"reality" news and stories

I'll preface this by saying that we won't be held responsible if any of these turn out to be false, but let's discuss a couple of the Top Chef rumors that we heard this week - because what fun are reality show participants if you can't talk about them once in a while?

A friend, recently returned from Las Vegas and "one of the best meals of [her] life" at Tom Colicchio's restaurant, Craftsteak, reported that her waiter said Elia was recruited for the show and never intended to audition in the first place. In this case, the friend is a reliable source, but how the waiter from the restaurant got the information is something we'll never know.

An irate "fan" of Top Chef physically assaulted Marcel in a Las Vegas nightclub by hitting him with a bottle. Marcel needed 30 stitches to close up the cut above his eye. Totally uncalled for - not to mention highly disturbing.

Ilan Hall, who is one of the two chefs to make it into the final cookoff, has quit his job as a line cook at Mario Batali's New York eatery, Casa Mono. As we all known Ilan only knows Spanish food - what will he do now? Could this be an indicator of how things turned out for him in the finale - good or bad?

On-set spies say that Padma might have the munchies, explaining the former model's seemingly large appetite.

Want to know what former contestant Sam Talbot eats in a week?

This season of Bravo's Top Chef is close to an end. This episode was the last one of the regular competition and, as we could tell from the promos that ran during the week, it would determine which chefs would make it to the finale in Hawaii. The real question going in to the show was how many chefs would be competing for the title in that last competition, since there were still five chefs left on the show when this episode began.

After a few minutes of footage that illustrated everyone's determination to win, the chefs headed into the kitchen for the quickfire challenge. Everyone was surprised to see that the guest chef was Eric Ripert, who is the chef at Le Bernardin in New York and one of the most well known and well respected chefs in the country. Needless to say, his presence added to the pressure. The challenge was to use chocolate to create something sensual. The dish could be sweet or savory and the chefs had 90 minutes to work.

New year, new episode of Bravo's Top Chef. The season picked up again this week with only seven of the original fifteen competitors still in the competition. At this point, the chefs have been living together for several weeks and, as in many situations where you have a group of type-A personalities, things are getting a little tense. Everyone in the group seems to oscillate back and forth between feeling compelled to act as a team trying to screw over everyone else so that they, as individuals, can get ahead. It makes things more interesting from a dramatic standpoint, but the chefs really need to get a grip on their tempers if they want to end up as Top Chef.

As the episode started out, one of the first things that we got to see was that Michael had a wisdom tooth pulled. He made it sound like he went to a less-than-reputable individual for the procedure, but seemed to be getting along fine aside from the pain and swelling. Medicated, Michael was much less feisty than usual. He noted that he hoped the challenges weren't too long and the rest of the tired-looking competitors agreed.

In January, the Food Network will be debuting a new reality show called Dinner: Impossible. The show features chef Robert Irvine, who has cooked for the British royal family and four US presidents, and his two sous chefs (both named George), all of whom are put into strange situations in which they have to prepare gourmet food while overcoming various obstacles. By obstacles, we're not referring to any Indiana Jones-like traps, but more along the lines of extremely unusual working conditions. For example, one episode will feature the chefs having to shop for and prep dinner for 150, to be served on a train - assuming that they don't get left at the station. Another will feature the chefs cooking with 18th century equipment and utensils, also on a tight timeline. Essentially, the chefs will not know where they are going, where they will be working or who they will be cooking for before they arrive and will have to cook the best food they can in the circumstances. Perhaps the only downside is that, unlike Top Chef, which also features some somewhat extreme cooking situations, no one will be voted off on this show so the only thing that really will keep the chefs motivated is their own desire to beat the odds.

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When you were in school and didn't get along with someone, parents and teaches probably told you that in the "real world" you have to try to get along with people you don't like because you often have to work with them no matter what your personal feelings are. Reality TV might not exactly be the "real" world, but it is becoming more clear that not all of the contestants had this lesson when they were growing up. On this week's episode of Bravo's Top Chef, the camera spent a lot of time on the personal interactions of the cooks, as well as filming the cooking itself.

This was a Thanksgiving themed episode, so it was particularly appropriate for this week despite the fact that it was probably filmed earlier this summer. For the quickfire challenge, chef Tom Colicchio served as the judge and the contestants were given only 15 minutes to create a "tasty" dish using three different canned ingredients. There was no time for anyone to utter more than one or two words of complaint as everyone got down to cooking.