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Top Chef New York Season 5
marigold:
An update on Top Chef's judge Padma Lakshmi:
Padma is featured in the November issue of Harper's Bazaar
A Fashionable Life: Padma Lakshmi
marigold:
Padma Lakshmi is in Novembers issue in Harper's Bazaar
marigold:
An interesting article:
‘Top Chef’ Truck Graces New York With Its Presence
Remember the Top Chef truck? Well, it’s finally rolling into Union Square this Saturday, when Richard Blais and Andrew D’Ambrosi will give demos at 10:30 a.m., noon, and 1:30 p.m. Will this be like the time U2 played on a rooftop? Not quite. Okay, so will Blais at least show us how to chill beer with liquid nitrogen? Let's hope. This’ll be the last stop of the tour, meaning we’ll never hear from former cheftestants again. Well, until our own New York Taste event, anyway!
Link: http://nymag.com/daily/food/2008/10/top_chef_truck_graces_new_york.html
apskip:
There is a culinary event on Monday Oct. 27:
TASTE OF THE 5 BOROUGHS - Big Apple. Big Appetite
A tasting event featuring food from restaurants in each of the 5 boroughs(including tom Colicchio's Craft, Le Cirque, and The River Cafe) and opportunity to meet BRAVO's Top Chefs
(Note: the publicity for this clarifies that it is both the winners of Top Chef 1-4 and the Top Chef 5 Cheftestants)
Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central Terminal, 12pm to 3pm(but only tickets for 2pm to 3pm currently available)
All proceeds allow CityHarvest to feed hungry men, women and children in New York City
Ticket Price $30
tickets on sale at cityharvest.org
marigold:
An interesting article:
'Top Chef' judge has tips, tales
Shopping at Publix is an extra-double-bonus pleasure when you walk in and see, instead of the typical chicken breast display, chef Tom Colicchio sitting there signing books. In town for a cooking demo at Apron's cooking school, Colicchio looked slimmed down and dashing in his jeans, blue button-front shirt, a hint of stubble and giant cuff watch.
A long-time Top Chef watcher, I simply had to ask the Craft restaurateur and head judge of the Bravo show, "So, what is your overall theme or inspiration for tonight's demo?"
"You'll see once we get inside. Tomatoes."
"Oh, well that's what you ask all the Top Chef contestants, so . . ."
"I see! You're doing me on me."
Colicchio prepared three dishes during the two-hour demo, taking audience questions all along the way. The dishes: Clam Ragout with Bacon, Roasted Tomatoes and Greens; Seared Tuna with Fennel Salad; and Caramelized Tomato Tarts were all so simple I learned little about cooking from this culinary whiz.
However, he opened up about the Top Chef experience and shared some sweet personal stories, food theories and restaurant industry insight.
- During Top Chef's first season, he wanted to cook dinner for the final four or five chefs. After spending $400 in groceries, the producers told him he had to scrap the dinner, as getting to know the contestants could affect his judging. As it stands, once off the set, the judges are not allowed to go near the contestants.
- It takes two days to shoot an episode of Top Chef; the judging portion alone takes four hours. Shooting wraps in five weeks, save for the finale.
- If judging results in a tie, Colicchio tends to get his way.
- His favorite dish from the first four seasons of Top Chef was Tiffani Faison's artichoke risotto with pork belly from the Season 1 finale.
- Martha Stewart is a Quickfire judge in the upcoming season. Knowing there is lots of downtime in television, she showed up with a manicurist, a pedicurist and two assistants.
- One of the first dishes he remembers making as a kid was stuffed zucchini. His family gobbled it down, congratulated him and then asked what was next - he'd mistaken the appetizer for a meal.
- He clearly remembers the day he learned about salt. After grilling a steak at a picnic area, he wondered why it tasted off. So he salted it, and voila! that was the steak taste he knew and loved.
- Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix is the best pizza in the country.
- Dry your fish completely to keep it from sticking to the pan, and then just leave it alone. It will release itself when it is ready. And your fish spatula should be cold when you remove the fish, lest it stick to the utensil.
- A good way to judge a cook's skill level: If you cut into a seared piece of meat and see an even sear on each side, he knows what he's doing.
- The move from sous- chef to chef typically brings a 100 percent bump in salary.
- When one of his sous- chefs is ready to make that move, that's when it's a good time to open a new restaurant. It keeps that chef from leaving the Colicchio family after years of training.
- The goal in the restaurant business is to make people happy. And if that's not your motive, you're in the wrong business.
- Things that grow together, go together, such as as tomatoes and zucchini.
- Favorite ingredient? Mushrooms.
- Always in his pantry? Pasta, olive oil and pepper: "That's a dish, if it has to be."
- The best cooking advice he's gotten was from La Technique: "Don't treat this book like a book. Treat it like an apprenticeship" - as in, learn by doing. Cook by feel. A recipe is a guide, not the rule.
- A guitar enthusiast, he has been learning to play and even scored himself a private lesson with one of his guitar heros, Jorma Kaukonen, formerly of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna.
- His first concert was Led Zeppelin in 1977.
- A day in his life? He either plays guitar or fishes in the morning, then it's to the restaurant in downtown Manhattan till around 10 p.m., and then home.
- At his new line of 'wichcraft sandwich shops, the popular chicken mozzarella is his least favorite. He digs the white anchovy, soft-boiled egg and onion confit sandwich, the least popular seller.
- Sure he'll eat some junk food. Beef jerky, black licorice, and he loves ice cream but eats the fro-yo instead these days. But no thanks on the sweet tea.
Link: http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/102608/enc_347953281.shtml
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