top chef…where are they now?

As the seventh season of Top Chef draws near (the premier is June 16th in DC…hooray!), I thought it’d be nice to write about my latest encounter with a Top Chef chef!

A few weeks ago I made a visit to Harold Dieterle’s restaurant, Perilla, tucked away on a quiet little street in the West Village.

Harold, for those of you who don’t remember, was the winner of season one way back in 2006.  After my last visit to his cozy little restaurant (the first was for brunch which was also fantastic), I will boldly claim that he his the most successful of all the Top Chef winners.

Shall we review?

Season #1 Harold Dieterle: Owner, Executive Chef at Perilla, NYC (one star by NY Times critic, Frank Bruni)
Season #2 Ilan Hall: Owner, Executive Chef at Gorbal, LA (two stars by LA Times critic, S. Irene Virbila)
Season #3 Hung Huynh: Executive Chef at Ajna (formerly known as Buddha Bar), NYC
Season #4 Stephanie Izzard: Opening a small plates restaurant called “Girl and the Goat” in 2010, Chicaco
Season #5 Hosea Rosenberg: Executive Chef at Jax Fish House, Denver (ironically, Hosea made a trip to my very own HKG as documented on his blog, just a few weeks ago!)
Season #6 Michael Voltaggio: Executive Chef at The Dining Room, Pasedena

OK, so perhaps my claim was completely biased and utterly unfounded…it seems as though each Top Chef has been successful in their own way.

But Harold is still my fave

Let me show you why…

The above is a farro risotto with artichoke compote, parmesan and a chilled grape salad.  I love risotto of any kind, but I especially love when dishes use a variation of the traditional risotto rice grain.  And farro is this wonderfully nutty, crunchy grain that just reeks of hearty goodness.

Coupled with the oozing, creamy parmesan – delightful! It was so modestly presented in the stainless steel pan that one could easily disregard it as a frivoulous side.  But no, this dish was worthy of being the main star, a center of attention.

The above picture, dear readers, is probably the reason for all this “Harold is my hero” nonsense.  Tea smoked duck with bok choi and brown rice.

The duck was so robust and so smokey, I could have sworn it was slathered in BBQ sauce.  The crispy skin was juicy and added that wonderful duck flavor that only skin can.  The entire peice was tender and succulent…ahh, it’s making my mouth water right now!

Sadly, this wasn’t my entree so I only had a few bites, but I was enviously eying Lisa as she enjoyed it.

Absolutely amazing.

My dish was a grilled branzino with spicy cumin lamb cubes and water chesnuts.  I think I may have set this dish up for failure in my own mind when I began to expect insanely spicy BBQ lamb like the stuff from the Xin Jiang lamb cart in Flushing.

When I eagerly tasted a piece of the lamb, it was disappointingly subtle and refined – unlike the Xin Jian meat for sure.  The fish, however, was cooked very well.  And as most white fish go, it  the flavors of the sauce and plate very well.

I especially liked the water chestnuts scattered about the plate, plus those other small nods towards Eastern ingredients (tea, bok choi, cumin).

To end the evening, we split a simple dessert of banana upside down cake with salty caramel ice cream.  Say salt and caramel and I’m pretty sure Lisa and I will always say yes!

The cake was delicious, but I couldn’t get my mind off that duck!…

Oh, and the fact that Harold D. himself was standing but three feet away from our table also made it a tad bit difficult to concentrate on the sweets at hand.

Sadly, I didn’t brave the embarassment to snap a quick paparazzi shot, nor did I have the balls to ask for a picture with the chef, but I did have a huge goofy smile on my face as he was chatting with some good friends at the bar.  That counts, right?

To leave us extra satisfied, we were given two small petit fours – little toffee cookies.

I often say that a good restaurant in my eyes is one that I would visit again.  In New York, there are simply too many places to discover to go visiting the same mediocre restaurants over and over again!

Well, I can say with absolute certainty that I will definitely go back to Perilla.  If one small side of risotto can make me swoon, and one tea smoked duck can totally blow my mind – imagine what else there is to discover!

mezze with michael

Minutes before another episode of Top Chef, I think it’s only fitting to tell you all about a restaurant I visited this past weekend and a celebrity chef I happened to meet.

I’ll give you two guesses who it was.

Clue #1: No, it wasn’t Tom Coliccio. I wish!
Clue #2: He may have been the first contestant in Top Chef history to have been on the winning team of an elimination challenge and on the losing team facing elimination.

Ok, I’ll tell you. While happily dining on some Medeterranean mezze (small plates/tapas) at Zaytinya in Washington DC, executive chef Michael Isabella graced our table with his presence and schmoozed us up a little.  Still don’t know who I’m talking about? OK…

This is the professional picture:

This is my sneaky paparazzi picture (I mean, what respectable food blogger asks for a picture with the chef?):

Michael Isabella in the flesh!

After my sneaky pic, Michael come over to our table and politely answered some of our questions. And no, he did not tell us the winner. But I speculate that he did not win as he mentioned being around the resto for “years to come.” That and he cooked some god awful shrimp last week.

OK, enough gossip. Let’s get to the real reason we’re all here…the food!

Stuffed eggplant

Chicken with orzo in a tomato sauce

Octopus santorini (grilled octopus)

Grilled lamb chops

Crispy skirt steak

It was a delicious meal.  The grilled lamb was certainly best, and the chicken with orzo is becoming my new favorite dish to order (well, anything with orzo that is).  While the waiter was taking away our plates, Joe Mitchell casually mentioned that I was a “NY food blogger.”  After a short exchange about some of the great new Greek restaurants in NYC (Anthos/Anthos Upstairs, Kefi), I fooled this guy into thinking I was a real food blogger!

Wait. I am a real food blogger.  Well, anyway, he obviously thought I was more important than I was because he returned with dessert – free of charge!  It was some sort of deconstructed something, and honestly it was a little too conceptual for me.  But hey, free food is good food.

Chocolate visne

It’s 9:45 and we’re just in time for some Top Chef…can’t wait to see Michael Isabella on TV!  To think, I actually spoke to him! Uh, I mean…it was fun, but it’s not like I was starstruck or anything.  C’mon, what real food blogger gets star struck?

another one bites the dust

Unfortunately we said goodbye to one of my Top Chef top picks last night.

Preeti Mistry was voted off Top Chef Las Vegas after insisting that the pasta salad she and Laurine (another pick of mine!) was actually good despite the judge’s disagreement. 

It looks like my girl Jen is shaping up to be the fiercest competition for the men…I could see it in her I-dont-take-no-bull stare.  With Eric Ripert on her resume, I”m not surprised.  Word is, she was “hand picked” by Mr. Ripert to be Chef de Cuisine (Executive Chef) of his 10 Arts at the Ritz Hotel in Philly.  Now that’s a referral.  My question is, does Jen have enough personality to shine past the rest and really convince the judges that she is a Top Chef?

Of the Voltaggio brothers, Michael (yep, picked him too!) is also turning out to be a top contender.  His style is cutting-edge, innovative and pretty darn creative.  Remember his “rack” of lamb representing the sin of lust?  And nitro gazpacho with compressed cucumbers? Excuse me, is that even food? Last night he won the elimination challenge, impressing Tom himself with his braised “pork belly”…aka bacon.  This guy certainly thinks outside the box.

Another contestant I didn’t notice until yesterday was Kevin Gillespie.  Granted, he has won an elimination challenge already, but his passion for creating delicious comfort food really struck me yesterday.  I completley appreciate his style and his food because it is delicate enough to be fine dining, but bold enough to be a good ole’ plate of comfort food.

This season is definitely showing more promise than last, and I”m excited to see these three chefs battle it out down the road.  My money is still on Jennifer but only time will tell!

To read an absolutely hilarious review of the episode, click here.

your time starts…NOW!

It’s finally here! Top Chef is back and it’s all going down in sin city this season.  After a disappointing run in NYC (the foodie capital of the world, can you beat that?!) I’m hoping that Vegas will redeem the judge’s table.  I’ve learned that the premier is going to run 15 minutes longer than the rest of the season.  That’s 900 extra seconds of Padma, Tom, Gail, and Toby speaking my favorite language - food! And it’s all going down tonight at 9 EST on Bravo.

After some reasearch online about this year’s contestants (all 17 of them), I’ve narrowed down my selection to a few promising chefs.  While trying not to “judge a chef by his/her haircut” (if you’ve seen any season of Top Chef, you’ll know what I mean), here is my list of faves:

Preeti Mistry | Age: 33 | San Francisco, CA

Jennifer Carrol | Age: 33 | Philadelphia, PA

Laurine Wicket | Age: 38 | Rochester, NY

As you can see, I’m rooting for the women.  We need more women chefs out there!

I do want to mention a few other contestants.  As I did my research, I learned that 2 of the contestants are actually brothers!  Michael and Bryan Voltaggio will be living out a true sibling rivalry on the show.  My money is on Michael, the winner of a Michelin star and friend of Marcel and Hung (season 3 Top Chef) – any friend of Hung’s is a friend of mine! Both look to be pretty talented, so we’ll see if my girls can hold them off.

****SPOILER ALERT****

If you DON’T want to know what happens tonight…I’ll leave you here and bid you good watching!

If you DO want to know what happens tonight, I can tell you that the Elimination challenge takes place in Wolfgang Puck’s steakhouse Cut and the challenge will be to create a dish based on a personal sin. We could learn a lot more about our cheftants than we thought tonight! Puck will be a guest judge tonight and there will be teams selected by poker chips.  Vegas, baby!

So there you have it.  Just a few more hours and the fun will begin.  Happy watching!