From a Top Chef conference call with Toms and Pads today, we have the requisite canned answers about how much weight she gains (10 to 15 pounds in six weeks) and general likes and dislikes (Tom's eggs and truffle oil, respectively), but Padma's comment about Moorpark chef Fabio Viviani (the only one singled out) caught our eye: "He’s very gregarious — he was fun to have on set … I had to really watch myself with Fabio because I would revert into Italian. I spent a lot of time in Italy so I love to speak in Italian … I didn’t want the other chefs to think I was saying anything that they couldn’t hear.” Fabio is definitely going to be a personality this season. Bonus: Tom on Tom as sex symbol: “It’s safe to assume more women watch the show than men, or at least straight men…” [Grub Street]
American Express has a series of videos with Tom Colicchio and Sara Moulton discussing business, surviving the economic climate, celebrity chefdom, and just being a good chef and restaurateur. One such gem, Colicchio on what it's really all about: "We're selling an experience. When you get down to it, we're really selling joy. We're selling happiness. That's how my staff…we all have one job. That's to make people happy. If they leave happy, they're going to come back." Occasionaly happiness comes in the form of Snapple iced tea. [Open Forum]
See, times a are tough. With rising food costs, a crumbling economy, and the public's general tightening of purse strings, LA's top chefs have to make some adjustments. Some, like Michel Richard at Citrus at Social, are going more bistro; others are adding special prix fixe menus and deals on slow nights, and then there's Tom Colicchio: "I'm not going to start buying inferior products and lowering my prices a little bit just to try to bring in more people...Remember, we're in the hospitality business and the implication is that we're here to nourish people's stomachs, but also somehow to make them feel better when they leave than when they came in. That's especially true these days when everyone's sitting there watching their 401(k)s dwindle." [LAT]
Stalking Le Bernardin while Top Chef is filming inside: "I overhear that there are six chefs in the kitchen, and something about lots of knives. Six cheftestants left, or Eric Ripert, Colicchio, and four chefs?" [Eater, Grub Street]
Sure there are sightings, stalking and guesstimations afoot about the new Top Chef season, but the Big C himself, Tom Colicchio, was on the Today show this morning for a challenge, some tasting, and possibly an itsy bitsy spoiler or two. The gist: the cheftestants had to make a dish as if they were on the Today show, and Tommy brought three dishes to the fourth ring of hell hour anchors and let them decide the winner. The lovely Amuse-Biatch transcribes the segment or us, but the video is here. Worth a watch just to see Gifford spit one of the dishes out saying, "I'm sorry for who ever made this." Classic. [AB; MSN]
Interviewing Tom Colicchio for an upcoming Eater feature (stay tuned), we couldn't help but ask the Top Chef judge about next season because they just started taping in New York last weekend (which the Mothership is diligently tracking). All he offered was this: "We had our first challenge the other day and we had some, really really good food. Surprsingly good. As long as they keep this up, it will be a good season. Based on that, we have a talented group." We still don't know if any Los Angeles chefs mad the cut. Colizzio couldn't "remember." [EaterWire]
In an obviously choreographed scenario, Joel Stein follows Tom Colicchio and a happy band of local chefs to visit some LA bars and restaurants in July's Food & Wine. Why choreographed? For one, cohorts include Colicchio's Craft executive chef Damon Wise and his local chef de cuisine Matt Accarrino, plus Sang Yoon and Jon Shook (co-chef of Animal and catering company Carmelized Productions), who happen to share Colicchio's CAA agent. Second, we can't see Colicchio saying, "Hey, let's all meet at Bond St," a New York import (like him), or places the group obviously didn't like (S Bar). After the trendy spots you're most likely to never see these guys in again, the ego-train hits up Bar Lubitsch to mix their own cocktails, El Carmen for tequila, and then eschews Jumbo's Clown Room for late-night food at Ruen Pair. The chefs-as-rock-stars is a little too forced in this one, but oh, those crazy kids. [F&W]
Tonight's episode of Top Chef looks like a doozy. With the cheftestant pool down to six, it's time for everyone's favorite challenge (after the relay race of course): Restaurant Wars. Two teams of three have only five hours to open a restaurant, Anthony Bourdain makes his obligatory appearance, Spike wears a suit sans hat, and according to Bourdain, plenty of "very unpleasant aspects" ensue. Added bonus: Tom wakes the cheftestants at 5:45am to cook in Chicago's busiest diner. Crazy!
· All Top Chef Coverage [~ELA~]
We have it on very good authority that the Top Chef finale will start taping this weekend. We don't know who is in the finale, and we don't know for sure where, but rumor has it Big Tom, Pads, Gail, Ted and the happy band of guest judges are heading out to the Carribbean (think: sofrito, arroz con pollo, Salsa, J-Lo). Also unconfirmed but assumed: The finale will be taped, but the winner will be revealed on live TV. [EaterWire]
Overall consensus for last night's inaugural Chefs & Champagne event is that it didn't pack the wallop it deserved. The James Beard Foundation's annual Hampton's fete was brought west to honor and highlight LA's best chefs, and they were all there: Richard, Manzke, Myers, LeFevre, Cimarusti, Citrin, Greenspan, etc. Thing is, the JBF decided to honor Tom Colicchio, an East Coast transplant who's still considered an outsider no matter how loudly he yells "Go Lakers!" at the end of a speech. A solid but odd choice. The event still shuffled along and could have a bright future should it decide to come back. As is always the case, it's difficult to hit every table---one big gabfest, the crowd teeming with industry insiders (owners, writers, editors, publicists)---but here, some highlights and lowlights from the menu, rumor mill and more.
1) Ruffled Feathers: Local chefs were honored to be included in the event, respect Tom Colicchio as chef and restaurateur, but a general "WTF, why Colicchio" attitude wafted in the air like the scent of searing pork belly from the Spago table.
2) Three words: Suckling pig sliders. One of the best things we tasted all night. Handed a couple while standing in the Bastide garden as staffers poured delightful Champagne and pretended that everything's A-OK at the restaurant. We later heard otherwise.
Last night's Top Chef was full of comedy improv, weird sexual innuendos, Padma bowl-licking, some very arbitrary (and highly questionable) judging criterion and one svelte pastry judge. Hilarious for so many reasons, but a nail-biter for Angelenos rooting for hometown cheftestant Antonia Lofaso. We counted at least 10 different times, tells if you will, that had us thinking Antonia would pack her knives, but she survives this round. Barely. Instead, the last of the San Franciscoans have left the competition---sorry Eater SF but phew! On to the recap:
From a local (i.e. Antonia Lofaso) perspective, the Top Chef taco episode was kind of a snoozer. The majority of the 14 remaining chefs are still sitting comfortably in the middle, Antonia included. A Quickfire summary: Rick Bayless was the guest judge sporting a nice purple shirt and a surprisingly Shaggy-like voice. The cheftestants make fancy "fine dining" tacos, and the cockiest egos really stood out. Spike refused to make fancy tacos, opting to take the street food route instead, but was picked as a top taco for "soul satifying flavor." Manuel thought his proper pronunciation of tomatillos and chorizo would merit an automatic win. Twitchy Andrew thinks he'll win Top Chef because of "his crazy ideas always popping in his head." Bayless couldn't even chew through Lisa's grilled steak taco. Big bald Erik's plate looked like a plate of slop. And once again, we never heard or saw what Antonia made. When Richard's jicama-wrapped tacos won him immunity, Spike was beside himself. His attitude set the tone for the rest of the episode; must've been that yellow hat. All the gang's here: Ted Allen's first appearance this season, Bayless, Pads, TC. And away we go!
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Last night's Top Chef was full of comedy improv, weird sexual innuendos, Padma bowl-licking, some very arbitrary (and highly questionable) judging criterion and one svelte pastry judge. Hilarious for so many reasons, but a nail-biter for Angelenos rooting for hometown cheftestant Antonia Lofaso. We counted at least 10 different times, tells if you will, that had us thinking Antonia would pack her knives, but she survives this round. Barely. Instead, the last of the San Franciscoans have left the competition---sorry 
From a local (i.e. Antonia Lofaso) perspective, the Top Chef taco episode was kind of a snoozer. The majority of the 14 remaining chefs are still sitting comfortably in the middle, Antonia included. A Quickfire summary: Rick Bayless was the guest judge sporting a nice purple shirt and a surprisingly Shaggy-like voice. The cheftestants make fancy "fine dining" tacos, and the cockiest egos really stood out. Spike refused to make fancy tacos, opting to take the street food route instead, but was picked as a top taco for "soul satifying flavor." Manuel thought his proper pronunciation of tomatillos and chorizo would merit an automatic win. Twitchy Andrew thinks he'll win Top Chef because of "his crazy ideas always popping in his head." Bayless couldn't even chew through Lisa's grilled steak taco. Big bald Erik's plate looked like a plate of slop. And once again, we never heard or saw what Antonia made. When Richard's jicama-wrapped tacos won him immunity, Spike was beside himself. His attitude set the tone for the rest of the episode; must've been that yellow hat. All the gang's here: Ted Allen's first appearance this season, Bayless, Pads, TC. And away we go!
