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Top Chef New York Season 5

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marigold:

 :hearts: Thanks apskip for the great recap oh the good old days hehehe

Loved the premiere episode your soooo right looks like an exciting season yippie  :jumpy:

marigold:

BRAVO'S "TOP CHEF: NEW YORK" SIZZLES WITH HIGHEST RATED PREMIERE EVER

Published: November 13, 2008

Press Release

BRAVO'S "TOP CHEF: NEW YORK" SIZZLES WITH HIGHEST RATED PREMIERE EVER, UP DOUBLE DIGITS ACROSS ALL DEMOGRAPHICS

"The Real Housewives Of Atlanta" Continues Ratings Growth With Season Highs Across All Key Demos

NEW YORK – November 13, 2008 – The No. 1 rated food show on cable is back – Bravo's Emmy and James-Beard Award-winning series "Top Chef" served up the competition last night by scoring the show's highest rated premiere ever for the series, according to Nielsen Media Research. With supersized growth from its last cycle, the fifth season premiere attracted 1.870 million adults 18-49 and 2.695 million total viewers and ranked No. 1 in all key demos in its time period versus cable competition.

Last night's 10 p.m. "Top Chef: New York" debut increased double digits from the fourth season premiere, by 27 percent in adults 18-49 (1.870 vs. 1.475 million) and by 19 percent among total viewers (2.695 vs. 2.256 million). Online, BravoTV.com saw triple digit gains with the "Top Chef: New York" site generating a 105 percent increase in page views (1.1 million vs. 527,000) compared to the "Top Chef: Chicago" premiere (3/12/08).

Bravo's hit show "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" continues it ratings momentum, with this week's episode reaching a season high across all key demos, garnering an impressive 1.112 million adults 18-49 and 1.499 total viewers. Versus the prior week's episode, the series was up 41 percent among adults 18-49 (vs. 791,000) and up 49 percent among total viewers (vs. 1.009 million). Through six episodes, "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" is averaging 871,000 adults 18-49 and 1.158 million total viewers and online has streamed nearly 1.5 million video streams since its launch.

"Top Chef: New York" is produced by the Emmy-nominated Magical Elves. Dan Cutforth, Jane Lipsitz ("Project Runway," "Top Design") and Shauna Minoprio serve as executive producers.

"The Real Housewives of Atlanta" is produced by True Entertainment for Bravo. Steven Weinstock, Glenda Hersh, Shari Solomon Cedar and Kenny Hull serve as executive producers.

Source: Nielsen Media Research, Live + Same Day through 11/12/08. #1 Food Show source: Nielsen Media Research, Top Chef on Bravo Premiere Program Average (3/12/08-11/12/08) vs. All Food Network Program Averages, Excluding Specials (12/31/07-11/12/08), Most Current, P2+ & A18-49 (000), Galaxy Explorer, subject to qualifications available on request; Digital Source: Omniture SiteCatalyst - Top Chef: 11/12/08; Real Housewives of Atlanta: 10/1/08 - 11/13/08.

marigold:
An interview with eliminated chefs Lauren and Patrick:

‘Top Chef’ Exit Interview: Episode One

It came as a shock last night when not one, but two, doe-eyed cheftestants were sent home on the season premiere of Top Chef. Lauren Hope left her knife skills at home — not even her sweet southern charm worked on Colicchio after she served him an uninspired apple-and-bacon salad in the Quickfire. Soft-spoken and unequivocally adorable Patrick Dunlea managed to make it to the elimination, but fell short of the judges’ expectations when he represented Chinatown with a slab of salmon and some gummy noodles. We spoke to both this morning about the pleasure and pain of being the first contestants to get cut this season.

LAUREN HOPE

You had to go so quickly!
After getting to know my competitors and realizing how talented they were, it might have been fair that it was me.

Were you the least talented on there?
I don’t want to say the least talented, but I would certainly say that Patrick and I rank as the most inexperienced.

Is it awful to be sent home for something as basic as knife skills?
It was absolutely shocking! I have a special place in my heart for apples, as far as baking apple pies and going to apple orchards, so I was embarrassed.

What are you doing now?
I’ve been working in Cincinnati, at a restaurant called Jag’s Steak and Seafood. It’s a very upscale, very nice place. I’ve just been working every station there.

What do you see yourself doing in the future?
I would love to open my own wedding-cake shop. I’m definitely much more of a pastry chef than culinary.


PATRICK DUNLEA

Patrick, my condolences! It’s very unusual for a culinary student to be on Top Chef. Why did they cast you?
I gave them my heart and I poured it out to them and I told them that cooking is my life, and I wanted to prove that to them. I’ve got the skill set everyone else has, it’s just I’ve been tested on them more recently.

The Quickfire knife-skills challenge was as basic as it gets.
It always does come down to the basic skills. However, when those basic skills are put to a time test, or you’re competing against one another, the basic skills don’t become so basic, and things like peeling an apple become really difficult.

You lost the elimination challenge with bad noodles. Have you had any experience cooking Chinese cuisine?
There is a “Cuisines of Asia” class that we take for three weeks a year, but in that you’re also focusing on all of Asia, every cuisine from Indian to Thai and Korean as well. Other than going out and eating Americanized Chinese food, I don’t have a lot of experience cooking it.

You're back at CIA right now. Are you a celebrity?
I had the election for student government last night, and I got back to being the president.

Was it embarrassing to watch the episode last night?
It happened a little while ago, so I’ve had time to cope. My e-mail and my Facebook profile kind of exploded last night. I had a lot of great support.

Do you miss Team Rainbow?
I do! We’re all staying in touch. We’re very excited about the fact that there are T-shirts.

Link: http://nymag.com/daily/food/2008/11/top_chef_exit_interview_episod.html

marigold:
An interview with Patrick:

Ousted Top Chef’s Patrick: Some People Had ‘Uncertainty’ About My Skills

This season, Top Chef’s producers are promising a fiercer competition than ever–and Wednesday’s show made good with a double elimination. While chef Lauren Hope was ousted immediately, the remaining 16 competitors got to experience New York–venturing out into the city’s diverse neighborhoods and cooking up ethnic food in a head-to-head challenge. Unfortunately another chef had to leave. After failing to inspire the judges with his Chinese cuisine, culinary student Patrick Dunlea, 21, was sent packing. Calling from New York, the chef talked about being big man on campus (for a day!), why being a student caused some people to doubt him–and answered our five burning Top Chef questions. –Brian Orloff

Can you describe the feeling of almost being cut right away. And what it was like to see your friend Lauren go?
It’s such a surreal moment. You can barely hear anything, and then all of a sudden once [Tom Colicchio] said my name, I was just so happy to be staying. But I could just feel Lauren squeeze my hand and knew she was going home. It was a very emotional 10 seconds.

Looking back on the challenge, were you happy with what you presented?
Part of me was thinking, “Okay, it’s Top Chef, I’ve got to try something creative.” They’re looking for inspiration from this borough, so I can’t just rely on what I know about Chinese cuisine. I’m going to go out there and use something that will inspire them. The last thing I wanted to do was take white rice and serve with it. I tried to take a chance, and unfortunately not every chance works out as you expect it to.

What did you think of your competitor Daniel’s food?
I didn’t get to taste his food. I had seen his preparation. It looked good. He had a foam on the plate. I was like, “Oh gosh I’m going up against a foam and I’m totally not a foam type person.” It seemed like he had a pretty strong idea about what he was doing . . . but I too had seen a Chinese chicken salad like that before so I didn’t know what the judges reaction was going to be.

What was the reaction of your fellow culinary students when they found out you made it to Top Chef?
I had to take a semester off for the show, so I wasn’t on campus actually until two days ago. I kind of showed up and everyone was all excited. It was the big news on campus. I only had to deal with it for two days. [And] people knew that I had auditioned, so I came up with this rumor that I didn’t get it and I was really upset so I was taking time off for personal reasons.

Was being a culinary student an advantage or disadvantage for you on Top Chef?
[School is] such a positive learning environment based around food, so that was a strength for me. I knew going into it a lot of people are going to be having uncertainty about what to expect from me, and may feel that perhaps I need to go and get some more experience before I go back to taking on an endeavor like that.

Our Top Chef 5 Burning Questions:

Describe your Top Chef experience in one word.
Quirky.

What is in your refrigerator right now?
I just moved into my dorm room but right now my refrigerator is empty, but pretty soon it’s probably going to have a lot of white wine in it.

Name one food you cannot stand.
Artificial non-dairy whipped topping because I have no idea what it is.

Pick your favorite fast food restaurant.
I actually don’t eat fast food. The closest I get is I go out for Chinese buffet food sometimes.

Best thing about cooking in New York?
It literally is a melting pot. You turn a corner and there’s an entirely different culture and it’s incredible to see how they all hold their own identities but can work with each other.

Link: http://tvwatch.people.com/2008/11/13/ousted-top-chefs-patrick-some-people-had-uncertainty-about-my-skills/

marigold:
An interview with Patrick:

Top Chef Exit Intervew: Patrick Chopped, Would Have Liked To Cook Indian Cuisine

On Wednesday night's fifth season premiere of Top Chef, 21 year-old Patrick Dunlea became the youngest chef to ever pack up his knives after losing a chef-to-chef challenge. In an interview this morning the culinary school student admit that he would have changed his Chinatown-inspired dish by “doing something different to heighten the level of flavors,” and claims he’ll never use those gummy noodles again. The rest of his interview below.

Tom Collichio said using bok choy in your dish was too expected.
Well, the market I went to had a lot of bok choy and cabbage. That’s what I was inspired by.

Is there another neighborhood and it’s associated cuisine you would have rather worked with, instead of Chinatown?
I really love Indian cuisine. It would have been fun to cook a little bit of that, and see all the different ingredients.

What was the process like getting on the show?
Well my [Culinary Institute of America] classmates were joking with me, like ‘yeah right, you think you’ll get on that show?’ I can’t go into too much detail about the casting. My friends were watching as it was coming along. Then when I did get it, I couldn’t tell anyone. I had to come up with excuses and say I was going away for ‘personal reasons.’

Have you spoken to your former classmate and fellow eliminee, Lauren since being on the show?
We sent little text messages back and forth saying ‘you looked great!’ We’re both back to our normal lives. She’s with her husband who was home for a little while on leave, so she was very occupied with him. Then I went back to school. We still keep in touch through email, though.

Did you build any relationships with the other chefs? Or was it too brief?
There were instant kind of connections. Everyone was still jittery and anxious from the quickfire challenge. Everyone’s emotions were up. We all bonded and looked to each other for support. We were all in the same boat. There were obviously some connections as we were obviously sharing such an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience.

It seems like Fabio and Stefan are being set up to be the two polarizing forces of the group. Did you get that vibe when you were around them?
Fabio and Stefan were hysterical together. They just feed off each other. They try to out-do each other every time they’re together. I really had no issues with them. They never tried to talk down or look down to me. They’re just guys being guys, trying to out-do one another.

Is there any ingredient or technique you’ve learned at school that people could do at home?
I think it’s more ingredients. Even if you can make a grilled cheese, make sure to use the best bread, the best cheese and the best butter, and it’ll be the best grilled cheese you’ve ever had. It’s really about the quality of the ingredients. Cooking is a skill that people can learn. It’s a part of everyone’s life. Everyone knows it a little bit. Even if you can only use your microwave, there are still pretty incredible things you can do with it.

At what point when you were growing up did you realize this was something you wanted to take seriously and turn into a career?
Probably when I was at the end of elementary school. I was around 10 or 11. I had always grown up cooking with my mom and grandmother in the kitchen. When I got to that age I started cooking on my own. I’d come home and try and put together for my family for dinner, which usually wound up being a potato, or a couple potato dishes and a vegetable. From there I moved on to bigger and better things.

What kind of things would you make with your mom and grandmother?
I’m from Massachusetts so my grandmother is famous for her baked beans. Growing up you could always just smell them. That's definitely a dish that brings me back to my childhood. My grandmother was also into going to farms, or stopping at farm stands on the side of the road to pick up stuff on the way home. She really inspired me to get back in touch with the land.

Do you have any secrets for making great baked beans?
She always cooked a whole onion in there to roast with it. It was so great, because by the end one half is roasted on top and the other half is soaking in beans the entire time. It's like heaven.

Is there any food that you absolutely can’t stand?
That non-dairy processed whipped cream product. I’m terrified of it. Who knows what its made of.

What's your favorite New York restaurant?
I really love Prune, Gabrielle Hamilton's restaurant, and Fatty Crab. Gabrielle Hamilton is a really awesome chef. She's so down to earth, and very forward. She likes to just cook food from her childhood.

Any dishes to recommend?
At Fatty Crab they have coconut keffir lime braised short ribs that are just so incredible. Gabrielle Hamilton, I haven't tried them yet, but I'm dying to try her sweetbreads. She boasts that they're the best in the country.

After culinary school, what’s the next step for you?
I want to travel. I’m trying to work on going to Europe. I’m working on getting a fellowship to go to Spain after I graduate. I’d like to get international experience and see the world.

Link: http://thebiz.fancast.com/2008/11/top_chef_exit_intervew_patrick.html

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