TC News and Information 7.18.11

Congratulations to Top Chef for garnering four Emmy nominations (“Outstanding Reality-Competition Program,” “Outstanding Cinematography for Reality Programming,” “Outstanding Directing for Non-Fiction Programming” and “Outstanding Picture Editing for Reality Programming”)! No Reservations, the Travel Channel show starring frequent TC judge Anthony Bourdain, also received four nominations (“Outstanding Nonfiction Series,” “Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming,” “Outstanding Picture Editing for Nonfiction Programming” and “Outstanding Cinamatography for Nonfiction Programming”).

In case you missed it, here’s a 30-minute video of Bourdain answering the top 10 questions posed by viewers on Reddit.

Want to meet Fabio Viviani? Bertolli olive oil is sponsoring a contest where the winner will win a trip for two to LA for cooking lessons with the maestro.

Ruth Reichl confirms here that Top Chef Masters 4 is in the works.

Jen Carroll, Spike Mendelsohn, Kevin Sbraga, Dale Talde, Carla Hall and Stephen Asprinio were among the Top Chef alums who showed up for an “oven-warming” party at All-Stars finalist Mike Isabella’s newly opened Graffiato. Check out pics and more on Eater.

A couple of interesting pieces about TC Masters 3 finalist Traci des Jardins here and here. She is also blogging for the new Huffington Post San Francisco edition. Here inaugural post here.

And Harold Dieterle, Fabio Viviani and Richard Blais will each take over the kitchen at Wisconsin’s Lake of the Torches Resort Casino selected Thursdays in August.

Posted on AllTopChef.com

All Top Chef Interview with Traci Des Jardins

Top Chef Masters finalist, Traci Des Jardin, talks about her experience on the Bravo show.

Click here for the podcast.

Click here to learn more about Traci's charity, La Cocina.

Thank you Chef Traci!
Posted on AllTopChef.com

Bravo Exit Interview - Traci Des Jardins

Posted on AllTopChef.com

Reactions to the Top Chef Masters 3 Finale

This week's finale episode of Top Chef Masters season 3 had the three finalists - Floyd Cardoz, Mary Sue Milliken, and Traci DesJardins - creating a three course meal based on three criteria. The first course needed to draw from an early food memory. The second course needed to reference the meal that made each contestant want to be a chef. Finally, the third course had to be based on a specific memory from one of the Critics. After drawing knives, Mary Sue finds that Ruth Reichl would love a lemon soufflé, Traci needs to make a memorable duck and Bernaise dish for Gael Greene, and Floyd has to recreate a spicy Indonesian rendang for James Oseland.

To aid them in this task, the chefs are assigned sous chefs with whom they are very comfortable, namely their own chefs from their restaurants.

Off for shopping, which is not limited to Whole Foods.With only 8 hours combined to shop and prep, Mary Sue plays it safe and buys all of her ingredients from Whole Foods. Floyd, on the other hand, needs to rush all over LA to source his ingredients and gets stuck in traffic. So while Mary Sue and Traci are cooking away in the Top Chef Masters kitchen, Floyd is nowhere to be found. Eventually he shows up with a mere 3 hours to spare - and two types of meat to braise to tenderness in that short time.

The next day, they are taken by car to a mysterious location, which turns out to be a house near the Hollywood Hills where Curtis Stone is waiting to make them breakfast. Afterwards, fueled by mimosas, they head back to the TCM kitchen to cook for another two hours.

While it seems they all have some issues in the kitchen -  Traci is not happy with the quality of her duck, Mary Sue is forced to use liquid nitrogen to make her lemon ice cream, Floyd's fish was badly butchered - they somehow all make it work.

When the Critics arrive, we see they've brought Danyelle Freeman, Alan Sytsma, and Tom Colicchio, plus former TCM contestants Jonathan Waxman, Susan Feniger, Rick Moonen, Jody Adams, and Susur Lee along to dine with them.

For the first course, Floyd serves an upma (semolina) polenta with wild mushrooms, Mary Sue brings out an Asian-style steak tartare, and Traci does a shrimp creole, all based on early food memories.

For the second course, Floyd made a rice-flake coated snapper, Mary Sue has shrimp two ways, and Traci offers a quail salad with sweetbreads.

Finally, for the third course, Floyd offers his rendang two ways (shortribs and oxtail) with tapioca pilaf, Mary Sue brings her lemon soufflé, and Traci has a duo of duck.

While the critics nitpick most of the dishes, Mary Sue's soufflé is faultless, and Floyd's rendang is highly praised. Traci's duck dish doesn't evoke the proper memories for Gael Greene, however, so it looks like she's out of the competition at that point.

Just when it seems that Mary Sue has it in the bag, Curtis announces that the winner is Floyd! Perhaps a surprise, but a pleasant one.

So what did you all think about this episode? Please tell us in the comments!

Posted on AllTopChef.com

Top Recipe - Traci Des Jadins' Japanese Steak

Japanese Style Steak, Miso Braised Daikon, Cucumber & Pea Shoot Salad

NGREDIENTS

Steak:
2 pounds rib eye
1/4 cup mirin- for marinade
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 cup pea sprouts
8 ounces daikon
1 tablespoons white miso
1 tablespoons mirin- for daikon
Rice wine vinegar- to taste

Cucumber Salad:
1 tablespoon plum paste
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons mirin
3 cucumbers – Japanese or European
1 cups pea sprouts

DIRECTIONS

Steak:
1. Trim the rib eye, remove all sinew and fat
2. Marinate with a little mirin and soy sauce.
3. Sear rib eye in smoking hot pan until both sides are nicely charred. Finish cooking steak in oven at 350 degrees until medium rare, about 6-7 more minutes. Slice and place on a bed of pea sprouts.
4. Cut the daikon into 1 1/2 inch thick discs and turn into little flying saucer shapes.
5. Place into a sauce pan – cover with water, add a tablespoon of miso and a little mirin.
6. Cook until tender at a simmer, 10-15 minutes, add a little rice wine vinegar to balance flavor.

Cucumber Salad:
1. Combine paste, vinegar, oil, and mirin for vinaigrette.
2. Cut cucumbers into desired shapes.
3. Combine with sprouts and dress with vinaigrette.

© 2011 CHEF TRACI DES JARDINS

Posted on AllTopChef.com

Congratulations, Chef Traci Des Jardins

Congratulations to Chef Traci Des Jardins for winning both the Quickfire and the Elimination Challenge this week. It was all about the beef. First she dazzled her fellow cheftestants by making a simple beef carpaccio dish, then she wowed the critics - and members of the band Maroon 5 - with her steak with Japanese flavors. Lead singer Adam Levine in particular was impressed, as he was the one who requested both steak and Japanese food.



That makes $25,000 in total for Chef Des Jardins' charity - so far. There's still plenty of money to be won.

This post is only for positive comments about Chef Des Jardins and her dishes. If you have anything negative to say, please do so here.

Posted on AllTopChef.com

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

Meet the Masters - Traci Des Jardins

Before opening Jardinière in San Francisco just over a decade ago, chef Traci Des Jardins worked in some of the finest kitchens in Los Angeles, France, and New York City. She was raised in a farming family in California’s San Joaquin Valley where she developed a deep love for the earth and its bounty at an early age. Though she never had a job in a restaurant before, through sheer determination she landed a tryout with Joachim Splichal, then at 7th Street Bistro in Los Angeles and within two weeks she was running a station in the kitchen. In Splichal’s kitchen, Des Jardins was inspired to further her craft in France where she apprenticed with legendary chefs including Michel and Pierre Troisgros, Alain Senderens, Alain Ducasse, and Alain Passard. Since Jardinière opened its doors, Des Jardins has made it one of San Francisco’s most popular destinations. She has earned a great number of accolades for her French-California cuisine. In 1995 she won the James Beard Foundation’s “Rising Star Chef of the Year”, Food & Wine magazine’s “Best New Chef,” in 1997 San Francisco Magazine’s “Chef of the Year” and the James Beard Foundation Award in 2007 for “Best Chef: Pacific.” Jardinière won Esquire Magazine’s “Best New Restaurant,” a nomination by the James Beard foundation for “Best New Restaurant” in 1997 and the San Francisco Chronicle has listed it as one of the “Top 100 Restaurants” in the Bay Area each year since opening. In December 2009, Des Jardins opened Manzanita in the new Ritz-Carlton in Lake Tahoe California. In 2004, she opened Mijita Cocina Mexicana in the San Francisco Ferry Building and in 2010 the second location at AT&T Park. She also serves as chef/partner for Public House located at AT&T Park, which opened in March 2010. Beyond the kitchen, she sits on the advisory board of Bocuse d’Or USA joining fellow chefs in the quest to elevate culinary excellence in the United States. Des Jardins is a deeply committed activist and philanthropist working with hunger-relief organizations such as Share Our Strength, Citymeals On-Wheels and other non-profits such as La Cocina and amfAR.

Posted on AllTopChef.com