Tom Colicchio Donates a Tie

CELEBRITIES TAKE OFF THEIR TIES FOR A GOOD CAUSE
Online Tie Auction to Raise Funds for Nonprofit Organization Career Gear

NEW YORK, N.Y.- It's often said that the clothes make the man, but a number of notable men are redefining the phrase by donating their neckwear for a charity auction. Career Gear, a nonprofit that assists disadvantaged men find and retain employment, has received ties from such famous necks as Zac Efron, Steve Carell and Zach Galifianakis to auction off this June to raise much-needed funds. In this time of economic uncertainty, these men have all recognized the pressing need to help those who are unemployed but ready to turn their lives around.

Now in its second year, the Career Gear Celebrity Tie Auction has generously received ties from Christopher Meloni, Ed Helms, Isiah Whitlock Jr., James Gandolfini, Jimmy Kimmel, John Krasinski, John Lutz, John Waters, Lewis Black, Marcellus Wiley, Michael Imperioli, Rainn Wilson, Ryan Eggold, Steve Buscemi, Tim Gunn and Tom Colicchio.

"We are so grateful that these inspirational men have donated their ties to Career Gear," says founder Gary Field. "As we enter our 11th year, in an economy that will surely find even more men in need of our services, we are thankful to have their support. The funds raised from the auction will go directly towards giving men a second chance to start their lives."

Since 1999, Career Gear has empowered disconnected job-seeking men to invest in themselves to succeed as leaders, fathers and positive role models in communities where there are often few. Now some of the country's best-known and revered role models are helping to inform a wider audience of Career Gear's mission by aligning with its cause. Their strong sense of style and a commitment to philanthropy will help raise funds that go directly to Career Gear to sustain important retention services and career counseling workshops that lead to quality-of-life improvements.

The auction will begin on June 7 at 12:01 a.m. PST and close on June 17 at 12:01 a.m. PST. To visit the auction Web site once it goes live, please visit www.CareerGear.org.

TC News & Information

Kelly Choi dishes on Top Chef Masters to Pacific Citizen.

Top Chef 3's Camille Becerra will be participating in a pop-up restaurant in NoLIta through May 16th. More info can be found here.

There's some spoiler-y information about the upcoming Top Chef 7 on the Top Chef Wikipedia page. Check it out, keeping in mind that Wikipedia is hardly an authoritative source.

Here's 5 Questions with season 6's Eli Kirshtein.

Parade Magazine has an interview with Graham Elliot Bowles.

Video du Jour - Top Chef on Tour

Top Chef on tour

Check out Chefs Ash Fulk and Ariane Duarte on the Top Chef Tour! Read about their visit to Grand Rapids here.

Top Recipe, Top Chef Masters 2 Episode 5

The printed recipe can be found here.

ATC Love to Chef Gonzalez

Chef Gonzalez, after your miraculous comeback in the early rounds, you seemed nearly unstoppable. Although your organizational skills were no doubt an asset to your team, somehow helping others in a team challenge wasn't as important to the judges as cooking lots of food. Your crabcake was hailed by James Oseland as a match for Baltimore crabcakes, and Gael loved your roasted corn salad, but that, unfortunately, was not enough.

You leave with the initial 10K won for your charity, the ASPCA, which is a wonderful thing. We at ATC hope to see you around in the future and wish you continued success in your career.

This post is for positive comments about Chef Gonzalez and her food. If you have anything negative to say about Chef Gonzalez, or any other competitor, you may do so here.

Congratulations, Chef Adams

Congrats to Chef Jody Adams who chose to do a rather risky lamb preparation for the Bride's Team, despite the bride saying that lamb wasn't one of her favorites. But in a scene of the bride tasting dishes, she raves about the lamb. It ended up being a great call and gets Chef Adams additional money for her charity, Partners in Health.

Chef Adams, we're happy for your victory and hope you can sustain your level of success throughout the Championship Round.

This post is for positive comments about Chef Adams and her food. If you have anything negative to say about Chef Adams, or any other competitor, you may do so here.

Reactions to Top Chef Masters 2 Episode 5

In this week's episode, we saw the first part of the Championship Round, with eight chefs going head to head (to head, etc.): Tony Mantuano, Susan Feniger, Carmen Gonzalez, Marcus Samuelsson, Rick Moonen, Jonathan Waxman, Jody Adams and Susur Lee. (I remembered them without a cheat sheet - go me! Hey, I take the small victories as they come.)

The Quickfire reprised the Blindfold Relay Race from season 6 of Top Chef, and the chefs determined their teams by choosing pots (no steenking knife block here) containing either a red or a blue apron.

Red Team: Tony, Marcus, Carmen, Susur
Blue Team: Rick, Susan, Jody, and a claustrophobic Jonathan who was sooo not into wearing a mask

It was amusing to see these Master chefs struggle a bit with this challenge, while the cheftestants in the regular series seemed to be so organized about it. This time, both teams end up making similar dishes with scallops and mussels. After tasting each, Jay Rayner proclaimed the Blue Team the winner.

The Elimination Challenge continued the team theme by being Wedding Wars, in which the teams have 12 hours over 2 days to cook for the 150 guests of a couple who have fairly different tastes in food and dietary restrictions. The Blue Team, with their advantageous win in the QF, chose the Bride, Elizabeth, because she claimed to like Asian and French food and that seemed broader than the selection given to them by Mr Meat-and-Potatoes-but-no-pork-because-I'm-Jewish-but-sure-shellfish-is-ok Aaron, the Groom.

After a shopping trip to Restaurant Depot and Whole Foods, the chefs have 6 hours to prep. Oh, and did I mention they had to create wedding cakes? Yeah, they had to do that too. After a few hours of sleep in which Jonathan Waxman doubtless had nightmares about being blindfolded, scallops, and Susan Feniger, the chefs headed to the wedding venue for another 5 hours of cooking.

In the blink of an eye, it's Reception Time and Elizabeth and Aaron enter the dining area with their hoard of guests. No Gail Simmons in this episode, but the bride more than makes up for the lack of boobage by supplying her own in a wedding dress that looks more like lingerie. A real shame nobody talked her into wearing a bra. But I digress. The critics seem to love everything made by the Blue/Bride's Team, except for Rick's seafood medley which is overcooked. On the Red/Groom's side, there was more nitpicking over dishes: Marcus' meat was soggy (insert joke here); Tony's pasta was overcooked; and, what the hell did Carmen even cook? On the positive side, Tony's shrimp were perfect and Susur cranked out five - count 'em five - desserts, including a croquembouche-style wedding cake and a carrot cake Groom's cake. Is there anything this man cannot do?

Predictably, with two very strong entrées, Team Blue pulls off the victory. Jody Adams gets the ultimate win for her "risky" lamb preparation (risky because the bride said she wasn't fond of lamb). On the Team Red side, Carmen gets called out for not making very much food aside from a corn salad and a crabcake appetizer. Granted, James Oseland said the crabcake could have held its own in Baltimore, the crab cake capital of the world. (Yeah! Go Baltimore! Hey James - maybe you could take Tony Bourdain on a tour of proper crabcake joints in our fair city?) Poor Carmen scored only 11 stars out of 20, the lowest number out of her team, and gets sent packing. The rest of the team survives to face Andrew Zimmern next week....

So what did you think about this episode? Please leave a comment!

Top Chefs on Treme

Top Chef head judge Tom Coliccho and chefs Eric Ripert and David Chang, along with Top Chef Masters' Wylie Dufresne will appear in the upcoming May 9th episode of the HBO series, Treme.

Treme follows musicians, chefs, Mardi Gras Indians and ordinary New Orleanians as they try to rebuild their lives, their homes and their unique culture in the aftermath of the 2005 hurricane and levee failure that caused the near-death of an American city. Find out more about the show here.

Photo credit:  Paul Schiraldi/HBO

Top Chef Masters 2 Episode 5 Previews

The kitchen heats up as the Elite Eight advance to the Champions round and face-off for the ultimate title of “Top Chef Master.” In a Quickfire repeat from season 6 of Top Chef, the Masters are split into two teams for a blindfolded relay to be judged by restaurant critic Jay Rayner. Then, the atmosphere turns festive but competitive in the elimination round with Wedding Wars! The Masters must pull out all the stops to cater the perfect wedding for a young couple –but can they live up to their reputation if they must prepare everything out of mobile kitchens?

Make a Donation and Get a Top Chef to Cook for You!

The National School Lunch Program feeds more than 31 million children every day. And a full 1/3 to 2/3 of the calories those students consume come from school lunch. For many students (many = millions), school lunch is the ONLY complete meal they receive in a day and those numbers are increasing. Free and reduced school lunch participation rose 16% in 2009 and the U.S. Dept of Agriculture announced that more than one in seven American households struggled to put enough food on the table in 2008.

So -- without even mentioning health costs and problems related to the obesity epidemic -- we can say with certainty that school lunch directly affects children in every school district in America ... including yours.

If you care what children eat, you should care about school lunch
If you care about the quality of schools, you should care about school lunch
If you care about the society we're creating, you should care about school lunch
If you care about any of the above, support our film!

So...what does this have to do with Top Chef? How about this: for a pledge of $7500 or more you will receive one gourmet meal prepared for you and up to 5 friends by TOP CHEF season 4 WINNER Stephanie Izard. We will travel to your home with Stephanie, film the evening, edit the footage, and then deliver it to you as a memento of the event. (bonus: we will also clean up after the party ... huge).

Read more about the project and get a link to the trailer, plus make a pledge here. This project will only be funded if at least $7,000 is pledged by May 18, 12:59am EDT. All Top Chef has pledged $ - will you?