"restaurant wars" news and stories

Is it just us, or does Kenny say something about his "beast" on every episode of Top Chef? After a few sad rounds of this self-proclaimed "alpha dog" scoring distinctly in the middle of the pack, this week he informed us it was, again, "time to unleash The Beast."

And if ever one needs to unleash his inner beast, it's during the Restaurant Wars episode. We look forward to this annual Top Chef ritual more than we do our own birthdays (especially at this age), and there was plenty this week that had us licking our chops. Even the preview teased us with capital-letter adjectives: Drama! Fights! Gross incompetence!

We knew we were in for something special when the teams, chosen during the Quickfire challenge, pitted the two early front runners against each other: Sniveling Angelo and Kenny, acting as executive chefs of each team. "The Beast versus the best," Kenny observed, although we wondered if that statement wasn't more than a little hyperbolic -- and premature.

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.

Last week on Top Chef, we saw the chef'testants put through their paces both with canned goods and some gorgeous, farm fresh foods. Ariane was sent home based on the poor job she did butchering some lamb.

This week is the halfway point of the competition with just eight chefs left in the running and so they're bringing back Restaurant Wars, in which the chefs are divided into two teams and told to create and run a restaurant for a single night. The guest judge is Stephen Starr (restaurateur behind Buddakan and Morimoto, among many other restaurants) and he'll determine the who the team leaders are in tomorrow night's episode.

Make sure to tune and see what happens!

Spoilers! Really, what do you expect?

So even Tom Colicchio has chimed in to call this season of Top Chef a "hard one to read" (aka mediocre), which means that either 1) I have low standards for television (possible), or 2) My television airs a secret, for-my-eyes-only awesome version of Top Chef that's full of crazy cooking and fun. I loved watching Restaurant Wars last night, and I'm still sticking to my belief that the show is as sharp as ever. Let's get into it.