Top Chef Pig Roast

Several former Top Cheftestants are participating in an event for Share Our Strength No Kid Hungry. Nyesha Arrington's Pig Roast will be held on April 28th, 2013, at Wilshire Restaurant, 2454 Wilshire Blvd in Santa Monica, CA from 1-4pm.

Guest chefs will include Ilan Hall, CJ Jacobsen, Alex Reznik, Marcel Vigneron, and Brooke Williamson from Top Chef and Danielle Keene from Top Chef Just Desserts.

Tickets are $55 and can be purchased here.


Posted on AllTopChef.com

Holiday Gifts for Top Chef Fans

December is already upon us and while there's still a few more shopping days until Christmas, Hanukkah starts in a week! If you're stumped for gift ideas, here are some that might please the Top Chef lovers on your list.

Susan Feniger's Street Food	Kevin Gillespie's Fire in the Belly	Stephanie Izard's Girl in the Kitchen
The Voltaggio Brothers Volt ink	Spike Mendelsohn's Good Stuff Cookbook	Marcus Samuelsson's Yes, Chef
Tom Colicchio's Think Like a Chef	Sam Talbot's The Sweet Life	Angelo Sosa's Flavor Exposed
Fabio Viviani's Cafe Firenze Cookbook	Gail Simmons' Talking With My Mouth Full	Candice Kumai's Cook Yourself Sexy
Rick Moonen's Fish Without a Doubt	Chris Cosentino's Beginnings	Antonio LoFaso's The Busy Mom's Cookbook
Rick Bayless' Authentic Mexican	Mike Isabella's Crazy Good Italian	Takashi Yagihashi's Takashi's Noodles
Michael Chiarello's Bottega	Elizabeth Falkner's Cooking Off the Clock	Art Smith's Back to the Family
Jonathan Waxman's A Great American Cook	Ludo Lefebvre's Ludo Bites	Hubert Keller's Souvenirs
Anita Lo's Cooking Without Borders	Top Chef University 16 DVD Set	How to Cook Like a Top Chef

Posted on AllTopChef.com

Top Chef Behind the Scenes

SeattleMet has a really interesting article on what goes on behind-the-scenes during filming of a season of Top Chef. Some stuff might surprise you!

Posted on AllTopChef.com

Life After Top Chef Episode 3 Previews

Posted on AllTopChef.com

Who Dat?

This ginger is a famous Top Chef. Can anyone guess who?

Posted on AllTopChef.com

Recap Roundup - Top Chef Masters 4.1

A Just Recompense on slicing and dicing: "Within minutes (it seems; who knows how long it was), Missy’s done: while slicing the zucchini on a mandoline, she also sliced the skin off her pinkie. She faced it with bravado, asking for a bandaid and a glove, but the paramedic insisted she go to the hospital, where she found out she needed a skin graft. She’s fine now, by the way, after the surgery, a couple of weeks in an immobilization sling, and physical therapy. The show gave Grow to Learn NYC an undisclosed amount as a consolation prize, and gave her an automatic invitation to the next season."

Mary Alice of Charm City Cakes for the Baltimore Sun on partnerships: "Mark Gaier and Clark Frasier are partners in business at their restaurant Arrows and partners in life -- they've been together for over two decades. I must agree with Art Smith in that they look like they could be brothers. Or perhaps the middle aged version of '90s rockers Nelson."

LA Weekly on the 1%: "It was at Whole Foods, shopping for said buffets, that Art Smith delivered our favorite line of the episode. Flustered by having to rein in his spending, the former Oprah chef blurted, 'I cook for billionaires. I don't have a budget. I JUST BUUUUY!'"

Grub Street on the Quickfire: "The teams are dealt two ingredients that are supposedly challenging to cook together: duck breast/peaches, langoustine/quinoa, black garlic/flank steak, brandy/honeycomb, prime rib/catfish, and pork tenderloin/bologna. They all manage to throw together something edible in fifteen minutes, but no one looks that happy about it. “Three world-famous card dealers” judge the dishes, though it’s unlikely they have world-famous taste in food. “I might actually order this” is the strongest compliment uttered. Chris and Patricia win with their prime rib/catfish concoction, and Art is annoyed."

Zagat's Blog on strife on Team Red: "The red team steps up for Missy and takes care of her dish. Art and Cosentino fight over scallions and radishes for garnish. Art is all 'I need them to do the best for Missy' and Cosentino is all 'you have immunity, I need to help myself.' He has a point. They've been butting heads from the start. Cosentino wanted to do his small dish and Art says it has to be grand and fabulous. Cosentino eventually gives him the scallions and Art kisses him on the cheek."

Have you recapped Top Chef Masters? Please let us know so we can include you in next week's roundup!

Posted on AllTopChef.com

Top Recipe - Chris Cosentino's "Pork and Beans" with Cured Pork and Chickpeas

If any of you tries this (or any other Top Chef recipe), we'd love to hear from you!

"Pork and Beans" with Cured Pork and Chickpeas


Sausage:
30 pounds pork shoulder
8 Pasilla peppers
2 lamb casings hanks
5 bunches oregano
2 cups orange zest
Pinch pink salt
Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
8 New Mexico red chilies
1 head garlic
2 shallots, sliced
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 bottle red wine

Pork Belly:
2 pounds pork bellies
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 onions
2 carrots
2 heads celery
1 bunch oregano
1 bay leaf
2 bottles white wine

Chickpeas:
4 pounds chickpeas
5 gallons chicken stock
8 Chipotle peppers
6 beers
4 tomatoes
1 head garlic, sliced and grilled
1 onion, sliced in half
1 potato
1 Pasilla pepper
1 pound bacon

Finish:
6 pints cherry tomatoes
2 cups celery leaves
3 bunches radishes
2 bunches scallions
Olive oil, as needed
6 Walla Walla onions, diced

Sausage:
1. Cube pork shoulder, then mix with salt and pepper, pink salt, sliced shallots, garlic, orange zest, oregano leaves, smoked paprika.

2. Combine red wine, Pasilla peppers, New Mexico reds and blend in blender, then add to the meat. Grind meat and let marinate overnight. Cook and adjust seasoning to taste.

3. Using a sausage stuffer, stuff the meat into a lamb casing, until all the meat is used. Using a sausage prick, prick sausage to remove air pockets then braid sausages into links 2 1/2 inches long.

4. Poach the sausage in the chickpeas (recipe below) beans, remove when 1/2 way cooked, then grill to get good color and flavor.

Pork Belly:
1. Season pork belly with salt, pepper, white wine and onions, carrots and celery, bay leaf and oregano.

2. Cut bellies into quarters then place in a pressure cooker with vegetables and wine.

3. Cook for 60 minutes. After it’s brought to full steam, remove from the cooker and reserve the liquid. Chill the belly before cutting.

Chickpeas:
1. Place the chickpeas in a pot with chicken stock, grilled garlic, onion, bacon, chipotles, tomatoes, one Pasilla, beer, and one potato to help break down the skin on the chickpeas so they won’t explode.

2. Once cooked, remove all the veg and chilies, blend and strain back into the beans.

Finish
1. Heat the beans up, add the cubed pork belly and sausage and heat gently.

2. Serve in a small pot, top with cherry tomatoes and salad of radish, scallions, Walla Walla onions, and celery leaves, then drizzle olive oil.

© 2012 CHRIS COSENTINO
Posted on AllTopChef.com

Bravo Exit Interview - Sue Torres

Posted on AllTopChef.com

ATC Love to Chef Sue Torres

We kinda think Chef Sue Torres wasn't able to show us what she was really about, culinarily. She would have really shone on the Mexican buffet! The dish she created for the Indian-style buffet wasn’t Indian enough for the judges, and she was on the non-winning team, so unfortunately, she was the first to leave. Do you agree with that?



We’re sorry to see you go, Chef Sue. May you continue to have a terrific culinary career.

Posted on AllTopChef.com

Congratulations, Chef Chris Cosentino

Chris Cosentino is pretty well-known to people who watch the Food Network. This outspoken chef has some real kick-ass culinary skills, and he proved that this week by winning both the Quickfire and the Elimination Challenge.



We have our eye on him for the finale. Keep watching

Posted on AllTopChef.com

Top Chef Masters 4.1 Recap

Top Chef Masters is back! It seems like a long time since the last season, doesn’t it?

This season, the action is taking place in Las Vegas. The chefs meet up and immediately the coffee klatsch is interrupted by Curtis Stone who slaps a Quickfire on them. The twelve Cheftestants break into six teams, each of which needs to create one dish, for the chance at a 10K prize. But there’s a catch - they first must play Ingredient Poker. Cards are shuffled and dealt and each team is stuck with two different ingredients they must incorporate into their dish.

Not only that, but they also have a mere 15 minutes to cook.

The judges are casino dealers who decide that the beef and catfish dish produced by Chefs Yeo and Cosentino is the winner.

On to the Elimination Challenge. Las Vegas is famous for its buffets groaning with heaps of crappy food. The Cheftestants, who are divided into two teams this time, must do their own riff on a buffet. There’s 15 minutes for planning, 45 for shopping, and 5 hours for cooking.

Back at the kitchen, the chefs are getting ready to work when Curtis comes in with a handful of scratch-off tickets. He hands one to each chef, who then reveals either a bonus or issue to deal with. For instance, Art Smith gets immunity, Kerry Heffernan loses 30 minutes of cooking time, and Patricia Yeo gets $1000. There are also two gold tickets, one of which tells the Red Team that they need to make a Mexican buffet. The Blue Team gets stuck with an Indian buffet.

Where’s Suvir Saran and Floyd Cardoz when you need them?

Each team can send out one chef to buy more ethnic-appropriate ingredients. Art Smith volunteers for the Red Team and spends entirely too much time at the market. While he’s out, Missy Robbins cuts her hand severely, and she’s sent to the hospital for skin grafts. The wound is so bad, she has to leave the competition. Later, Curtis claims he’ll put her at the top of the list for the next season of Masters. We’ll see if he has any clout with the network. :)

Eventually, Art returns, cooking gets done, and people are fed. The diners are Las Vegas performers, which gives the chefs a bit of a show. The Red Team, despite missing two members during most of the cooking time, wins the challenge, and Chris Cosentino is the big individual winner, earning another 10 grand for his charity. Of course this means the Blue Team is the loser, and Sue Torres (who would have done very well had she been on the Mexican buffet team) is sent home.

So what did you think? Do you like Vegas as the venue for this season’s challenges? Please leave a comment.

Posted on AllTopChef.com

Top Chef Masters 4 Episode 1 Preview

Top Chef Masters starts tonight with a whole new cast of characters. Will you be watching?

Posted on AllTopChef.com

Top Chef Nominated for Five Emmys!

This year, Top Chef continues its Emmy nomination streak for the eighth season in a row! Once again the show is nominated in the category of Outstanding Reality-Competition Program, plus the episode "Fit For An Evil Queen" featuring Charlize Theron received nominations for both Outstanding Cinematography For Reality Programming and Outstanding Picture Editing For Reality Programming.

And that's not all - "Last Chance Kitchen," the Web-based battle between outgoing chefs has also received two noms, Outstanding Creative Achievement In Interactive Media – Enhancement To A Television Program Or Series, and Outstanding Special Class - Short-format Nonfiction Programs.

Go Top Chef!

Posted on AllTopChef.com

Paul Qui to Open His Own Restaurant

Photo by FoodBeerLife

Hot on the heels of Paul Qui’s James Beard Award win, Eater Austin reports that Paul will indeed be opening his own restaurant, and that his food truck, East Side King, is going brick-and-mortar. According to his Twitter feed, after the Beards, Paul and his girlfriend headed to Paris, London, and ?

Congrats, Paul, and hope you finally got your check for winning Top Chef!

Posted on AllTopChef.com

Top Chef Kevin Gillespie's Cookbook!

Kevin Gillespie's first cookbook, titled Fire in My Belly: Real Cooking, is finally available for pre-order on Amazon, although it's not scheduled to be released until October.

We couldn't be happier for the red-bearded one. And if we score an advance copy and can give you a preview, you know we'll be happy to share.

Posted on AllTopChef.com

Congrats to James Beard Award Winners Paul Qui and Hugh Acheson!

Top Chef Season 9 winner Paul Qui adds another notch to his award-winning belt after being named Best Chef, Southwest by the James Beard Foundation for his work at Uchiko in Austin, TX! Here’s a quick interview with Paul after his win from the Daily Meal.

Meanwhile, Top Chef Judge and TC Masters contestant Hugh Acheson won Beards in two categories. Last Friday he took top honors at the James Beard Foundation Media Awards for Best Cookbook, American for "A New Turn in the South: Southern Flavors Reinvented for Your Kitchen.” And, in a Beard Award rarity, the HughniBrow tied for Best Chef, Southeast for his restaurant Five and Ten in Athens, GA, with Linton Hopkins of Restaurant Eugene, in Atlanta. AJC has a hometown proud post here.

Here's a list of all the other fine Beard Award winners in the Best Chef and Restaurant categories.Congratulations to all the nominees and the teams that help make their culinary magic happen!

Posted on AllTopChef.com

Cooking with Top Chef Fabio Viviani

Friend of AllTopChef La Diva Cucina – a Miami blogger, private chef and “culinary entertainer” who serves up food, mixology, and fun at her “small bites, BIG DRINKS” classes – scored an invite to a private demo by Fabio Viviani sponsored by Bertolli at Casa Tua recently. Of course, she sidled up to the Top Chef Season 5 Fan Favorite and All-Stars contestant.

Then she grabbed a seat front and center to watch Fabio demonstrate how to make homemade pasta plus filet mignon with oyster mushrooms, rosemary and a balsamic vinegar reduction!

Want to learn Fabio’s tips for making easy fresh fettuccini?

What about Fabio's secret for roasting oyster mushrooms? Click on over to La Diva’s place for the inside scoop, as only she can tell it. Plus recipes for both fabulous dishes!

Photos in this post by La Diva Cucina, used with permission. Thanks, Diva!

Posted on AllTopChef.com

April 6 is Chef Paul Qui Day!

Congratulations, Chef Qui! It's a great day for Austin!

Posted on AllTopChef.com

Healthy Choice Top Chef Meals

The things I do for my art.

I thought it might be an interesting idea for Mr Minx and I to do a taste test on a couple of those Healthy Choice Top Chef meals. Top Chef viewers will recall that we were subjected to the commercials for this product during every one of the eighteen episodes (e i g h t e e n episodes) of the never-ending season 9, and former cheftestants Casey Thompson and Ryan Scott made them seem pretty good. Or at least not horrible.

But they lied. Oh how they lied.

We chose two of the three varieties carried by our local Safeway, the Grilled Vegetables Mediterranean with Rice and the Chicken Margherita with Balsamic. 

I popped mine in the microwave first. After a few minutes, the combination of odors that make me loathe diet frozen meals so much started to fill the air: broccoli, bell pepper, and onion powder. I was starting to dread dinner.

After four minutes, I removed the plastic bowl from the oven, tore off the plastic, and lifted the steamer basket holding the dry ingredients off of the pool of congealed-looking sauce in the bottom bowl. Mr Minx took one look and began to laugh so hard, he pulled a muscle in his side. "That's just a bowl of sad," he said, as I flipped the basket, stirred up the mess, and put it aside while I put his dinner in the microwave.

While his pasta was cooking, I took a taste of my dish. He was right. It tasted of sadness.

This "grilled vegetables Mediterranean" was truly horrendous. Both the broccoli and bell peppers had the typical water-logged, raw, texture that they usually have after being frozen and then not cooked long enough. But they were the only things that had any sort of flavor whatsoever, apart from the onion powder. It took a few tastes (which is about all I wanted to take) to realize that the soggy and somewhat crunchy brown blobs were barely-cooked eggplant, and I assume the burnt-looking brown buggy things were barley. There were also some undercooked chickpeas which I pushed to the side. I really didn't want to finish this mess because it was making me angry, but I found that a bit of vitriol - and lashings of Sriracha - helped me to finish. Thankfully, it was a very very small portion with only 230 calories. (I supplemented the meal with a huge piece of thickly buttered fresh whole wheat bread.)

Mr Minx's chicken and pasta dish was at least 1000% better. There was no broccoli, no bell peppers, and no onion powder stench. Actually, the dish gave off a somewhat pleasant toasty/grilled smell. The chicken was very tender and tasted of...chicken. The sauce, however, was oddly sweet. Odd, because it contained balsamic vinegar, and vinegar is...sour. In any case, it was pretty good for what it was.

So we had one minor hit and one huge fail. Honestly, Bravo should be embarrassed to have the name Top Chef put on either of the dishes, but I guess when Healthy Choice ponies up the big prize money for the season, you do what you gotta do.

Have you tried any of these meals? What did you think?

Posted on AllTopChef.com