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Top Chef New York Season 5
marigold:
:lol: An interesting article on TC's Judge Tom:
It's Never Too Late to Live Your Rock 'n' Roll Dream
For some NYC power players, living out guitar god dreams onstage is the new middle-age crisis.
Top Chef's Tom Colicchio grooves at the NYC Wine & Food Festival in October; security expert Alan Schissel lays a beat down for the Nerve.
It's a Friday night at Chelsea's Highline Ballroom, and both the floor and balcony are packed with fans slinging back drinks. As the lights go down, the place erupts with hoot-and-holler applause. There's nothing unusual about the scene—after all, this is a place where Pink, the Jonas Brothers and the Killers have played in recent months. Only tonight's act is hardly Top 40. And those screaming throngs? Well, they're foodies as much as music fans. When one of the musicians onstage announces the special guest, the place goes wild. For a chef.
Tonight, Tom Colicchio—owner of Craft restaurants and head judge on Bravo's Top Chef—has traded in his chef's whites for jeans and a black-and-white vest, and topped his chrome dome with a bowler hat that makes him look like a character from A Clockwork Orange. Armed with a Fender Stratocaster guitar, he bounds up to join NYC-based folk-rock singer-songwriter Milton, to lay down licks on songs like Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Green River" and Elvis' "Mystery Train." Bobbing his head to the music and smiling easily at the cheering masses, he seems as comfortable onstage as he is in the Top Chef kitchen, but preshow he admitted to stage fright. "When I play at home, I just sit down—standing up and playing is very different. Singing and playing is hard—and I'm going to be singing tonight," he says. "Plus, because of [the success of the TV show], there is more pressure—before, this wouldn't have ended up on YouTube! I don't need that."
So why in the world is a James Beard award winner with 21 restaurants, a hit TV show, a wife and 15-year-old son noodling around with a grown-up version of a garage band? "Every kid dreams of being a rock star," says Tom, 46, who started taking guitar lessons six years ago. "I'm a music fanatic. I play for an hour or two in the morning and an hour at night. Kenny Callahan, the chef at Blue Smoke, and I used to rent a studio every Tuesday night [to jam]. I'm doing this for myself."
Some men buy Ferraris. Others leave their wives for younger women. But among a high-profile circle of New York City professionals, the middle-age indulgence of choice is spending money on top-notch music equipment and living out Mick Jagger dreams. Take cantankerous James Dolan, 52, CEO of Cablevision and chairman of Madison Square Garden, who is the lead singer for blues and classic-rock band JD & the Straight Shot. "I'm just like thousands of guys who picked up a guitar when they were 15, except that I never put it down," he explains on the band's MySpace page.
And then there's Upper East Side plastic surgeon Mark Erlich, who already has groupies—the ladies who gush about his tummy tucks, boob jobs and facelifts. But if Mark had his way, these fans would also be raving about his slammin' guitar licks. The 57-year-old has been playing for two years with his band MDZ. As in "MDs," but with a Z to "funk it up." But Mark jokes that his bandmates—three plastic surgeons, ranging in age from 35 to 57—don't exactly party like rock stars. "We Botox each other," he laughs.
The good doctor dispenses advice to fellow middle-age rockers: Hire a roadie, just like a real band. "If anybody thinks that's crazy, I say, 'Yeah, well, I'm operating tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. and don't want a herniated disc,' " he explains. Medicine and music are clearly an easy partnership. Off the Chart is a band that consists of eight administrators at New York Presbyterian Hospital. In August, they surprised a hospital executive who had a heart valve replaced with a boisterous rendition of "Piece of My Heart."
Some of these rock-star wannabes even indulge in Mötley Crüe–worthy stage attire. Like drummer Alan Schissel, who designed his own Converse sneakers, decorated with skulls. The retired NYPD detective sergeant, who owns a private security and investigation firm, works in a sprawling office in Midtown that's decorated with photos of Ringo Starr, Bo Diddley and Ronnie Wood, in addition to an acoustic drum set. Alan decided to pursue his music dream two-and-a-half years ago, at age 46. "I vowed that for my 50th birthday in 2009, I wasn't going to hire the music—I was going to be the music." And now he is, playing with the Nerve, a group that also includes an accountant, a steamfitter, a teacher and an advertising executive. Alan insists this is not a midlife crisis. "It's so beyond that," he scoffs. "A midlife crisis is something that you can go into a store and buy and get tired of and then return. This is something you invest in—it's a passion." And that passion isn't limited to guys. Nancy Gerson—a 50-year-old Queens-based civil litigation attorney and mother of two—played with the Nerve at their first performance, and takes four hours of music lessons a week with a red Fender Telecaster guitar that she's nicknamed Ruby. "It's so liberating," Nancy says of living out her rock 'n' roll fantasy. "I feel like I'm more like who I was in my twenties than I ever felt since then." (The liberation hasn't stopped there—she signs her e-mails with "Peace, Nancy.")
The Nerve and many similar bands owe their existence to the Studio, a recording and practice space on the third floor of an old building on West 30th Street. Not only can bands rehearse here, they can also sign up for five-week workshops ($225) that match mature music-makers together in bands—like, well, a harmonious version of Eharmony.com. "In New York, everybody wants to stay young," says owner Bob Elliott, 52. "You can rock on and have fun until whatever age. That's why people live in this city, so they can continue to pursue their dreams."
And New Yorkers have big dreams. Like Alan, who's decided that just playing at his 50th birthday bash isn't enough of a challenge. His new goal? "Playing [Madison Square] Garden—opening for Pearl Jam," he laughs.
Link: http://www.nypost.com/pagesixmag/issues/20081109/Its+Never+Too+Late+Live+Your+Rock+n+Roll+Dream
marigold:
An interesting article:
Padma Lakshmi and Tom Colicchio dish about 'Top Chef: New York'
Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi said she's glad the series filmed its upcoming fifth season in "The City That Never Sleeps."
"I was so excited for it to be in New York. I really was," Lakshmi told reporters during a Friday conference call. "I mean I'm very proud of this show for, you know, like not only going to fine restaurants... but also really looking at the city holistically."
While Lakshmi was enthused about the culinary competition series filming in New York City for its fifth season, lead judge and restaurateur Tom Colicchio said the setting didn't make it any easier.
"What's interesting about this season, it was somewhat of a difficult shoot. Usually if we're on location somewhere else we sort of create our own little universe," Colicchio told reporters. "I think because we were shooting in New York and we all live in New York, we're going back to our regular lives as soon as we were off the set, at least I was."
Colicchio added that despite the filming location making it "hard to sort of get back into the sort of mindset of the show," he also enjoyed shooting in the Big Apple.
"Obviously shooting in New York lent itself to a lot of just amazing things that New York has to offer - you know, a lot of different ethnic cuisines," he said. "That sort of worked itself into the challenges at a lot of different locations."
Top Chef: New York filmed in Brooklyn over the summer and it is currently slated to premiere November 12 at 10PM ET/PT.
"We shot everything through the finale," Colicchio told reporters. "We'll go back and [film the finale] in January sometime. I don't think we have a location nailed down yet for the finale."
Rounding out the judging panel with Colicchio and Lakshmi are Food & Wine magazine editor Gail Simmons and new judge Toby Young.
"Toby is somebody that I had never met before except for on the set on the first day of shooting that he came in," said Lakshmi. "I didn't know what to expect, but I found him very charming, very witty, and very sweet."
Lakshmi added she "didn't always agree" with Young, but said she was "always very interested to hear his take on things."
"He was brash. He was opinionated," said Colicchio. "He was very funny and witty as well. I really enjoyed working with him."
Young, a best-selling British author and food critic, will replace Ted Allen, the former Queer Eye expert who had served as a judge on Top Chef's last two seasons. Earlier this summer, Allen began serving as the host of Food Detectives -- a new Mythbusters-like Food Network series that attempts to debunk food myths.
While a Bravo spokesperson had told Reality TV World last month that Allen hadn't been able to participate due to the show's time commitments, Colicchio told reporters Food Network actually disallowed Allen's Top Chef participation.
"Ted got a show picked up on The Food Network and The Food Network, they have this little policy," said Colicchio. "That's why you don't see any of the chefs that are on a Food Network show."
Despite the absence of Allen and other Food Network chefs, Top Chef: New York will feature guest appearances by several culinary and mainstream stars including Martha Stewart, The Foo Fighters, Jean-Georges, Eric Ripert, Rocco DiSpirito, Wylie Dufresne, Jean-Christophe Novelli and Natasha Richardson.
"To have all of those palates on one table was, for me, a great, great honor," said Lakshmi. "And, you know, also obviously the Foo Fighters being on was pretty damn cool."
Top Chef: New York's 17 contestants range from 21- to 44-years-old, hail from across the country and have a wide variety of culinary credentials.
"They're an interesting bunch," said Lakshmi. "I thought they really held their own. I think the one thing I noted this season is that it was really interesting to watch the evolution of more than a few of them. I think they really are - were very quick learners. And so some of the contestants over the course of the challenges and weeks really surprised us."
Lakshmi said she feels the keys to succeeding at Top Chef's challenges are composure, using the provided resources and attempting to not only survive to the next round -- but hit the challenge out of the park.
"How can I, you know, do something that's really interesting or do something that's really simple but just execute, you know, execute it to the fullest," explained Lakshmi about the contestants' mindset.
Since the judges are "not privy to all the behind-the-scenes stuff that goes on," Lakshmi added the winner is solely based on their finished product.
"We're not there when they're shooting it. We don't really know much about it," she said. "We strictly judge on food."
Colicchio agreed that "the strategy of winning and getting to the finale is making great food."
"I think it's pretty well documented that we only -- we just [go] each episode to episode and challenge to challenge. We don't look at past performances," he said. "And it's for a lot of reasons. You know, there's a saying in our industry that you're only as good as your last dish."
In addition, Colicchio assured viewers that the Top Chef judges taste everything that is presented to them by the contestants in an effort to ensure that the best participant wins.
"We're getting everything when it's hot, when it's first made so it's not sitting around for five or ten minutes, sitting around wilting," he said. "So much of eating is obviously visual, and so food will start to change very quickly after it's plated. So we're very, very much on top of making sure we get everything, you know, as soon as it's finished."
Lakshmi added the amount of food and lack of time does make the judges' job more difficult.
"The amount of food consumed is staggering," she said. "And also, we -- especially in the first half of the show when we have so many contestants -- you know, I feel and I'm sure Tom would agree the (onus) is on us to make sure we sample every contestant's dish adequately, you know, in fairness. So it does become difficult."
Having been with Top Chef all five seasons, Colicchio said it's been a "mission of the show to try to always find better contestants" -- something he thinks has been achieved despite recent comments by The New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni.
According to The Times, Bruni recently stated Top Chef "gets [young chefs] thinking more about mass-media glory -- about big, quick fame -- than about disciplined professionalism, dedication, sacrifice."
"I find that to be a very strange comment," Colicchio told reporters. "I don't think there are any shortcuts to getting there. I mean there's a vetting process and, you know, you're not going to sort of get through that process if you haven't some sort of skill."
"It's very easy to badmouth the show for - you know, if you're a professional chef for whatever reason because some people look at this as a shortcut to fame. But you know what, most of these guys who have been on the show, if they don't back it up in their everyday life they're going to fade away, you know, a year from now. They're going to have their 15 minutes."
Lakshmi -- not surprisingly -- also defended Top Chef and said nothing the contestants do escapes the cameras.
"I think Top Chef is a great opportunity," she said. "If you're lucky enough to actually make the cut and be one of the contestants, it's just a chance to show if you're good or not. But if you're not good, you're not going to last on the show. And that comment about how TV and media has changed, you know, the food industry, guess what? The TV and media have changed all of our lives in every industry."
In addition, Lakshmi said Top Chef contestants aren't the only ones who benefit from the show.
"I think that Top Chef also does a great service in informing people about food and cooking technique, and eating right and using good local ingredients," she said. "You'll see that a lot, especially on this season. And so for that, too, I think it - yes it has - TV has changed the way people look at food for the good, you know, for the better I believe."
Link: http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/padma-lakshmi-and-tom-colicchio-dish-about-top-chef-new-york-7993.php
marigold:
An interesting article:
Top Chef: New York
Reality’s culinary challenge takes to the Big Apple for season five. First, 17 talented competitors (such as cute and cocky Jeff and feisty lesbian Jamie) must impress host Padma Lakshmi and her cojudges by peeling apples (one player gets booted on the spot). Another task — create a dish inspired by an NYC neighborhood — soaks up the local flavor, and the results are nail-biting. Compliments to the exciting Chef for keeping things fresh.
Link: http://www.usmagazine.com/node/21591
marigold:
An interesting article:
Review: 'Top Chef: Season 5'
THE SHOW " Top Chef: Season 5"
WHEN|WHERE Wednesday night at 10 on Bravo.
REASON TO WATCH A well-balanced combination of ego and frenzy, drizzled with balsamic reduction.
WHAT'S ON THE MENU After gigs in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago, "Top Chef" has finally hit the big time. Not that any of those four distinguished cities are dabblers in the restaurant world, but New York is the acknowledged gastronomic center of the country, if not the world. After all, Tom Colicchio, Padma Lakshmi and Gail Simmons all live here.
For the uninitiated, the three aforementioned personages make up three-quarters of "Top Chef's" "judges' table." The fourth judge, British new guy Toby Young, is AWOL on premiere night. Instead, New York restaurateur Jean-Georges Vongerichten rounds out the table.
New York itself has a starring role. The "cheftestants" meet one another in New York Harbor, on the ferry to Governor's Island, for their first challenge. Thereafter, they fan out across the city to patronize various ethnic markets. When they go home for the night, it is to a palatial apartment in Williamsburg.
AND WHAT OF THE CHEFTESTANTS? The cast strikes me as a talented and entertaining bunch. New Hyde Park's 's own Danny Gagnon (currently chef de cuisine at the Babylon Carriage House) ably fills the role of the tough-talking, possibly hotheaded young Turk. He has a more effete side, though: It's Gagnon who creates the episode's only foam.
The strongest competitor may well be Stefan, born in Finland, trained in Germany and Switzerland and a veteran of kitchens in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Quietly aggressive, possibly cruel, he is the Daniel Craig of the competition or, with his shaven head, at least the Michael Chiklis.
He and Florence-born Fabio form a European alliance. Fabio claims he'd never been to New York, but he is clearly familiar with the cross-cultural fusion that characterizes American cooking in 2008. Bravo's Web site reveals that he is chef-owner of Café Firenze, "one of the most recognized restaurants in Ventura County," and that "Fabio also works as William Shatner's private chef."
BOTTOM LINE By dint of smart casting, imaginative challenges and A-list guests, "Top Chef" retains its three stars for culinary entertainment.
GRADE B
Link: http://www.newsday.com/features/food/ny-ettel5922205nov12a,0,6323665.story?track=rss
marigold:
An interesting article:
Review Top Chef: New York
New York - the foodie capital of the word - is the setting for the next season of this ever-popular reality competition show. A new group of 17 hopefuls battle it out all over New York, tapping into the Big Apple's ample supply of famous chefs as judges. Right off the bat, you get a mini-tour of the city, when the contestants are assigned an ethnic neighborhood and must each cook a dish that reflects that neighborhood's cuisine. Here's the difference between this show and other competition series: When you watch it, you can actually learn something that you could do at home yourself.
Link: http://www.starmagazine.com/top_chef_new_york/reviews/tv/14121
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