"angelo sosa" news and stories

Here's this week's installment of Slashfood's exclusive exit interviews with the latest "Top Chef All-Stars" contestant to get the boot. In an effort to prevent spoilers, we've included the text after the jump.

We were promised a "shocking elimination." The ads made it look like most tense Top Chef ever. We were sure the judging would be harsh, the challenges labyrinthine, the stakes higher than a World Championship Poker Tournament. The remote darn near fell out of our hands, our palms were sweating so much.

So -- what were the Muppets of Sesame Street doing judging the Quickfire? And why were the chefs on a Target shopping spree? The trappings of this week's episode transformed it from a bare-knuckled brawl into a Nerf-ball fight in a McDonald's Playplace.

From episode one, it was clear that Angelo Sosa was going to be around for a long time -- he just couldn't stop winning. But around the midway point, his cooking started tapering off, just as Ed Cotton started coming on strong. They both couldn't have been more different -- Angelo was the sensual chef, Ed was the jocular one around the kitchen. But they did have a few things in common: both come from prestigious tutelage, with Angelo learning from Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Ed with Todd English. Both are currently based in New York City: Angelo, as the proprietor of Xie Xie and Ed at Plein Sud in Tribeca. And both ended up in the finale and lost to Kevin.

Slashfood spoke with both Ed and Angelo the day after the Top Chef: D.C. finale -- we're happy to report they both were in good spirits.

First , Angelo Sosa.

What good is Singapore if we don't get to experience it through Tiffany's awestruck eyes? That was the question we were asking ourselves when we sat down to watch the endurance test -- for the chefs, at least -- that is the Top Chef finale. We know we should be over our favorite cheftestant's elimination by now, but we weren't.

Instead of Tiffany's brilliantly skewed, down-to-earth worldview, we got Angelo's weird, "I'm Asian on the inside" commentary on, well, just about everything. From the moment he arrived, he acted like he owned the continent. Boasting about his wok skills, mocking Ed's aversion to black cockles, Angelo loudly announced his dominance early on -- which, of course, made him a prime target for being taken down, something Ed was more than willing to attempt (and rather successfully, at that).

StarChefs, the "magazine for culinary insiders," celebrated New York's "Rising Stars" on Tuesday with a gala tasting in New York City.

Slashfood popped in to check out the fare and gaze at culinary stars like honoree and "Top Chef" Season One winner Harold Dieterle and Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto (whose New York restaurant Chef Jamison Blankenship was honored and whipped up a bouillabaisse) as well as Babyface (who knew the hitmaker was a foodie?).

Del Posto's pastry chef, Brooks Headley, paired pea shoots with strawberry gelato, while mixologist Maxwell Britten made Gingerbutter Collins with scotch whiskey. Best overheard conversation of the night: "She puts bacon in everything now, even chocolate chip cookies." We'll have to try that.

Food porn after the jump.