Reactions to Top Chef Seattle Episode 9

It was Old Home Week at Top Chef Seattle when the current crop of cheftestants were asked to make healthy versions of dishes from previous seasons and former Top Chef Masters contestants were asked to judge them. First, however, the chefs had to get through a cutting ordeal during the Quickfire Challenge. Master bladesmith Bob Kramer was on hand to judge a three-round contest involving knife skills.

In round one, three groups of three were asked to sharpen chef's knives. The two groups to sharpen their knives first moved on to round two where they were asked to tournée 50 potatoes. The group to finish that chore first moved to round three where they broke down and frenched 2 rabbits. In the end, Micah came away with the win, immunity, and one of Bob Kramer's very expensive knives.

For the Elimination Challenge, each chef was given a Kindle Fire to view the dish from the previous season on which they would have to make his or her healthy variation. The winner would receive $15,000 and have the dish turned into a Healthy Choice meal. After shopping, the chefs had 2 1/2 hours to cook their meals at the Palace Ballroom for the judges and a gathering of super fans. The judges included Wylie Dufresne, Chris Cosentino, Jonathan Waxman, and Wolfgang Puck. The winner was Chef Kristen for her take on Carla Hall's chicken pot pie from Season 8.

Chefs John and Lizzy were on the bottom, so they had to compete head-to-head, making a healthy burger just like CJ's pork burger from the current season. John chose lamb as his protein while Lizzy chose chicken. Lizzy's burger was judged to be moister and healthier, so John was sent to pack his knives.

What did you think of last night's episode? Please leave your comments below.

Posted on AllTopChef.com

TC News and Information 11.10.10

It's a big week for Stephanie Izard! In addition to her impressive sweep of the Eater awards, her restaurant, The Girl and The Goat, has learned it's won a Michelin Bib Gourmand designation. It seems the Windy City is abuzz with anticipation of next week's release of the Michelin Guide, with special events lined up that include a panel discussion/radio-show taping with Stephanie and TC Masters contestant Graham Elliot on November 18 and a live chat November 19 featuring Rick Bayless and Art Smith of TC Masters with former NY Times food critic Frank Bruni. More info about both events here. The Girl and The Goat also took the top spot on Chicago Magazine's November Hot List. Want to try some of Stephanie's food but don't live in Chicago? You might be in luck if you're near Miami or NYC. This month all of Mercadito's locations are featuring her braised chicken taco with avocado crème fraîche, fermented black bean, nicoise olive tapenade, mint, preserved lemons, sambal, smoked tomato and shaved brussel sprouts, at 4 tacos for $16 to benefit Share Our Strength. TC Masters contestant Wylie Dufresne is another chef who will design a taco for the year-long benefit. You can find out more here and here.

Where else can you meet and eat with Top Chef contestants? All over, it seems. Here are just a few upcoming events.

Mike Isabella and Carla Hall will be at the Metropolitan Cooking and Entertainment Show in D.C. November 13. And here's something a little different - Carla is also appearing at the 17th Annual Funniest Celebrity in Washington Contest December 2.

Meanwhile, Dave Martin will be doing a cooking class in the "other" Washington November 17, at Desert Wind Winery in the Yakima Valley, and has other upcoming appearances in Washington, Oregon and Nebraska.

Dave's Season 1 rival, Tiffani Faison, will be participating in Eat Your Heart Out Boston November 14 at the Paradise Rock Club where chefs and local bands team up to benefit local charities. In an interesting twist, the chefs will "style plates in homage to their music idols" - Tiff's dish: pork belly agrodolce, house-made “hots,” foie pastrami mayo, and crispy onion, inspired by Ray Lamontagne’s "New York City’s Killing Me."

If New York isn't killing you, you can catch Richard Blais demo-ing sous-vide equipment at Bloomie's on November 20.

Jen Carroll and Rick Moonen will be headlining the James Beard Celebrity Chef Tour in Las Vegas November 15.

And this one sounds like a lot of fun - if you're in Palmetto Bluff, South Carolina November 20, you can see Gail Simmons, Kevin Gillespie, Kevin Sbraga and Kenny Gilbert at the Music to Your Mouth Culinary Festival. How much more fun could the Low Country be?

TC News and Information 10.25.10

Guess who can add "Whole Pig Tent Curator" to his resume? That would be TC Season 6 finalist Kevin Gillespie, who will assume the role at Atlanta's inaugural Food and Wine Festival next May 19-22. Also slated for the fest are TC Masters contestants Tim Love and John Besh. Road trip, anyone?

Kevin also "headlined" Taste of Atlanta this weekend. We'd love to hear from any of our readers who attend.

If you can drag yourself away from Top Chef Just Desserts Wednesday and are in the area, check out the gig TC Masters contestant Susan Feniger is doing for the Santa Monica Farmers Market.

Looks like the Project Dinner Table benefit TC Masters contestant Rick Moonen is participating in Oct. 30 has sold out, but for your armchair traveling/salivating pleasure, here's the menu:

• Passed canapés: potato blintz with hot smoked sturgeon and oscetra caviar; Kushi oysters with green apple mignonette, frozen horseradish and duck pastrami with poached quince and rye crumble
• First course: sugar pumpkin soup, peekytoe crab and toasted hazelnut
• Second course: Fuji apple salad, aged white cheddar, bitter greens and maple vinaigrette
• Third course: Whole roasted Sunburst Farms Rainbow Trout, Brussel sprouts and double smoked bacon
• Fourth course: grilled Duroc pork chops, Seckel pears, turnips and grain mustard
• Fifth course: pistachio French toast, coffee ice cream and golden raisin sauce

In Connecticut Nov. 5-7, you can catch Tom Colicchio, TC Masters contestant Susur Lee, and TC Season 3 contestant Casey Thompson at the Foxwoods Food and Wine Festival. The foodie event takes place at the Foxwoods Casino and Resort on Mashantucket Pequot tribal land - if you go, don't miss the awesome Native American museum that has been built with gambling dollars. I think Tom Colicchio and his young son would enjoy it :)

Now here's an event outside the norm from what I typically see wrangling the old ATC mailbox. The Astor Center in NYC will host “The Alchemy of Taste and Smell” November 12-13. From the press release: “Cooking is alchemy: the art of transforming raw materials into a perfected form. Cooking fuses taste and smell, emotion and memory, culture and nature. The work of chefs today is much discussed, but the process by which new dishes and flavor combinations are created remains mysterious. This event will explore creativity in cooking, the composite nature of flavors and the importance of aroma in food and drink.” Capping off the event is a seven-course collaborative dinner “exploring new flavor combinations and making explicit the connection between what we smell and what we taste. For instance, a cucumber/melon salad served on a plate scented with mint essence, as a sensory sleight of hand where by the end of the dish the diner thinks that they have eaten the herb, even though they have only smelled it.” Just Desserts judge Johnny Iuzzini, TC Masters contenders Wylie Dufresne and Nils Noren, and other big names in the food world, including David Chang and Harold McGee, are among the participants. Click here for more details.

TC News and Information 10.5.10

Remember when Bravo announced it would do a Top Chef spinoff featuring kids? Judges Tom Colicchio and Eric Ripert discuss why it will never see the light of day in this video.

Speaking of Ripert, did you catch the premiere of the new season of his PBS show, Avec Eric, last weekend? This item details the upcoming episodes and links to a station guide to help you find out when it may be aired in your area.

Wylie Dufresne talks to the Harvard Crimson about his journey from philosophy student to top chef (and two-time Top Chef Masters contestant) here.

Vegansaurus.com is offering vegan versions of the Just Desserts winning recipes all season long. See their spin on Eric Wolitzky's Episode 3 winning desserts here.

Want to design TC Season 7 winner Michael Voltaggio's next tattoo? Click here.

Finally, at a speaking engagement in St. Louis, Anthony Bourdain revealed that the protagonist of his upcoming graphic novel about ultra-violent food nerds will be a sushi chef, according to this piece.

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

TC News & Information 5.2.2010

The Huffington Post has a chat with Top Chef Masters competitor Jody Adams.

Eater has a recap of last week's LA Times Festival of Books which featured Top Chef alums Stefan Richter, CJ Jacobsen, Antonio Lofaso, Betty Fraser, and Dave Martin, as well as Top Chef Masters two-time competitor Mark Peel.

Project Foodie has a short interview with TCM's Wylie Dufresne.

Speaking of Wylie Dufresne, his restaurant wd-50 was named one of the 50 Best Restaurants in the World by S. Pellegrino. Congratulations, Chef Dufresne! Read the full list here.

Congratulations go to Bryan Voltaggio as well, for winning the 2010 Chef of the Year Award from the Restaurant Association of Maryland. Next up - a James Beard award?

TC News & Information 3.11.10

Top Chef Masters competitor Maria Hines was on the Martha Stewart Show recently and prepared butter-poached spot prawns. Watch the video here.

The Bungler offers up a scary fictional alternate-universe Top Chef.

Tim Love, of Top Chef Masters season 1, seems to think that bacon has jumped the shark.

So what does Top Chef Masters judge James Oseland like to eat? Grubstreet knows.

Wylie Dufresne speaks out about the future of molecular gastronomy.

James Beard Semi-Finalists Named

There are some familiar names among the James Beard semi-finalists this year. There were twenty names in each category - the pack will be thinned down yet again and finalists will be announced March 22 in New Orleans.

OUTSTANDING CHEF
Tom Colicchio, Craft, NYC (Host, Top Chef)
Mark Peel, Campanile, Los Angeles (Top Chef Masters 1 & 2)
Jerry Traunfeld, Poppy, Seattle (Top Chef Masters 2)

RISING STAR CHEF OF THE YEAR
Kevin Gillespie, Woodfire Grill, Atlanta (Finalist, Top Chef 6)

BEST CHEF: MID-ATLANTIC
Bryan Voltaggio, Volt, Frederick, MD (Finalist, Top Chef 6)

BEST CHEF: NEW YORK CITY
Wylie Dufresne, WD-50 (Top Chef Masters 1 & 2)
Jonathan Waxman, Barbuto (Top Chef Masters 1 & 2)

BEST CHEF: PACIFIC
Michael Cimarusti, Providence, Los Angeles (Top Chef Masters 1)

TC News & Information

TC5s Stefan Richter offers his Father's Day menu.

Gail Simmons stands up for Toby Young.

Eater gives us a 37-word recap of Top Chef Masters episode 2, plus some of their favorite Wylie Dufresne quotes.

And here's an interview with episode 2 winner Suzanne Tracht.

Bio - Wylie Dufresne

Wylie Dufresne is the chef/owner of New York’s highly celebrated wd~50 restaurant. The Lower East Side eatery was awarded a Michelin star in 2006, which it has retained through 2009. Dufresne himself is no stranger to acclaim. The James Beard Foundation nominated Wylie and wd~50 in the following categories: 2000, "Rising Star Chef" (while Wylie was the chef at 71 Clinton Fresh Food); 2004, wd~50 for "Best New Restaurant;" 2008 and 2009, Wylie for "Best Chef, New York City." wd~50, whose ownership is shared with chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten and restaurateur Phil Suarez, acquired its unique name from the combination of Dufresne’s initials and the restaurant’s street address.