At this point in the usual "Top Chef" season trajectory, you might expect a certain focus and discipline that naturally comes with narrowing the playing field down to seven ambitious young chefs, each working at the top of his or her game. This year, however, is another story.
Maybe it's that the talented and reliable Jen is off her game, or that the universally derided Robin is still around or that the twerpy Eli can actually put together an interesting plate of food for once. In any event, Wednesday night's episode felt like a detour into a "Top Chef" bizarro-world, where up is down, left is right and nobody knows anything anymore. Well, almost anything: Robin still sucks, Michael V. is still a cocky jerk and Kevin is still the model of modest brilliance.
Rattling off the random highlights of the episode sounds as scattered as Robin's cooking philosophy: Dirty jokes! Vegetarianism! Natalie Portman! No Toby Young! A Quickfire challenge that revealed itself to be a desperate marketing ploy! Make that two marketing ploys! In fact, Portman's description of one dish neatly summed up the entire episode: "It makes me smile and laugh -- and I'm confused!"
'Top Chef - The Quickfire Cookbook'
by Emily Miller with foreword by Padma Lakshmi Chronicle Books -- 2009 Buy it on Amazon
It's Padma's world. The rest of us just cook in it -- just mostly without a gigantic LED countdown clock, a dozen cleaver-wielding competitors jockeying for prep space and a mandate to make haute nibbles from the contents of a 7-Eleven's snack aisle. But if that's what cremes your brulee and you haven't the tats, 'tude and temerity to audition for competitive reality TV, you can live vicariously through this book.
If you're like us, you've been waiting all season for the ultimate knock-down, drag-out Voltaggio brothers showdown on "Top Chef Vegas." Ah, the boys next door we love to hate, with their cutting comments, their undermining of each other's abilities, their constant bickering. ... We're not sure what dinner was like in their house growing up, but no doubt it involved lots of flinging of peas and acting out, followed by long, unbearable silences.
You can even see it in their food: Robotic big-bro Bryan and his classically flavored, cooked-to-perfection entrees; sneering bad-boy/skate-punk Michael and his crazy textures, flamboyant technique and exotic flavor profiles. It may be a few episodes too early to say it, but last night -- on the occasion of "Top Chef"'s customary restaurant wars challenge -- we finally saw the their sibling hatred in full effect.
Fried chicken goes international, from Creole to Korean kitchens.
L.L. Bean heiress Linda L. Bean gets ready to mass market Maine lobsters and end Canadian lobster dependence.
A look at "Top Chef" hostess Padma Lakshmi's Sunday routine.
Jewish delis are suffering from waning popularity, and those that are left struggle to keep the meaty magic alive.
The end of Gourmet magazine after almost 70 years, and those mourning its demise.
The dangers of E. Coli and pre-ground beef, and the story of Stephanie Smith.
When cooking becomes boring, A Good Appetite suggests playing "cupboard roulette."
The Minimalist makes a crustless, Pan-Baked Lemon-Almond Tart.
Joining old Italian pros as they chop, stew and jar plum tomatoes in prime autumn tradition.
Cooking with Dexter finally learns the artificial flavor of the fast food beneath the golden arches.
Rogacki is "a temple devoted" to Berlin deli fare, in West Berlin, Germany.
Restaurant: After 10 years, Brooklyn's Saul has only gotten better, Queens' Engeline is a rare slice of Filipino fare and the Lower East Side's Ten Bells mixes wine and charcuterie.
Got the chops, fire, fauxhawk and facial jewelry to be a "Top Chef" contender? Pack your knives and go on over to a casting locale near you, 'cause the hit show is firing up for its seventh season on Bravo. The renewal was announced earlier today, and in addition to taped submissions, in-person auditions will take place coast to coast from Oct. 18 to Nov. 15.
The host city has yet to be named, but Slashfood is banking on at least one "make a snack for pregnant Padma" Quickfire challenge.
See a list of open casting call locations and dates after the jump.
A "Top Chef" host has a little something in the oven -- and it's not a Quickfire dish.
Reps for Padma Lakshmi confirmed to Usmagazine.com that the former model, burger spokeswoman and Emmy winner is pregnant with her first child after a multi-year struggle with endometriosis.
The 39-year-old co-founded the Endometriosis Foundation of America earlier this year in an attempt to raise awareness about the condition in which uterine lining accumulates in other parts of the body, sometimes leading to chronic pain and infertility.
Lakshmi's three-year marriage to novelist Salman Rushdie ended in divorce in 2007 and the identity of the father has not been publicly revealed.
Laurine, the calm amid the 'Top Chef' chaos. Photo: Bravo.
Break out the chaps. Dust off your spurs. Get ready for Padma to ring the dinner bell as only she knows how -- that is, gingerly and timidly.
That's right, with "Top Chef" stationed in the middle of the Southwest this season, we knew there'd have to be some sort of roughing-it challenge to go along with all the gaudy glitz of the Vegas strip. The only question would be just how much roughness our cheftestants would have to endure.
Surprisingly, quite a bit. With only the most mysterious hint of their destination, the dozen remaining chefs were shipped off -- after countless shots of them enjoying the plush luxury of their product-placement Toyotas -- and left to fend for themselves in a remote desert ranch, in teepees, no less. "Is Padma sleeping in a teepee? I'd just like to know," asked Kevin.
That would be an emphatic "no." And while some chefs used the opportunity to wax nostalgic on their outdoorsy upbringings -- some (Ashley) more convincingly than others (Robin) -- some just weren't having it. Cue the urbanite whining of Atlantan Eli, or the voodoo-spellcasting of Haitian Ron, whose elaborate warding off of snakes was appreciated, if not understood, by bunkmate Ash.
Padma, Gail, Tom, Mark Peel and the troops. Photo: Bravo
Note to "Top Chef" editors: You fooled us. As with any reality show with a dozen-plus contestants, the ones who get the most face time in the early episodes are usually the superstars, or the ones who'll be packing their knives and going home.
By that logic, perma-cryer Jesse -- who managed the ignominious feat of having the lowest scores in the previous two episodes -- was marked for doom this week. But at least she owned her status -- or lack of it -- as the loser of last night's quickfire challenge: "I'm on the bottom again -- balls!"
The model-actress-cook stars in a new video for the Eels' "That Look You Give That Guy." Band member Mark Oliver Everett told Slashfood's sister site, Spinner, that "I always dreamt of dating someone as beautiful as Padma Lakshmi. I should probably just go back to dreaming."
The video shows a date between the two with the sometimes burger eater feeding Everett's dog, Bobby Jr., and hawking her cookbook. Product placement brought to you by the Glad family of Padma.
OK, so if you watched last night's season premiere of "Top Chef," that statement might ring a tad premature considering that that most obvious wearer of throat ink ended up being the first to go home.
But if you're looking to Bravo's increasingly popular cooking competition to discern new and exciting trends in the culinary world, you could do worse than to single out "oddly placed chef tats" as this year's food foam.
Relocating to Vegas has seemingly brought out the bad-to-the-bone personas of the 17 brash, mostly young contestants. Or at least that's what their carefully edited, perfectly timed snotty remarks would have us believe.
There's Jennifer, self-proclaimed "bitch in the kitchen" and queen of the "you got a problem with that?" shrug. As long as her dishes continue to be as seemingly spot-on as the bright prawn ceviche she whipped up for the Quickfire challenge, she suits us just fine.
Designated jerk in the group: "Jersey Mike," who managed to denigrate women, cancer survivors and the entire 40-something population in deeming elimination-immune Robin "one less old lady I have to worry about."
Top Chef judges Toby, Padma, Tom and Gail. Photo: Bravo TV.
Chef-testants for season six of Top Chef were announced today. The showdown will take place in Las Vegas, which Tom Colicchio assures us is a "very serious food town."
The primary thing a bunch of these newbies have in common? Tattoos, big time. Click through the gallery and let us know if we're wrong. That's not to say we don't spy some serious contenders in the mix. Talent ranges from Michael Voltaggio, chef de cuisine of the buzzed-about José Andrés Bazaar in Los Angeles, to the innocuous-looking (but perhaps culinarily ferocious) Jesse Sandlin, one of the tattooed toques, who sports a flower in her hair.
Don't skip the video of our four judges, in which Gail declares, "I'm eating very well," and Padma asserts, "A few of these contestants have even taught Tom a thing or two." Hmm. We'll see.
Are you stoked about Top Chef Vegas -- or are you over it by now?
Nothing comes between Padma Lakshmi and her bacon.
The "Top Chef" host's commercial for the Western Bacon Thickburger at Carl's Jr. and Hardee's is something out of a bad soft-core food porn movie. The first part of the spot is innocent enough as Lakshmi -- identified as an "author/culinary expert" -- breezily drifts through a farmer's market carrying a plastic bag filled with veggies.
It's when she hits what looks like a New York City stoop, hikes up her skirt and pulls out her fast-food feed bag that things turn nasty (and so henceforth we'll call her Ms. Lakshmi).
In voice-over, Ms. Lakshmi describes her teen adventures sneaking out to scarf down a Western Bacon before dinner as we consumers of pop culture see spicy sauce dripping all over her hand and her leg. Fear not for her pumps! Ms. Lakshmi's just keeping the sauce there for later -- finger-lickin' later.
"It's a beautiful love song to food," Ms. Lakshmi says in a press release ... if your idea of a beautiful love song to food is Warrant's "Cherry Pie."
(The Slashfoodie in us couldn't get beyond the suspension of disbelief. If Ms. Lakshmi's supposed to be in New York, where DID she get that Western Bacon? The closest Hardee's is 60 miles away in Shirley, N.Y. That's what we'd call a winning Quick Fire challenge.)
Another week and another round of cooking and drama on the fifth season of Top Chef. This week the 15 remaining chefs must please the normal panel of judges (Tom, Padma, and Gail) along with guest judge Donatella Arpaia, a very successful New York restaurateur.
The Quick Fire Challenge once again has some New York flavor to it: the chefs must create a signature hot dog that will wow Padma and Donatella, and they only have 45 minutes with which to rustle up their doggies. The catch? Not only are they competing against one another but they will also be judged against a dog from Dominick's hot dog cart, as prepared by Angelina D'Angelo. Pretty stiff competition.
Read on to see who won the Quick Fire and who packed their knives and left at the end of the show (read no further if you haven't had a chance to watch yet, as there are spoilers ahead).
We closely followed Bravo's culinary reality show Top Chef all through its first season earlier this year, and when we heard that Katie Lee Joel would not be back to host the upcoming season, we were quite sad. Just kidding. We couldn't wait to see who they brought in as a replacement.
The new host is Padma Lakshmi, an Indian supermodel, actress and fashion writer, as well as the author of two cookbooks (one is still pending release) and host of a now-defunct show on the Food Network. She has more presence and perhaps more culinary experience than Katie Lee, but hopefully she will prove to be a bit more expressive in her delivery of her lines.
The new season is already filming and it is set in Los Angeles, as opposed to San Francisco. The episodes are scheduled to begin airing in October of this year.
Another week and another round of cooking and drama on the fifth season of Top Chef. This week the 15 remaining chefs must please the normal panel of judges (Tom, Padma, and Gail) along with guest judge 
We closely followed Bravo's culinary reality show 
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