Chat Live With Top Chef Season 4's Dale Talde

Dale Talde of Top Chef will be answering questions direct from fans during a LiveCloud VIP-Talk session on October 15th

The chat event is accessible on October 15th from 6pm – 7pm (PDT), click here to join chat. Also, questions can be submitted in advance of the event.

Dale, a sous chef at Buddakan, one of New York's hottest restaurants, was born and raised in Chicago, where he helped open the renowned restaurant Jean Georges Vong. In Chicago, Dale worked with distinguished chefs like Carrie Nahabedian and Shawn Mcclain. With his Filipino background, Dale focuses on Asian flavors. "I love the balance that Asian cuisine offers the salty, sweet, bitter and sour and the textures it provides for different experiences in every bite." One of Dale's kitchen favorites is a dry aged Kobe rib eye. Dale says cooking meats is one of his favorite things to do in the kitchen and the technique that goes into properly searing and basting a rack of lamb or steak shows a lot of love. A motto that drives Dale is "expect perfection, because if you fall short you’re left with greatness."

All Top Chef Interview with Richard Blais

PHOTO/SPARK ST. JUDE

Season Four Chef Richard Blais talks about his new restaurants, traveling, his family and all that he has been doing since appearing in Season Four.

Click here for Flip Burger Boutique.

Click here for Richard's Bravo Blog.

Click here for Richard's Omnivore Atlanta blog on Creative Loafing.

Click here for the podcast. Thank you Chef!

All Top Chef Interview with Stephanie Izard

Season Four Champion, Stephanie Izard is very busy preparing to open her new restaurant, The Drunken Goat in February 2010. She is also writing a cookbook, traveling and representing Top Chef at Food & Wine events across the country.

Stephanie mentions that the "best meal she ever ate" was at Tetsuya's in Sydney.

Her favorite Season Six Chef is Kevin, but she believes that Jen is also very strong.

Click here for Stephanie's website.

Click here for the podcast.

Thank you Chef!

Top Chefs in Columbus

Cliff O'Neill

Columbus, OH

Top Chef: The Tour came to Columbus, Ohio, today. Featured on the program were Top Chef: Chicago (Season Four) winner Stephanie Izzard and Top Chef: New York (Season Five) finalist Ariane Duarte.

On this steamy late Spring day, the pair put on a cooking demonstration for the crowd in front of the city’s historic North Market. Afterwards, they took questions from the audience which ranged from the culinary (“How do you make a nice glaze?”) to the salacious (“Are Hosea and Leah still dating?”).

Asked by a young, aspiring chef what to do to pursue a culinary career, the two agreed that one should work in food in many different capacities, from front-of-house to bussing tables. Stephanie even told of her amusing early experiences working at Olive Garden and having trouble with the pronunciation of “pasta e fagioli” (pasta fa-ZHOOL).

In fact, it seemed like Ariane had to prod the audience to ask about the more gossipy aspects of her reality TV experience. Once asked, she reported what her erstwhile lovebird co-contestants (Season Five winner Hosea Rosenburg and finalist Leah Cohen) have said already: They remain friends and would be closer if they had the slightest desire to live in each other’s towns. (Rosenburg resides in Boulder, CO, while Cohen is married to life in New York City.)

Stephanie volunteered that during her season there was a clause in all the cheftestants’ contracts barring them from “touching” each other. By the next season, Ariane added, that clause was gone.

That was, said Ariane, an indication that the producers were going for more of a “Real World meets Top Chef” vibe going forward.

To laughter, Stephanie added that she didn’t care about the clause, since she didn’t want to touch anyone anyway.

About the manifold Top Chef blogs, the two reported that they were advised by loved ones to not read them, since they can be quite nasty.

(This, of course, made this blogger wince as he thought back to the snarky comments he’s made on his own TC blog. Still, after some reflection, he approached anyway, knowing he was rooting for each of them in their respective seasons.)

Afterwards, the two politely posed for pictures with fans and signed photos and Top Chef merchandise. Ariane reported that her New Jersey restaurant is still booked three weeks out, while an equally affable Stephanie chatted with fans.

Advised of this new blog, the ladies suggested they’d check it out, with Stephanie signing this blogger’s Top Chef Cookbook, “Keep nice blogging!”