"Top Chef Masters" news and stories

YumSugar interviews omnipresent celebrity chef, "Top Chef Masters" host and "America's Next Best Restaurant" judge Curtis Stone and finds him "surprisingly grounded and impressively well-spoken." Stone has recently caught some flack for being more of a pretty face (those eyes!) than, well, a chef. Eater recently asked the question on everyone's mind, "Who the Hell is Curtis Stone Anyway?").

In the YumSugar interview, Stone admits that his detractors almost have a point. "If you're going to say you're a chef, you need to cook somewhere, which is why I'm opening a restaurant. I miss cooking in a restaurant, and that camaraderie, and that art of perfection that I was talking about."

Stone hopes his Los Angeles restaurant will be "a nice little place, where you can still cook for people the way you want to...I want it to be relaxed and special; I think 40 or 50 seats would see me out." Don't worry ladies, the man still has a few tricks up his sleeve (note: he is involved with the actress Lindsay Price). When asked what he wants to be remembered for, the cheeky Stone answered, "A few things spring to mind that I shouldn't say out loud."

With his new gig as host of "Top Chef Masters," chef (and KitchenDaily expert) Curtis Stone comes ever closer to becoming the ringmaster of America's reality-show circus. Last spring, he made it to the tenth week of Donald Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice," and this fall he's been a regular presence on "The Biggest Loser." His new project, "America's Next Great Restaurant," pairs him up with Bobby Flay and a panel of restaurant experts to find an idea worthy of a three-city restaurant chain. We caught up with Curtis this weekend as he was prepping dinner with Wolfgang Puck for the 8th Annual G'DAY USA Celebrity Gala, in Los Angeles.

Slashfood: It's been a busy year for you, what with the 'Apprentice' and working on 'The Biggest Loser.'
Curtis Stone: 'The Apprentice' was bizarre. I was sitting there before the first day and Cyndi [Lauper] was sort of singing to herself and I was thinking, 'What am I doing here with all of these freaks?' But you know what? I made a lot of good friends from it. They all turned out to be really cool. When I first met Bret [Michaels] I thought, 'How are we going to get along? You're a weirdo.' But he's a nice bloke! He's a strange cat, you know, but a cool dude. Sharon Osborne and I ended up becoming really good friends. Cyndi is a sweet woman -- crazy, out there, talks to herself, but kind and generous.

Good news: Top Chef Masters is up for a third season, says Eater. Even better news? Celebrity chef and KitchenDaily contributer Curtis Stone will be hosting. (Sorry, Kelly Choi.) And he's also on the roster to judge contestants on NBC's upcoming America's Next Great Restaurant, which is set to premier in March. Non-food-obessed folks might recognize Curtis for his long run on Celebrity Apprentice 3, but longtime fans will remember his early days on TLC's Take Home Chef, where he found wandering home-cooks in grocery aisles to go home with in order to revamp thier special meals (along with an engagement or two).

But here at AOL, we know him as the guy who teaches us simple, down-to-earth cooking in a KitchenDaily video series aptly called Cooking with Curtis Stone. His Austrailian upbringing and classic London training (under legend Marco Pierre White) have lent us many a satisfying dish. Find demos for making homemade waffles, white chocolate Macademia nut cookies, and plenty of meat -- braised short ribs with honey-roasted carrots, turkey bolognese, and a standing rib roast all sound great for anyone else braving a snowdrift right now.

Watch Curtis Stone's videos from KitchenDaily after the jump ...

We have to admit: It's more than a little hard to keep all the renowned chefs of America and their various TV appearances straight. It's getting to the point where, if you're lucky enough to be able to dine in a big city, you're liable to be greeted by the same person who you saw whipping up calamari with Kathie Lee & Hoda in the morning, getting eliminated from a rerun of The Next Iron Chef in the afternoon, and cruelly critiquing young upstarts on Top Chef D.C. in the evening.

Such is the case with Maria Hines of Seattle's renowned Tilth. Okay, so we didn't get to dine at Tilth Sunday night, and it's been a while since she graced the airwaves on Top Chef Masters. But we've missed her bold, distinctly northwestern (not to mention organic and local) flavor profiles, unpretentious plating, and utterly cool, laid-back demeanor. In just a couple short episodes, she became our number-one summer chef crush.

So while we were eagerly awaiting her face-off with Chef Morimoto on Iron Chef America this weekend, we did so with a lump in our throats: Really, does anyone other than the reigning Iron Chef win? Sure, there are a few token wins to reassure us that the whole thing isn't rigged, but surely, pairing up Hines with seafood whiz Morimoto was a "better luck next time" kind of move on the part of the producers.

Despite being edged out by a measly half star, Toronto's Susur Lee and Las Vegas based chef Rick Moonen clearly brought their "A game" throughout the entire second season of Top Chef Masters. Lee served up gorgeous plates of Asian fusion with a classical twist, and Moonen utilized his knowledge of seafood as the foundation for whatever challenges the show presented.

On the season finale, the chefs were asked to cook their life stories -- Lee, following his origins with his father in Hong Kong and Moonen returning to his Queens, New York, roots. Lee's final plate was an artistic display of lamb thailandaise with chang mai sausage; Moonen went with venison, an attempt to persuade the judges to rethink him as just a chef who sleeps with the fishes.

Any of the final three could have won -- and while Lee and Moonen fell short of the prize, they provided season two with more humor than any of the other contestants -- something they'll surely be remembered for, going forward.

Slashfood caught up with Lee and Moonen about the final challenge, how Top Chef Masters helps their career and whether the judges got things right.