give him a fine perspective for commentary; his writing […]

Season 3 of Top Chef begins tonight and two episodes of the latest round of The Next Food Network Star are under our belts, and I’m scratching my head, at least figuratively, over the challenges that enable winners to advance in these competitions.
Food Network first. It was apparent immediately that many of this year’s challenges […]

Top Chef Season 1 winner Harold Dieterle is in business. His New York restaurant, Perilla, is open and he’s offering 10% off this first week while the kinks get worked out.
The official critics will weigh in later but unofficially, Gawker has already been there. Go here for their take on the place, but if the […]