And when I say "scenes," I mean it. My crappy little video camera didn't capture the sounds well, if at all, but the final in this year's Capital Food Fight came down to a cook-off between Spike Mendelsohn of Good Stuff Eatery and Scott Drewno of The Source. The judges gushed over both plates, which [...]
It's official. As predicted by the National Enquirer of food journalism, next season's Top Chef will be a reunion show of contestants not good enough to win previous seasons, including three locally based cooks. Bravo producers are bravely calling this alumni gathering an "All Star" season. The cable channel announced the full list of returning [...]
Did Amanda deserve the heave-ho instead of Alex? As is our habit when we watch Top Chef, Carrie and I placed informal bets on who'd get the boot during last night's "Covert Affairs" episode. I figured the judges would finally send Alex packing, given his controversial history this season and the fact that he looks [...]
Cooking for babies: So Tom and Padma both have infants. Tom and Padma are both judges on Top Chef. Tom and Padma are busy, flying here and there to run restaurants or write cookbooks or get pregnant. Tom and Padma don't have time for babies. Tom and Padma don't want to be turned into Child [...]
How many of you felt a slight wave of nausea when Padma used the word, "Bipartisandwich" during the opening minutes of Top Chef D.C. last night? My nausea grew into a full-on case of dry heaves when the quick-fire challenge became the cooking equivalent of a three-legged race: Producers bound two chefs together in a [...]
You've already seen my thoughts on the debut episode of Top Chef D.C. Let's find out what others had to say about Tom and Padma's trip to the District. Joe Yonan at WaPo notes that the reality TV program has an unusual sense of "reality." TV Guide loved the debut and called the D.C. episode [...]
Well, that wasn't a promising start. After all the celebrity stalkings and quick-fire guessing games during the show's filming, Top Chef D.C. premiered last night and laid a large goose egg on the White House lawn. Sure, the decision to conduct the first quick-fire challenge atop the Newseum was a clever change of venue, a [...]
Will D.C. come across as a cartoon parody of itself? Will the cheftestants be forced to make their own chili for the District's famous half-smoke? How often will the producers draft José Andrés to add some genuine "talk to the tomatoes" eccentricity to the show? Will the Obamas make an appearance to show off the [...]
Can Blue Ridge's Barton Seaver finally take the top spot? Find out Nov. 11. Tickets go on sale Friday for Capital Food Fight 2010, taking place this fall at the Ronald Reagan Building. (Read Y&H's coverage of last year's food fight, including Seaver's third-straight bid to win it, here.) Like always, organizers have lined up several culinary celebs, including Tom Colicchio, Anthony [...]
In advance of his appearance on Friday evening at the Warner Theater with Anthony Bourdain, Y&H conducted an interview with Eric Ripert, the man who has held four stars from the New York Times longer than any other chef in Manhattan. Ripert, I should add, is also classy, slyly funny, and unflappable, as you’ll see [...]
