Top Chef 7 - Meet Alex Reznik

AGE: 33
HOMETOWN: Brooklyn, NY – currently resides in Hollywood, CA
PROFESSION: Executive Chef, Ivan Kane’s Café Was
CULINARY EDUCATION: AOS, Le Cordon Bleu in Las Vegas, NV
FAVORITE RECIPE: Avocado panna cotta with pickled ramps and tomato

Growing up in Brooklyn, the son of a first-generation European family, food was an integral part of Alex's early life. Watching his Russian mother and grandmother cooking in preparation for the daily ritual of good food and conversation set Alex on a path towards creative cooking. After travelling extensively throughout Europe, Alex found himself working in Las Vegas at the legendary, five-star restaurant, Lutecé. During his tenure as chef at multiple Bally's/Paris resort restaurants, Alex met famed nightlife entrepreneur, Ivan Kane. The two discovered a shared philosophy for great food and impeccable service. Thus was born Hollywood's Ivan Kane's Cafe Was. Alex's philosophy is to marry local, seasonal ingredients with classic French techniques to create honest, Californian bistro cuisine. Today, in the kitchen or dining room, Alex's passion for his craft is lauded by loyal customers and critics alike.

Top Recipe - Top Chef Masters 2 Episode 6

A print version of Chef Susur Lee's recipe for the winning dish is found here.

Newsflash: Toby Young Out, Eric Ripert In!

Hunky chef Eric Ripert will be playing the role of "regular guest judge" for the seventh season of Top Chef. What do you think about that? And...what we really want to know is...

poll by twiigs.com

And the News We've All Been Waiting For....

Bravo brings the show to D.C. with 17 new chefs in what truly is an All-American season. Some guests you can expect to see include Apollo Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, White House chef Sam Kass, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, Congressman Aaron Schock of Illinois, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, CIA Director Leon Panetta and NBC White House Correspondent Savannah Guthrie.

NEW YORK – May 13, 2010 – Taste the culinary power on the seventh season of the No. 1 food show on cable, Bravo's Emmy and James Beard Award-winning series "Top Chef: Washington D.C.," premiering Wednesday, June 16 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo. The 17 new chef'testants come face to face in the nation's capitol for the ultimate power play that will determine just who has the chops to become Top Chef.

The Emmy-nominated Magical Elves return to produce "Top Chef: Washington D.C." Dan Cutforth, Jane Lipsitz ("Top Chef Masters," "Dance Your Ass Off"), Liz Cook and Casey Kriley serve as executive producers. Chaz Gray serves as co-executive producer.

The 17 "Top Chef: Washington D.C." chef'testants will be whittled down week by week as they compete to outshine their competition. The winning chef will receive $125,000 furnished by Dial Nutriskin, a feature in Food & Wine magazine, a showcase at the Annual Food & Wine Classic in Aspen and will earn the title of "Top Chef." The Washington Hilton served as the production location for "Top Chef: Washington D.C."

Bravo's "Top Chef" offers a fascinating window into the competitive, pressure-filled environment of world-class cookery and the restaurant business at the highest level. The series features seventeen aspiring chefs who compete for their shot at culinary stardom and the chance to earn the prestigious title of "Top Chef." Each episode holds two challenges for the chefs. The first is a quickfire test of their basic abilities and the second is a more involved elimination challenge designed to test the versatility and inventiveness of the chefs as they take on unique culinary trials such as working with unusual and exotic foods or catering for a range of demanding clients. The challenges not only test their skills in the kitchen, but also uncover if they have the customer service, management and teamwork abilities required of a Top Chef. The competing chefs live and breathe the high-pressure lifestyle that comes with being a master chef and each week someone is asked to "pack up their knives" and go home.

Following are the 17 new "Top Chef: Washington D.C." chef'testants:

Alex Reznik, 33 – Hometown: Brooklyn, NY; Resides in Hollywood, CA
Amanda Baumgarten, 27 – Hometown/Resides in: Los Angeles, CA
Andrea Curto-Randazzo, 39 – Hometown: Vero Beach, FL/Resides in: Miami Beach, FL.
Angelo Sosa, 34 – Hometown: Connecticut; Resides in New York, NY.
Arnold Myint, 32 – Hometown/Resides in: Nashville, TN.
Ed Cotton, 32 – Hometown: Boston, MA; Resides in New York, NY.
Jacqueline Lombard, 33 – Hometown: Boston, MA/Resides in Brooklyn, NY.
John Somerville, 42 – Hometown/Resides in: West Bloomfield, MI.
Kelly Liken, 33 – Hometown: Pittsburgh, PA/Resides in: Vail, CO.
Kenny Gilbert, 36 – Hometown: Cleveland, OH/Resides in: Telluride, CO
Kevin Sbraga, 30 – Hometown/Resides in: Willingboro, NJ.
Lynne Gigliotti, 51 – Hometown: Philadelphia, PA/Resides in Hyde Park, NY.
Stephen Hopcraft, 40 – Hometown: Cleveland, OH.; Resides in Las Vegas, NV
Tamesha Warren, 24 – Hometown: Barbados; Resides in Washington D.C.
Tiffany Derry, 26 – Hometown: Beaumont, TX/Resides in: Dallas, TX
Timothy Dean, 39 – Hometown: Washington D.C./Resides in Baltimore, MD
Tracey Bloom, 33 – Hometown: Rochester, NY/Resides in Atlanta, GA

ATC Love to Chef Jody Adams

While Chef Jody Adams ended up on top of the heap in the first of the Championship rounds, this week she was bested by a goat and a clam. It's always difficult to work with unfamiliar ingredients, and while roasting goat seemed like the perfect solution, the allotted cook time just wasn't enough to produce the results Chef Adams was looking for.

We're very sorry to see you go, Chef, and wish you happiness and continued success in your culinary career.

This post is only for positive comments about Chef Adams and her work. If you have anything negative to say about her or her competition, please do so here.

Congratulations, Chef Susur Lee!

Chef Susur Lee once again wowed the chefs with his work. While his whimsical representation of Marge Simpson did not win him the Quickfire Challenge, his amazing ways with geoduck clams and black chicken got him a few more "5 star" votes from the judges in the bizarre foods Elimination. This week, he scored 19 points, a mere half point behind his 19.5 of a few weeks ago, which was the highest score in Top Chef Masters history.

Seems like the man can do no wrong. And the Agassi Foundation is sure to be pleased to receiving another $10,000. Way to go, Chef Lee!

This post is only for positive comments about Chef Lee and his work. If you have anything negative to say about him or his competition, please do so here.

Reactions to Top Chef Masters 2 Episode Six

This week we saw our intrepid Master Chefs competing in the second of the Championship rounds. Their fist challenge, the Quickfire, was to create dishes based on a character from the long-running Fox animated series, The Simpsons. The chefs drew knives for character assignment, which went something like this:

Tony Mantuano - Chef Wiggum
Susan Feniger - Moe
Marcus Samuelsson - Apu
Susur Lee - Marge Simpson
Rick Moonen - Homer Simpson
Jody Adams - Lisa Simpson
Jonathan Waxman - Bart Simpson

Judging the contest was Simpsons creator Matt Groening, writer Matt Selman, and voice of many characters, Hank Azaria.

The chefs all seemed to have fun with the challenge, particularly Susur who created a representation of Marge Simpson on his plate, with purple potato hair and pork chop face. Ok, it was a bit ugly/freaky, but the judges enjoyed the flavors. Actually, the judges seemed to enjoy everything a whole lot, but in the end, Rick Moonen's shrimp sloppy Joe with truffle fries got the prize.

The Elimination Challenge is almost as fun as the Quickfire. It's a rehash of a challenge from Top Chef season 3 in which the chefs had to create a surf and turf plate using unusual foods. Because Rick won the QF, he got to choose his proteins first, and he went with the most normal selections, monkfish liver and black chicken. Susur chose the same. Tony took the giant squid and goat, Marcus took geoduck and kangaroo, Jody took geoduck and goat, Susan went for sea cucumber and kangaroo, and Jonathan took the jumbo squid and duck tongues.

First they shopped, then they did prep for an hour and a half. The next day, the Masters had 2.5 hours to complete their dishes. It was interesting that several of the proteins were provocatively-shaped. Jonathan said his duck tongues resembled duck penises (penii?) and Jody insisted she had to blanch the geoduck in order to remove its "foreskin." Susan Feniger kindly refrained from making comparisons between her sea cucumber and her ex-husband.

Judging this mess contest was the Travel Channel's Bizarre Foods expert, Andrew Zimmern, some other guys who apparently will put anything into their mouths, plus Gael Greene, James Oseland, and Jay Rayner.

Zimmern seemed to have a lot of good things to say about the food, but considering none of it was hakarl (fermented shark, the worst thing he's ever tasted), all of it *was* good.

In the end, Susur took top honors with his black chicken and monkfish liver plate, narrowly beating out Rick who used the same foods. And on the bottom, because her goat was terribly undercooked, was the second woman to exit these finals, Chef Jody Adams.

So what did you think about the episode? These challenges? Please leave a comment!

Previews for Top Chef Masters 2 Episode 6

In what may be the coolest Quickfire Challenge yet, the Masters’ pop culture knowledge is put to the test. Hank Azaria, Matt Groening, and Matt Selman - voices and writers of the legendary animated series The Simpsons- drop by as guest judges when the cheftestants have to create meals fit for each Springfield citizen they are assigned to. And for the Elimination round, the seven remaining chefs must combine exotic, and often unappetizing, proteins into an appealing surf-and-turf inspired duo. Will these ‘Masters’ be able to hone their skills to turn something seemingly-inedible into a culinary masterpiece? Find out tonight, 5/12 @ 10/9c on BRAVO’s Top Chef Masters!

Recap Roundup: Top Chef Masters 2 Episode 5

Jordan Baker on Susur's wife (and the rest of the cast): "Once again, Susur’s wife is probably one of the best characters in this series. And we’ve never seen her, and probably never will. Susur’s wife is like the Maris Crane of Top Chef, Masters... The official ranking of my favorite people in this show is: Gael Greene’s Hat; Jonathan; Susur’s wife; Susur; all the lady chefs; Gail; Tony; the other critics and K-Choi; and then Marcus and Rick about six miles back of the pack."

Reality Wanted quickly summarizes: "Overall, the Blue team takes the win. The Red team deals with Marcus’s mushy beef, Carmen not having enough food in the game, Tony’s overcooked pasta and Susur’s not-so-great Carrot Cake. In the end, Carmen Gonzalez ends up going home for lack of food."

Onion AV Club likes that Quickfire: "Tonight's quickfire challenge is one of my favorites from Top Chef past: a culinary reality-show spin on the surrealist circle game exquisite corpse. Each member of a four-person team must cook in succession, blindly inheriting the dish from the former... The producers did well to kick things off with this challenge; it's playful and keeps us guessing. Will they make sense of the clues, or will they totally screw up the original intentions?"

TWOP on the disastrous semolina cake: "What the fuck was up with that cake? Rick calls it "the Charlie Brown Christmas tree of wedding cakes." No one else seems to care, but come on. That cake was a travesty."

CBS News on Waxman's claustrophobia: "This was an interesting challenge for Waxman, who admitted to being claustrophobic. He pulled off his blindfold after 30 minutes to finish a mussel and shrimp stew and help his team win the Quick Fire."

Grub Street on Top Scallop: "Most Overused Ingredient: Scallops! Do all chefs share an unhealthy obsession with this shellfish? We've wondered this for season after season of Top Chef, but last night seemed to confirm it when both teams made a sort of seafood stew during the Quickfire. With access to so many ingredients, why do they keep it so limited? If it’s because scallops are easy to cook, that means they’re lazy."

Serious Eats on the other white meat (funny? too much? yes? no?): "no review of this episode would possibly be complete without addressing the gigantic elephant(s) in the room... namely, the bride's breasticles. Was I the only one who was terrified a boob was going to pop out of that 'dress' at any given moment? No? Okay then. Let's proceed."

Speakeasy (WSJ) on the bride and groom's taste buds: "The chefs stay in their teams to tackle the menu after meeting with the happy couple, who have some very plebian tastes (no lamb, no foie gras, no spices, no pork, no shellfish, but carrot cake and bananas foster, please)."

Fine Cooking on the sweet side of failure: "It's a great reminder that you may be an amazing chef but you still have blunders in the kitchen. Susan Feniger tried to make an Egyptian semolina wedding cake and failed miserably with a dry cake covered in cream and berries that looked very sad indeed. Rick Moonen, famous for his seafood, assembled an on the spot mixed seafood grill plate that was so brown and depressing that you wouldn't have believed it was fish! Marcus Sammuelson tried to add juiciness to a beef tenderloin and ended up making it a mushy mess."

Eater.com on Waxman's ah-ha moment: "Jonathan is claustrophobic and has been freaking out the entire time under the blindfold, but when Marcus and his turn comes to finish the dishes, he takes his time figuring things out and as Rick predicts, has his classic Waxman moment: furrowed brow and frown suddenly turning into a beatific smile."

Daily Loaf on the two paths chosen: "It seemed that the chefs went either way when preparing dishes for this challenge: they either made something that the couple specifically said they wanted (despite maybe having never made it before) or they went their own way and cooked dishes they felt would be sufficient for the challenge, not taking the couple’s tastes in mind."

Food Network Musings on the best wedding favor ever: "Jonathan says for HIS wedding they gave everyone a margarita as they walked it and it set the tone for the entire wedding. I LOVE that idea."

[Photo borrowed from Serious Eats...because Bravo hasn't posted any regular episode photos.]

Exit Interviews - Top Chef Masters Episode 5