Top Chef (TV Show)

Girasol Review: CJ Jacobson's New Studio City Restaurant Doesn't Always Succeed

The chef's stint at Noma is a clear influence but the execution sometimes trips him up.

5 Great L.A. Restaurants for House-Made Charcuterie

Leading up to this year's Best of L.A. issue (due out Oct. 3), we'll be bringing you periodic lists of some of the best things we've found to eat and drink around town. Ice cream sandwiches and bowls of tsukemen, fish tacos and dan dan mian, cups of boba and glasses of booze. Read on. The charcuter ... More >>

Sang Yoon and Neal Fraser to Compete on Top Chef Masters Season 5

Bravo has announced the lineup for Top Chef Masters' fifth season, and L.A. has a few horses in the race. Sang Yoon, of Father's Office and Lukshon, and Neal Fraser of the Strand House and Fritzi Dog, will be part of the 13-chef cast competing for money for a charity of their choice. Yoon will compe ... More >>

Live Tweeting TV is Ruining Twitter and Television

Remember the good old days, when you'd watch TV, then think about it a bit, then perhaps discuss it the next day at work over the water cooler? Now that's not nearly enough. While watching TV, you must read everyone's live tweets about the show, then watch the after-show about the show, then hashtag ... More >>

A Recap of The Taste: We Took a Bite. Did You?

Well, kids, The Taste premiered last night on ABC with much fanfare. We sat, we watched, we followed the (trending!) tweets and we're here to recap. Just in case your DVR didn't work, or you just want to relive it all in print. The premise -- as previously mentioned -- is a mash-up of The Voice and ... More >>

Fabio Viviani on Life After Top Chef Why "Success Is Personal"

See also: Top Chef Tour: Richard Blais vs. Fabio Viviani at Hollywood & Highland See also: Top Chef Masters Recap: "Do You Want to Be Comforted, or Do You Want to Be Thrilled?" It's 10:00 a.m., and chef Fabio Viviani is eating cereal with chocolate milk. "Whole grain Cheerios, because fiber is good ... More >>

Top Chef Seattle Cheftestants Announced

Bravo announced this morning that Top Chef Season 10 "will be coming to you shortly," that it was filmed in Seattle, and revealed the identity of the season's contestants. Judges this season will be Deadpan-Padma and Tough-Tom, of course, as well as Gail Simmons and Hugh Acheson. Wolfgang Puck will ... More >>

Howdy, Sailor ... It's Top Chef, The Cruise!

Just when Top Chef apathy has reached a crippling level of "I just don't care any more," the brilliant marketing minds at Bravo have come up with a new way to garner cash interest. It's Top Chef ... on a boat!!

L.A. Food & Wine Festival: Rosé, Ribs, and Summer Heat

After a weekend filled with many bottles of rosé and short rib sliders, the second annual Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival wrapped up Sunday afternoon at L.A. Live after four days of chef-driven tastings, demos, samplings and other events that featured some of the top culinary talents in the countr ... More >>

Top Chef Masters Recap: Art Smith Teppanyak-ity-yaks

Who says a Quickfire has to involve fire at all? On last night's episode of Top Chef Masters, raw was the name of the game for the chefs, who found themselves surrounding a massive ice sculpture adorned with seafood they had to serve up sans heat for a chance at immunity. And as is appropriate for ... More >>

Top Chef Masters Recap: Cooking for Billionaires, and Why Curtis Stone Is, in Fact, the Man

Hooray! Top Chef Masters is back! You know, that souped-up version of the old Bravo staple in which we get to watch alreadyfamous chefs duke it out in the kitchen, not for money (as all their winnings go to charity) but for the prestige of being crowned truly the best of the best. Right? That must ... More >>

Time Machine Chefs: A New Show About Historical Squirming Chefs, Premiers in August

God forbid we just judge chefs on the food they actually cook. No, instead we must deliver "challenges," throw "curve balls," pull strings and make them squeal and dance for our amusement. The latest in the food reality chef competition genre is Time Machine Chefs, a show based on a premise that sou ... More >>

L.A. Times Festival of Books: Star Chefs, Cooking Demos Books

Cook on television; nab a book deal. That could be one of the takeaways of the Cooking Stage lineup at The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books happening this weekend at USC. Of eight chefs who will give cooking demonstrations, speak, and sign books, five are known for appearing on food shows, includ ... More >>

No Kitchen Required Around the World in 80 Plates: Does the food still matter?

It takes a special kind of chef to sign up for a competition show. When it comes to cooking, it's much easier, really, to stay in your own kitchen, keep your nose to the saucepan and crank out the best food you know how without the aggravation of mystery ingredients and a ticking clock. But that's ... More >>

Top Chef Casting Call at The Foundry

Top Chef is turning 10! Are you surprised? Unlikely. They only win Emmys and James Beard awards out the wazoo. If we were Bravo, we'd keep milking that cash cow as well. But of course, one needs new talent to keep those Quickfires hot, which means it's casting call time.

Nathan Myhrvold on Top Chef: Who Will Be the "Modern-est?"

Nathan Myrhvold​Even if you're kind of over Top Chef (Quickfire challenges! Padma in halter tops!), you might want to tune in tonight to check it out. Because tonight's guest judge is none other than Nathan Myhrvold, the man behind Modernist Cuisine, which 6-volume set is the contestants' home ... More >>

Top Chef: Texas -- Top 10 Insights from Tom Colicchio & Padma Lakshmi on a Conference Call

Via NBCUniversalTop Chef: Texas judges Gail Simmons, Padma Lakshmi and Tom Colicchio.​We've heard everything's bigger in Texas. That's a stereotype, and boy do those tend to piss off people. People like certain Dallas-based reporters who were on the Top Chef: Texas conference call with judges ... More >>

The Oinkster/Maximiliano/Eagle Rock Brewery Take the Bacon at L.A. Beer Float Showdown

Steven ArmstrongChef CJ Jacobson has fun with liquid nitrogen at the third annual LABFS​ Saturday marked the third annual L.A. Beer Float Showdown. And unlike last year's showdown, which featured four local beer bars, this year's competition teamed five L.A. chefs (including three Top Chef alu ... More >>

LA Beer Float Showdown, Part III: Bigger, Bolder, Top Chef-ier

Food GPSA scene from last year's showdown at Verdugo Bar​ No LA Beer Week would be complete without an LA Beer Float Showdown, just as no ice cream would be complete without... beer? A sugary sacrilege to some, and a boozy benediction to others, beer floats symbolize the unique strain of genre ... More >>

Jonathan Gold Recommends Ink.

Top 5 Cookbook Trends We Wish Would End (Starting With Cookbook Trends)

rachelray.comWe're Confused, Too​Much as we keep hearing how the publishing industry is struggling, cookbooks keep showing up on our desk by the dozens. Yes, we're delighted when those books involve Odd Bits, but not so much when they are yet another perky self-help book (Your going to feel gr ... More >>

2011 James Beard Media Award Winners

​It's a case of local boy makes good -- make that two local boys -- at this year's James Beard Awards. Our own Jonathan Gold won the MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award while Patrick Kuh of Los Angeles magazine won the Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award. In the first ever ... More >>

Top Chef Masters: How Did Local Favorites John Sedlar and Mary Sue Milliken Do?

bravotv.comChefs John Sedlar and Mary Sue Milliken pulling some culinary nunchuck-ery in the Quickfire challenge.​We forced ourselves to stay awake for the Top Chef Masters 11 p.m. premiere last night (thankfully, it will air at 10 p.m. going forward). Still, we couldn't wait to see how L.A. c ... More >>

Water Grill Names Amanda Baumgarten Executive Chef: Top Chef Not the Reason, She Says

Top Chef​Just as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz told us, sometimes our heart's desire is no further than our own backyard. That was certainly the case for the owners of Water Grill who, after a nationwide search for a new executive chef, recently decided on Sous Chef Amanda Baumgarten to fill t ... More >>

Q & A with Top Chef Jamie Lauren, Part 2: Her Love of Beef Cheeks, and Obsessive Need to Clean

A. TrachtaChef Jamie Lauren assembling White Anchovy and Burrata Bruschetta.​In the first part of our interview with Chef Jamie Lauren of Beechwood in Venice, she gave us some insight into the world of Top Chef as well as her thoughts on the Los Angeles. food scene. In Part 2, Lauren discusses ... More >>

Q & A with Top Chef Jamie Lauren, Part 1: L.A. on the World Stage, The Peanut Gallery Those Goddamn Sweet Potato Fries

A. TrachtaChef Jamie Lauren in her kitchen at Beechwood.​"I'm working, I swear," Chef Jamie Lauren insists through laughter as she sits in the corner of her kitchen at Beechwood restaurant in Venice, chatting on her cell phone. In fact, she is. She happens to be in mid-consultation on the New ... More >>

Q & A With Joan Nathan, Part 2: Kosher Wines, "Newish Jewish" How Tom Colicchio (Literally) Saved Her Life

Joan Nathan​In the first part of our conversation with Joan Nathan, we drove around the hometown of Providence, Rhode Island, (via speakerphone) of this award-winning cookbook writer and authority on all things Jewish cuisine, as she explained who loves matzo in France (apparently everybody), ... More >>

Top ChefUpdate: Season 7 Winner, Season 8 Rumors Top Chef: Just Desserts

BravoTop Chef: Season 7 Winner Kevin Sbraga​ Wednesday night on the Top Chef Singapore-based finale, host Padma Lakshmi announced 31-year-old chef and New Jersey native Kevin Sbraga winner of the cooking competition's seventh season, edging out New York-based contestants Angelo Sosa and Ed Co ... More >>

Time Capsule: The Yard

Au courant, and we're not talking French

Q & A With Danielle Keene: Just Desserts, The Issue of Cupcakes The Possibility of an Ice Cream Truck

BravoDanielle Keene​For those of us who've been following pastry chef Danielle Keene for the past few years, from Wilshire's Ice Cream Shoppe nights, to stints in the pastry kitchens of BLT Steak and Little Door, to her own on-line pastry kitchen, Bittersweet Treats, it didn't come as much of ... More >>

New Top Chef Cookbook: Why To Think Twice Before Signing Up For That Reality TV Show

​The reality of reality television shows like Bravo's Top Chef is that if you're chosen as a contestant, you get to sign a big fat contract. You know, the kind of legalese that says something along the lines of the network gets to do pretty much anything it pleases. Including using you to prom ... More >>

Q & A With Top Chef D.C. Contestant Alex Reznik

​Alex Reznik is a fairly recent transplant to Los Angeles, and he's taken to it with a convert's enthusiasm. Though he did leave his gig cheffing at Ivan Kane's Cafe Was for a time in order to compete on season seven of Top Chef, which is set in D.C. and begins June 16. Reznik worked in kitch ... More >>

How Top Chefs Shake Off June Gloom A Fog-Lifting Cocktail Recipe

http://www.flickr.com/photos/posixeleni/2566950190/June Gloom​ You'd think we'd expect June Gloom by now, but somehow it's still a shock to be substituting our swimsuits for sweaters and fun in the sun for fog lamps after Memorial Day. So how do we lift the fog of June's persistent gloom? We ... More >>

Q & A With Marcel Vigneron, Part 2: Supplying Top Chef, Ditching Silverware & SyFy TV

In the second part of our interview with Bar210 chef Marcel Vigneron, the Top Chef alum continues the conversation about life at The Bazaar, recommending Top Chef contestants, and his new lounge gig at Bar210, which opened recently in the former Trader Vic's location. Read the first part of the inte ... More >>

Life is Sweet: Checking In With Sweetsalt's Alex Eusebio

It's been two months since Top Chef: Season 5 alum Alex Eusebio and his wife, Sara Mann, opened Sweetsalt Food Shop, Toluca Lake's neighborhood sandwich joint. Admittedly "turned off by the idea of big restaurant drama" after his Top Chef experience, Eusebio and his wife opted for a more simple, co ... More >>

Top Chef Heads to D.C. With Kate Winslet Possible Judge: Why Not Rahm Emanuel??

Greg KadelPadma Lakshmi​ Top Chef is on the move again, trading in the red chips of Vegas for the red tape of Washington, D.C. And in typical political fashion, the show's shooting schedule has been held up - this time due to Emmy-nominated host Padma Lakshmi's pregnancy. "We were supposed to ... More >>

100 Words For Foodies: CliffsNotes For The Gourmand

Amazon.com​Tired of trying to Google culinary terms when you're right in the middle of an episode of Top Chef or, I don't know, reading your favorite food blog? Well the editors of American Heritage Dictionaries have come out with a book for you: think CliffsNotes for food people. Six bucks to ... More >>

As Pub Food Goes ... the Gorbals

... If it’s open

Q & A With Ilan Hall: The Gorbals' Chef on the LA Dining Scene, Carpentry The Joys of Haggis

Ilan Hall has had an interesting six months, between the opening and closing and reopening of his downtown restaurant The Gorbals. But now that the building inspectors are finally happy with him--a problematic boiler necessitated the closing of The Gorbals after only a few days--he's opened for lunc ... More >>

Top Chef Season 6 Finale: And The Winner Is...

So the finale of Top Chef's sixth season came down to a showdown between the Voltaggio brothers. Surprise! If you didn't see that coming, you need to read up on basic story-telling. And (spoiler alert!) despite some last minute histrionics, the underdog won. Face it, it's more interesting to have th ... More >>

Brunch at The Bazaar: A New Chef de Cuisine, Liquid Nitrogen Clouds, José Andrés and Power Tools

Brunch at The Bazaar has always been fun, a playful procession of wacky dishes and foaming drinks in a setting that looks rather like a cross between Monty Python and Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette. Last week, José Andrés himself was in his fun-house, which considerably upped the rah-rah factor. ... More >>

Just Desserts: Top Chef Spin-off Show For Pastry Chefs Announced Today

Padma with chocolate​If you've been sitting through all those Top Chef elimination and Quickfire challenges just to get to the desserts, Bravo has the show for you. Today network executives announced that a Top Chef spin-off series has been picked up. Top Chef: Just Desserts (the same drill, o ... More >>

61st Emmys: Deja Vu All Over Again

Winner-watching with cynicism and subversion

Top Chef Masters Kitchen Toys: The Anti-Griddle

eBayThe Anti-Griddle: better than plastic​You know the Top Chef sets were seriously outfitted for the Top Chef Masters shows. You don't turn that crowd loose in a kitchen and not give them the good stuff. Mark Peel, Campanile chef-owner and recent Top Chef Masters alum, says that in addition t ... More >>

Mark Peel's New Cookbook: New Classic Family Dinners A Recipe for Cold Cucumber Soup

Amazon.comNew Classic Family Dinners​Mark Peel has had a busy summer. In addition to working on the new bar up the street from his La Brea Avenue restaurant Campanile, opening a new take-out place (more on both projects coming), competing in Top Chef Masters and appearing as a judge in the new ... More >>

Cooking With Kids, and Watching Movies With Them Too: The Joys of Ratatouille

PixarRatatouille ​If you have young kids, and have much spent time making sure they know their way around the kitchen, you probably know the drill. Buy them some kids' cookbooks, maybe sign them up for a kids' cooking class, invite their friends over for kitchen projects. My kids' have gone to ... More >>

A Night of Top Chef Programming on Bravo: Pack Your Knives First, Please

Photo credit: BravoTom & Padma​If you're a fan of Top Chef, you will be staying at home tonight, breathlessly munching on dishes you've perhaps cooked from one of Rick Bayless's books. Or Huber Keller's or Michael Chiarello's. Or maybe Tom Colicchio's or even Padma Lakshmi's (yes, two of them) ... More >>

End of Week Agenda: A Brimming, Ripe, Juicy Calendar

Mid-May is a busy time for food events around the L.A. area, y'all. To wit: California Strawberry FestivalBerrylicious funOnly about an hour drive north gets you to the California Strawberry Festival in Oxnard. The big, juicy, seasonal fun goes from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; general ... More >>

Cook, Lie and Sinker

Reality Survivors

Magical Elves