TC News and Information 5.9.11

Happy James Beard Awards Day! The Beard media/cookbook winners were announced last week, with Top Chef Season 7 winning for best studio program, and Eric Ripert's public television show "Avec Eric" winning for best on-location program.

Tonight the James Beard Foundation's chef and restaurant awards will be announced, with Tom Colicchio, Trace Des Jardins, and Ming Tsai hosting. The event will be live-streamed and live-blogged. Stephanie Izard's Girl and the Goat restaurant is a nominee in the Best New Restaurant category, and fellow TC Chicago chef Dale Levitski's shares some thoughts - and faces - of her in this video.

If you're looking for an alternative to those Beard awards, you can cast your vote in this competition sponsored by Zagat. You'll probably recall contestant #6, whose red beard had its own facebook page.

Speaking of Southerners, current TC Masters contestant Hugh Acheson's restaurant Five and Dime is featured in this NYT piece on sophisticated Southern cooking.

Hugh is also on the council of the Atlanta Food & Wine Festival, set for May 19 to May 22 this year. With themes that include Old Traditions, New Traditions and Imports & Inspirations, Kevin Gillespie is cooking up an "inspired" contribution at Woodfire Grill.

TC Masters Season 2 contestant Anita Lo discusses the difference between appearing on Top Chef Masters and Iron Chef in this Wall Street Journal interview: “Iron Chef” was, by far, the easier challenge – a “walk in the park,” as Lo describes it. “It’s just one competition and you can go home after it,” she says. Plus, on “Iron Chef,” you “can have whatever ingredient you want.” With “Top Chef,” Lo was limited to what she could find in Whole Foods – and that meant foregoing harder-to-find Asian ingredients.

Former Gourmet editor and current Masters judge Ruth Reichl (yeah, she'll be back for this week's episode!) has a new gig with the Gilt Groupe, reports the Village Voice. She also had some insights to share about food, culture, and writing at the College of Brockport recently.

Finally, Eater LA is reporting a July opening for Michael Voltaggio's new restaurant, Ink.

Posted on AllTopChef.com

TC News & Information 9.23.09

Jesse Sandlin dishes to the Baltimore Sun on Top Chef.

Leah Cohen left Centro Vinoteca to travel, and now Hosea Rosenberg has announced a 5-month sabbatical from Jax Fish House. Coincidence? They'll never tell! Starting October 1st, check out Hosea's new site whereishosea.com to find out what he'll be up to over the next several months.(source)

Top Chef Masters finalist Anita Lo takes the confusion out of fusion cuisine here.

Toby Young reports on his experience at the Emmy Awards for Gawker. "For the third year running, Top Chef was beaten by The Amazing Race. A clip was shown in which a deaf contestant told the host that being in The Amazing Race meant the world to him because it proved that deaf people could achieve their dreams, too. This proved to be such an emotional moment that both the deaf man and the host broke down in tears. Cue rapturous applause in the Emmy auditorium. In the bar afterwards, I told Tom that if we wanted to stand a chance next year we'd have to get some contestants with disabilities.

'That's why we hired you Toby,' he said."

TC News & Information

Here's an article from the Las Vegas Sun about Marcel Vigneron.

Top Chef Masters competitor Roy Yamaguchi will be in Baltimore to judge a culinary cookoff. More details here.

MinxEats has an interview with Top Chef Las Vegas cheftestant Jesse Sandlin. Click here to read.

Here's Creative Loafing's TCM podcast o' the week.

Anita Lo explains what happened in her last episode of Top Chef Masters.

Rick Bayless has been keeping a Top Chef Masters blog! Read his thoughts here.

Eater compares the three Top Chef hostesses here. And check out this pic of Kelly Choi and chef Gavin Kaysen of Cafe Boulud (from the Feedbag)

ATC Love to Chef Lo

Chef Lo looked great throughout the competition but was stymied this week by a change in venue and raw shellfish.

The dumplings she was folding in one scene looked gorgeous though!

Chef Lo - we're very sorry to see you didn't make it to the top three. We wish you continued success and hope you can get Annisa back up and running very soon.

This post is only for positive words for Chef Lo. If you have anything negative to say about her or another chef, please click here.

TC News & Information

Four Top Chef Masters contestants are hosting the "Top Chef Zin n' Ribs Party" to benefit Clinic Ole and the Land Trust of Napa County's Connolly Ranch. There will be a Q&A with Michael Chiarello, Hubert Keller, Cindy Pawlcyn and Elizabeth Falkner, and Chiarello and Keller will do a cooking demo. For more information, go to Chef Ciarello's site at www.napastyle.com.

Did you know that Richard Blais is the "Andy Warhol of chefs?" Me neither. So sayeth this article from the Greenville News.

Here's a quick interview with TCM Chef Anita Lo.

And John Besh spoke to Slashfood about Top Chef Masters and bloggers in this video.

TC News & Information

Television Without Pity takes a look at the upcoming Top Chef Las Vegas in this video.

Creative Loafing certainly doesn't loaf when it comes to getting their Top Chef Masters podcast up. You can find it here

TC Masters' Anita Lo recently got back from a hunting trip in northern China....

Season 4 cheftestant Brian Malarkey is leaving Oceanaire. Wonder if their recent Chapter 11 filing had anything to do with it?

Michael Voltaggio packed them in at his stint at LA's Breadbar this week. Top Chef 6 buzz, or is he really that fabulous? We'll find out starting in a few weeks.

Speaking of Breadbar, here's a profile of TCM's Ludo Lefebvre, whose Ludo Bites occupies the Breadbar space.

TC Masters Winning Recipe - Episode 7

TC Masters Winning Recipe - Episode 4

Watch Chef Fabio prepare Anita Lo's braised daikon with steak tartare.

TC News & Information

Here's a short interview with recent TC Masters winner Anita Lo.

Here's an audio clip of TCM critic James Oseland on what makes Top Chef Masters different from other cooking shows.

How about an article on TCM's Rick Moonen?

Check out this week's edition of Creative Loafing's TCM Podcast.

Season 4's Spike Mendelsohn continues his quest for the perfect pizza.

Join Eater and 92YTribeca on 7/16 for a Life After Top Chef event with Harold Dieterle and Leah Cohen.

Bio - Anita Lo

Anita Lo is the chef and owner of the successful New York restaurant Annisa and serves as consulting chef for Rickshaw Dumpling Bar. Lo comes from a second generation Chinese-American family that fostered her passion for eating and cooking. While earning a degree in French at Columbia University, she studied at Reid Hall – Columbia's French language institute in Paris and decided to return to Paris to study cooking. She received her degree at the prestigious Ecole Ritz-Escoffier. Back in New York, Lo worked her way through all the stations at David Waltuck’s Chanterelle and became known as a contemporary American chef during her time at Mirezi in New York, where she won rave reviews including a glowing 2-star write up from The New York Times.