"bryan voltaggio" news and stories

"Top Chef Las Vegas" pitted brother against brother, but the two finalists are now showing some brotherly love via the World Wide Web.

Bryan and Michael Voltaggio, the runner-up and winner of Bravo's popular reality-cooking competition, will star in a Web series focusing on their favorite ingredients, techniques and gadgets.

The videos will be posted beginning in January on the Voltaggio Brothers Web site, VoltaggioBrothers.com, "The Website for Food Lovers."

By now, we know "Top Chef" is all about tough questions: "Are you proud of what you cooked?" "Who was really responsible for the disgusting part of your dish?" "Why in God's name did you serve me raw lamb?"

But last night, we got the toughest one yet: "Which son do you like better?... C'mon, you can tell us -- we're just 10 people who are about to critique both of them into oblivion!"

OK, so this exchange didn't really transpire during the finale-of-the-finale of the yearly endurance test that is "Top Chef." But it might as well have. After narrowing the field to no more than three young men, two of whom share a last name and some DNA -- if not, shall we say, similar outlooks on life -- the show's producers decided upon one last master plan to mess with their cheftestants' minds: Bring Your Mom to Final Elimination Challenge Day.

"This meal can make your career," Tom helpfully told us at the beginning of the show. So why on earth would you try to throw these three talented chefs off of their game by stirring up such desperate, maternal feelings? Why would you ask them to make an extra course inspired by a dish mom used to make, and then ask said parent to judge the results?

• An inside look at Volt, the restaurant of Bryan Voltaggio -- a remaining contestant and one-half of the brothers Voltaggio on 'Top Chef Vegas.'
• Inspired by a cupcake, a contemplation of eating with your hands: "There's an intimacy with your food ... that you don't get when you have the intermediary fork thingie."
• As many are picking the perfect bird for Thanksgiving, food journalist Rob Kasper acquaints himself with heritage turkeys at a Baltimore County farm during their final days.
• Aspiring to become a sommelier? Test your wine I.Q.
• Cooking with wine? What about cooking with beer? From beer-battered to basted, a look at menu items from Baltimore restaurants that put a little hop into the recipe.
• In light of the mass beef recall in early November, consumers are turning to small butcher shops, small cattle farms and gourmet grocers in search of a better burger.

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.