Top Chef (TV Show)

Everyone's a Food Critic: Kids, Cartoons, and Pugs

Every now and then us food writers are reminded that although our jobs are cool, we're not "all that and a bag of foie gras-flavored chips". So, when we heard that a Pug was the latest hot new food critic, we had to investigate him. True, he does an admirable job, but do you really trust a creature ... More >>

The Taste Premieres Tonight: Local Blogger Sarah Schiear is a Contestant

You've probably seen the promos for ABC's new show The Taste, which brings cook-offs into mainstream, prime time television with big names, a big set, and a recycled premise.The Taste, which premieres tonight at 8 p.m., features four celebrity judges who vote for chefs' dishes by taking one bite of ... More >>

Palm Beach Food & Wine Festival 2012 Offers Food Truck: Impossible Tickets

The Palm Beach Food & Wine Festival is this weekend, bringing celebrity chefs, amazing dinners, and lots of fine vino to south Florida. On the roster of events, which includes multiple parties, celebrities grilling at Burgers by the Beach, and a Grand Tasting, is the Golf Digest Celebrity Chef G ... More >>

Bravo's Andy Cohen Licks Chocolate Sauce Off Padma Lakshmi (Video)

Padma Lakshmi isn't only a pretty face. The hot Top Chef hostess also seems to be a major philanthropist.  Well, either that or she likes for men to eat and lick things off her body (not that we're complaining...do you hear us complaining?).Read Also: Padma Lakshmi Lets Man Eat Ham Off Her Body ... More >>

Palm Beach Food & Wine Festival 2012: LeCirque, Food Trucks, Celebrity Chefs

The Palm Beach Food & Wine Festival is still months away, but after a conversation with event organizer, David Sabin, we're looking forward to the day tickets go on sale.The festival, scheduled for December 7 to 11, is already attracting quite a list of celebrity chefs scheduled to appear at the ... More >>

A Florida Rum Distillery, Dark and Stormy in a Can, and Other Drink Links

Read on for today's roundup of Floridacentric links. Today's focus is on drinks.1. Wicked Dolphin Artisan Rum will be the newest booze made in Florida. Created from molasses, water, sugar, and yeast and distilled in aged barrels, the first batches from Cape Coral will be ready by May and distri ... More >>

SoBeWFF: Bite Gastrotruck, Rolling Stove, BC Tacos Party on the Beach

​The South Beach Wine & Food Festival's closing Trucks on the Beach party was a boisterous success. This was the first time the festival had a food-truckcentric party, though the New York Wine & Food Festival has had success with Trucks in the Park, a similar event.Travel Channel's Andrew ... More >>

SoBeWFF: Tickets Still Available for These Events

​There's no denying that the South Beach Wine and Food Festival is South Florida's premier foodie event. The four-day festival turns Miami into one giant celebrity-chef mosh pit -- where the likes of Paula Deen, Anthony Bourdain, Emeril Lagasse, and Rachael Ray all come together to mingle with fan ... More >>

Learn to Make Grilled Cheese With an Iron From "College & Cook"

Open publication - Free publishing"A college food magazine needs to exist," said Miamian Audrey Scagnelli in a dorm room at her alma mater, George Washington University. Scagnelli is founder of College & Cook, an online magazine assembled by undergrads from Florida Gulf Coast, Georgetown, Washin ... More >>

Lea Vendetta Hosts Inkmaster Viewing Party at Spin Ultra Lounge

​A review of the Inkmaster Screening Party at Spin Ultra Lounge in Boca Raton Tuesday night and an introduction of Lea Vendetta. Tuesday night, tattoo artist/painter Lea Vendetta was at a chic lounge in Boca Raton, yet a good chunk of people all over America fell in love with her -- that's the pow ... More >>

Top Chef: Mutherf**king Snakes on Some Mutherf**king Plates

Snakes on a mutherf**king plate. Tonight on Top Chef.​Can we love Padma Lakshmi more than we do today? It seems mutherf**king unlikely. We just got wind of the totally awesome preview for tonight's episode of Top Chef. With the cheftestants finally chosen after two throwaway episodes, the fun beg ... More >>

Top Chef's Gail Simmons: I'm Mary Ann; Padma Is Ginger

BravoGail Simmons uses a Gilligan's Island reference.​Top Chef judge Gail Simmons is writing a memoir.According to AdWeek, the 35-year-old chef, food writer, and Bravo celebrity wanted to tell her story of how she became a judge and host on two of Bravo's most popular shows.Of course, that's not a ... More >>

Top Chef Texas: Padma, Pee-wee, and the Alamo (Video)

​Top Chef season nine is coming to Bravo, and this time, we're in for beef, beef, beef as the cheftestants battle their way through the Lone Star State. Top Chef Texas promises to be more than "big hat, no cattle," from the look of the promo, in which we're promised 29 (!!!) cheftestants, Padma i ... More >>

Bravo's New Cooking Show Around The World in 80 Plates

NBC Universal Padma Lakshmi's not set to host Bravo's new show - we just like to look at her in lingere​For those of you not satisfied with Bravo's selection of food shows, of which Top Chef, Top Chef Masters, Top Chef Just Desserts and Rocco's Dinner Party comes to mind, the people at the ... More >>

Kevin Gillespie Cooking Demo Thursday at Publix Apron's Cooking School

McCun934 via Creative CommonsLearn about the fine art of fruit on the grill. ​ When Kevin Gillespie hits Boca Raton for a Thursday-night cooking demo at Publix Apron's Cooking School, celeb chef fanatics and Top Chef devotees will get a chance to rub tattooed shoulders (or forearms, as it were) w ... More >>

Top Chef's Padma Lakshmi Gets a Dance Remix

Top Chef's Padma Lakshmi's Remix - we dare you to not dance!​When we first saw this video, mixed by Bravo for Top Chef's hot host Padma Lakshmi, we knew we had to share it with our readers - if only to try to get the tune out of our heads by passing it on to someone else.  Entitled "Pa ... More >>

Top Chef Tour Coming to Fort Lauderdale, Miami

The Top Chef Tour is coming to South Florida​Top Chef, the reality cooking competition that turned the likes of Fabio Viviani, Carla Hall, Spike Mendelsohn and Brian Voltaggio into celebrities, is a weekly guilty pleasure for most of us. Sure, we can eat in the cheftestants' restaurants (a ... More >>

Top Chef's Carla Hall Wants You To Win $10,000 By Creating New Cat Food Recipe

Carla Hall cooking for cats.​Top Chef''s Carla Hall has a new gig (hint: it's not cooking for humans). Carla, the loveable contestant best known for putting "love" into her dishes on Bravo's reality show, is the new spokesperson for Fancy Feast cat food. In a video, Hall invites peopl ... More >>

Top Chef Masters Recap: Gettin' Squirmy With It

NBC/Universal​Bravo's Top Chef has (mostly) been a beacon of light in the dimly lit world of reality television. On Top Chef people are smart and driven and even though there are sharp knives and open flames, no one has been stabbed or set on fire purposely. Though some past chall ... More >>

Top Chef All-Star Sells Cookies Online

BravoTV.com​If you've ever watched Top Chef and thought, "Damn, that looks gooood! Wish I could try it!"  then your prayers have been answered! Top Chef All-Star and shoo-in for fan favorite this season, Carla Hall, now sells a little taste of Top Chef via her D.C.-based catering company,&nbs ... More >>

Interview with Chef and Top Chef Cheftestant Spike Mendelsohn- Part II

Laine Doss Spike Mendelsohn as The Hamburgler​Yesterday, we presented Part I of our interview with Top Chef's Spike Mendelsohn. If you missed it, you can view it here. We continue with our interview. Clean Plate Charlie: Do you have any plans for expanding Good Stuff Eatery outside of DC? ... More >>

Interview With Chef and Top Chef Cheftestant Spike Mendelsohn - Part I

Laine Doss​Spike Mendelsohn, the tall-hat-wearing, red-bearded contestant on Top Chef Season Four and Top Chef All-Stars, happens to own two fast-casual restaurants in D.C., We the Pizza and Good Stuff Eatery. Both restaurants buck the "fast food as junk food" concept and offer healthy farm ... More >>

Top Chef's Tom Colicchio and Wife Welcome New Baby

​Top Chef mentor, judge and hottie Tom Colicchio welcomed a brand new baby boy into the world yesterday. Tom tweeted that his wife Lori Silverbush gave birth to a 7.9 pound son, Mateo Lev Colicchio, yesterday at 12:11PM in New York City.  

Top Chef's Padma Lakshmi Gets Harrassed by Muppets

NBC Universal Padma likes her ribs​Top Chef hostess and hottie, Padma Lakshmi, has shared the Top Chef kitchen with many guest judges including Anthony Bourdain, Ted Allen, Rocco DiSpirito and Michelle Bernstein. Occasionally, the guest judge will be a celebrity or something annoying, like ... More >>

Healthy Sloppy Marios: A Recipe From Top Chef's Fabio Viviani

NBC Universal Top Chef's Fabio Viviani​This week we featured a two-part interview with Top Chef contestant and chef Fabio Viviani, who's e-book "Did I Really Make Breakfast?" is available on Amazon.com. Check out the other parts here and here. Here is Fabio's take on the classic Sloppy Joe. ... More >>

How Much Would You Pay for the Burger of Your Life?

luxist.comThe FleurBurger 5000!​Did you say $5,000?

Interview with Chef and Top Chef Cheftestant Fabio Viviani - Part II

NBC Universal Fabio Viviani Dishes For Us​We're continuing our interview with Top Chef contestant and chef, Fabio Viviani. Part one of the interview can be seen here.

Q&A With Chef and Top Chef Cheftestant Fabio Viviani - Part I

NBC Universal Fabio Viviani ​If you watch Top Chef, you know Fabio Viviani. This cheftestant from season five might not have walked away with the title, but his clever quips delivered in broken English, his charm, and his skills made him a fan favorite and brought him back for the cur ... More >>

Top Chef Recap: A Tom Colicchio Smackdown (He Is So Hot)

NBC Universal Tom Colicchio​Top Chef is probably Bravo's last and only foray into "real" reality television. For eight seasons we've gotten to enjoy the drama of cooking rather than drunken behavior, screaming matches and random hookups (though the show has had its fair share of all t ... More >>

"Kings of Pastry" Is the Cream Puff of Documentaries

Must-See TV: Six Food Shows We'd Like to Watch in 2011

​Anyone who's watched food TV since its inception has seen a steady evolution of the medium, from a staid Mario Batali cooking for three friends to Gordon Ramsay going batshit in Kitchen Nightmares to the snarky food soap opera that's Top Chef to Adam Richman snarfing down burritos as thick and lo ... More >>

Make These Winning Top Chef Banana Fritters at Home

​Last night's episode of Top Chef that took place in Singapore was easily the best of the season. It featured a series of stunning looking dishes from all four remaining cheftestants that were cooked in a backdrop full of beauty and culture. Everything looked so tasty, it made me want to hop a fli ... More >>

Top Chef's Kenny Gilbert Moves Into PGA National

​If you've been keeping up with Top Chef this season, you've seen that one of the front runners to win the whole season is chef Kenny Gilbert. Each week, Kenny's deep, complex food seems to land him in the running for a Quickfire or Elimination win. And even in those group challenges where Kenny s ... More >>

2010 James Beard Winners Announced

​Last week, the James Beard Foundation announced its 2010 winners for food media and restaurants. Although South Florida had a few dogs in the race, Broward and Palm Beach didn't come up with any wins. But Miami's own Michael Schwartz of Michael's Genuine Food & Drink managed to snag Best Chef ... More >>

Doggie Bag: This Week in Charlie

C. StilesA lomo saltado sandwich from this week's Behind the Line slideshow of Bravo Gourmet Sandwich Shop.​This week on the blog:A fish wagon-turned-shack makes the best burger in Key West.You say banana, I say banana pancakes.We roll through six more of our 100 Favorite Dishes this week, startin ... More >>

Top Chef 7 Florida Casting, In Pictures

Jacob KatelProspective Top Chef contestants shoot the shit while they wait their turn to see the casting director.​Top Chef 7 is officially on its way to your signal box, and Magical Elves, the production company behind the hit Bravo series, was in Miami on Sunday looking for talent. Prospective ... More >>

Latitudes Beach Café Makes Us Wonder About that Top Chef Thing

Anatomy of a Bad Meal at Latitudes Beach Cafe

John LinnMiso sea bass at Latitudes: Oh, the humanity.​Last week I checked out Ron Duprat's restaurant in the Hollywood Beach Marriott, Latitudes Beach Cafe. I high hopes for Duprat's food after catching the Haitian-born chef on this season of the Bravo series Top Chef, even if longtime critic Gai ... More >>

Top Chef Ron Duprat Cooks For Charity at Whole Foods

John LinnChef Ron in the kitchen at Whole Foods' Lifestyle Center.​He was running a few minutes late, but once Chef Ron Duprat arrived at Whole Foods' Lifestyle Center on Saturday night, he got right to business. Scuttling through the door in his bright red Birkenstocks, Duprat introduced himself ... More >>

Ron Duprat's Top Chef Recap, Episode Four

​Welcome once again to the Ron Duprat Top Chef Las Vegas recap. If you'd like to catch up, read the first, second, and third recaps while we wait here. Back? Great! Here's what the fourth episode had in store for Hollywood's favorite cooking show reality show contestant.This week's episode was cle ... More >>

Doggie Bag: This Week in Charlie

​ Melted, fatty goodness was en vogue this week on Clean Plate Charlie. The above pic hailed from our post on the Big Bear Bistro Burger, New Times' best burger of 2009. Check out what else you missed this week on CPC below. The Meatist returns again this week to talk about the benefits of dry-agi ... More >>

Ron Duprat's Top Chef Recap Episode One

​Episode two of the new Top Chef Las Vegas premiered last night, which means we've seen Hollywood Beach Marriott Executive Chef Ron Duprat twice now on the program. Each week, we're going to recap what happened to the Haitian native Duprat on the show -- and maybe point out some funny stuff too. I ... More >>

Restaurant News: Top Chef, Bad Karma, Fire & Ice Cream

Photo by Flickr user Dots Treats CupcakesJust don't order the toasted coconut.​• Fire and ice cream is not a happy marriage, as the folks at Palm Beach's Sprinkles ice cream shop found out last weekend. A kitchen fire gutted the shop, which not only dishes everyone's favorite hot-weather treat b ... More >>

Food Season on the Boob Tube

Move over, Rachael; there are some new shows in town.​It seems as if food has become almost as popular a subject for television programming as reality shows -- when the two are combined, like on Top Chef, Kitchen Nightmare's, and Hell's Kitchen, the result is stratospheric. To be honest, I've neve ... More >>

Feed me, Colicchio

Last Night: Anthony Bourdain at the Arsht Center

This man loves Mac's Club Deuce. (Reason No. 293 why we love this man.) Better Than: Pounding cheap beers between a soul-crushing double on the saute station. The evidence, plainly, is undeniable: the best-selling books, the top-rated Travel Channel Show, the Top Chef judging gigs. Hell, even t ... More >>

Top Chef Fires Up Tonight With SoBe Chef

Chowhounds, Get Ready for Top Chef Finale

The Television Hi-Life

Carlos Fernandez may flop on Top Chef, but his restaurant usually holds up.