Like many chefs, Susan Holt and Susan Watterson dreamed of owning a place. They just didn’t want to spend 18 hours a day in a restaurant. So the former instructors at Gaithersburg’s L’Acadamie de Cuisine, created what they knew best: a cooking school.

The recently opened CulinAerie is targeted at a new generation of foodies who think of chefs as celebrities and farmers markets as social meeting spots. Some of the hands-on classes have ethnic themes—Persian, Far East fusion—and other sessions cover basics  cake making and knife skills. The calendar also features lunchtime lectures with talks on food writing, nutrition, and throwing a dinner party.

Just Fabio-lous. (Italia!)

As our latest episode opens, we get a glimpse of the cheftestants’ Brooklyn digs: sleek wood tables, modern couches—what is this, The Real World? Actually, it’s more like the Fabio show: The cameras stay so focused on him, we almost forget there are other contestants.

Fabio, who incidentally is William Shatner’s private chef, and Stefan immediately start talking about one another when each is alone in front of the camera, but we love the Italian’s quote: “It’s not how many dragons you kill; it’s who takes home the princess—and I go for princess.”

Fabio’s in luck: The guest judge is flouncy-haired New York restaurateur Donatella Arpaia, an Italian who seems to have an affinity for her countrymen. But will Fabio’s background be a handicap in the quick-fire challenge? The cheftestants have 45 minutes to make a hot dog that’ll be judged against one from the beloved Domenick’s Hot Dogs in Queens. The pint-size Angelina D’Angelo wheels in her street cart, waves hello, and is silent for the rest of her ten minutes on the show. We want to know why Arpaia and her blond mane get to judge the wieners when D’Angelo is the real expert.

Spike's ready to spill about "Top Chef."

We’re eagerly awaiting Wednesday night’s premiere of the fifth season of Top Chef, filmed in New York City. (New York magazine tells us it’s mainly in Brooklyn.) We can’t wait to see the drama that unfolds among the 17 new “cheftestants,” whom we’ll overanalyze and obsessively critique (that’s the fun part, right?) in our weekly recaps.

There’ll be so much fodder for gossip (Which cheftestants will be eighty-sixed first? What’s in the cards for hometown girl Carla Hall, who runs a catering company in DC? How do you feel about new judge and professional alienator Toby Young?) and you can talk about it right here on Thursday morning at 11 AM with Top Chef alum and Good Stuff Eatery owner Spike Mendelsohn, who’ll be in for a live chat. So ask him anything! He’ll open up about his own experiences on the show as well as the new season.

Submit your questions here. 

This Fall marks three years since Todd launched his chat on Washingtonian.com.

Three years? We know, we can't believe it either—time flies when you're talking food.

To celebrate this anniversary, we'd like to host another contest for the loyal readers of Kliman Online.

We're asking you to tap into your knowledge of Todd's tastes and devise the perfect three-course meal for our far-ranging and passionate restaurant critic.

Entering is simple. We just want you to create what would be Todd's favorite meal ever. Just list three dishes from three local restaurants—one for each course—and give a brief description of why you think Todd would enjoy them. The menu that captures what Todd loves most about Washington dining will win a gift certificate worth $150 to the Italian trattoria Notti Bianche in Foggy Bottom.

Send entries to: candrews@washingtonian.com with the subject line "Todd's three-course dinner." The winner will be decided on November 17.

Photograph courtesy of Bravo.

We love us some Top Chef. But season after season, it’s the same old story. There are cheftestants from New York, Chicago, and LA but never DC (and no, Spike doesn’t count—he moved here after the fact). This time, though, we’ll finally have a hometowner to root for: Carla Hall, owner of Alchemy Caterers, will duke it out in New York with 16 other candidates for the $100,000 prize and so-far dubious honor.

The 44-year-old Hall graduated from Howard University’s business school with an accounting degree, then ditched the corporate world to model in Europe. Ironically, it was then, she says, that she fell in love with food. Her cooking style “balances the heart and soul of the South and the refinement of her classic French training,” says BravoTV.
 

Top Chef fans: Remember the tapioca “caviar” that hyperactive contestant Andrew D’Ambrosi made repeatedly last season? During the zoo challenge, he served balsamic tapioca on top of squid ceviche. Then, he whipped up a soy version for the collaborative smoked-salmon dish he made with Richard and Dale. Tom, Padma and crew loved the faux fish eggs . . . and so do we. After a recent meal at 701 in Penn Quarter, we raved to chef Bobby Varua about his crispy tempura-tuna roll, a beautiful dish strewn with tapioca pearls that bursted with soy sauce flavor. Had we seen those somewhere before? Turns out, D’Ambrosi learned the technique from Varua. “He was my sous-chef at China Grill in New York,” Varua told us with a laugh. “I didn’t give him too hard of a time about it.”

701 Restaurant, 701 Pennsylvania Ave., NW; 202-393-0701; 701restaurant.com

Crowds eager for a taste of Spike Mendelsohn’s burgers have waited in lines stretching down the block for the past week, but the former Top Chef contestant’s Good Stuff Eatery (303 Pennsylvania Ave., SE) hosted its official opening party Monday night. Spike and his family—mom, dad, and sis are co-owners—closed the restaurant for the evening and rolled out a red carpet for a few special VIPs: fellow Top Cheffers Antonia Lofaso, Lisa Fernandes, and Stephanie Izard, last season’s lovable winner. The red carpet and ribbon cutting seemed a bit ridiculous for a burger joint, but Spike’s clearly having fun with his newfound “celebrity” status.

These newly minted reality-TV stars mingled with friends, food media, and a few local chefs while sampling slider-size versions of Good Stuff’s burgers, little paper cones of fries, and miniature milkshakes. For those not in the mood for the super-sweet toasted-marshmallow shake, Champagne was flowing.

In person, the cheftestants came across as . . . well, pretty much the same as they did on TV. We don’t buy all the grumbling about Bravo’s editing. Check out our video interviews and photo slide show from the party.