Magical Elves, the production company behind Top Chef, held its first Washington casting call this morning at the Occidental Grille. The company is currently casting for the next season of the Bravo TV show as well as its pastry-focused spinoff, Top Chef: Just Desserts. With three local contestants on the current season of the show, we were expecting to see a mob of chefs lined up outside the restaurant as early as 9 this morning—casting ran from 10 to 2—but we found only a handful of hopefuls, mostly from outside the Washington area. We chatted with a few of the wannabe cheftestants.
Tomorrow, look for a line of white coats outside the Occidental in downtown DC. The restaurant is one of seven national locations where Magical Elves, the production team behind Top Chef, is holding a casting call for the show’s next season. We want to know who you think should show up. Which Washington toques have the chops to join Carla Hall, the Voltaggio brothers, and Mike Isabella as cheftestants? And which pastry chefs would you want to root for on the forthcoming Top Chef spinoff, Just Desserts? Let us know in the comments!
This season’s Top Chef features a number of contestants with local ties, among them Zaytinya chef Mike Isabella. On the show, he’s made his fair share of controversial comments. About a month ago he got married, and last Sunday the Washington Post told the story of his relationship, showing a softer side to the 34-year-old chef. We’ve heard rumblings of Top Chef viewers who are so turned off by Isabella’s attitude that they’ve vowed never to visit Zaytinya again. What do you think? Are a chef’s comments on a reality show enough to turn you away from his or her restaurant? Or has the Bravo show’s editing turned Isabella into something he’s not? Let us know in the comments!
Bravo just posted the cheftestant bios for its hit cooking competition/Glad ad Top Chef, and there are not one but three players with Washington ties. That’s big for a show that in all its seasons has given us only caterer Carla Hall to root for as a hometown prospect. (Spike Mendelsohn was living in New York during his stint on the show.) And Bravo’s thrown in another twist of novelty: Two of those three are brothers. There’s Bryan Voltaggio, longtime chef de cuisine at Charlie Palmer Steak, now chef/owner of the Frederick destination restaurant Volt, and little bro Michael Voltaggio, who impressed as chef at the Greenbrier’s Hemisphere and is now chef de cuisine at José Andrés’s many-starred Los Angeles restaurant, Bazaar. Also competing is Mike Isabella, chef de cuisine at another Andrés restaurant, DC’s Zaytinya.
Elizabeth WILL cut you. Photograph courtesy of Bravo
Last night, the second installment of Top Chef Masters pitted four more celebrity chefs against each other: Wiley Dufresne, the mutton-chopped molecular gastronomer behind New York's WD-50; Elizabeth Falkner, the Susan Powter-haired owner of San Francisco's Citizen Cake; Graham Elliott Bowles, a tattooed Chicago chef that calls his cooking style "punk rock"; and Suzanne Tracht, a Los Angeles chef who looks like she's spent some time in Lindsay Lohan's tanning bed. In other words, plenty of fodder for our IM conversation during the show.
He can cook and juggle? OK, maybe just the latter. Photograph courtesy of Bravo.
Last night, we sat down and watched the premiere of Top Chef Masters, a Top Chef spinoff featuring world-renowned chefs battling it out in the name of charity. We were so excited about the show that we decided to chat about it in real time with one of our fellow After Hours bloggers. Turns out, a great cause does not necessarily make great television. Here’s what we had to say about the show’s first episode.
Let’s be honest: We all went into last night’s finale thinking it would be a clear win for Stefan, but here in Washington everyone crossed their fingers and said a little prayer for our hometown girl, Carla. Hosea cruised into the finals only because the producers loved that he caused drama with Stefan, right?
Here’s the chefs’ challenge: Cook the best three-course meal of your life, and do it in the kitchen of the venerable New Orleans restaurant Commander’s Palace. Surprise, surprise—the cheftestants will have help. Casey, Marcel, and Richard, three also-rans from previous Top Chef seasons, saunter in. Stefan grabs Marcel to form Team Mean, Hosea goes for molecular-gastronomy whiz Richard, and Carla’s pumped to have Casey.
When the chefs begin to prep, Hosea tries to hoard all the foie gras, causing a shouting match with Stefan. Casey convinces Carla to cook a New York strip-loin sous-vide, a method using sealed plastic bags and a circulating water bath . . . and one that Carla’s never done. Eek, Carla—stick to your guns!
Gone are the robust bureaus for the Los Angeles Times, Newhouse News, and other once-healthy news organizations. Digital media bureaus now are taking their places with as many reporters and plenty of swagger.
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Though Ann Limpert graduated from Connecticut College with a degree in art history and creative writing, she spent most of her time in New England debating the merits of warm, buttery lobster rolls vs. cold, mayo-y ones. She spent two years covering the internet for Entertainment Weekly magazine (highlights include interviewing the Beastie Boys and dancing to "Livin' la Vida Loca" with Penn Jillette), then left to hone her kitchen skills at the Institute of Culinary Education. She has worked as a cook at several New York restaurants, researched and edited cookbooks, and now writes about food and restaurants for the Washingtonian.
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Kate Nerenberg
Kate Nerenberg started as an editorial intern at The Washingtonian in January 2008 and became an assistant editor in September 2008. A native of West Hartford, Connecticut, she spent the first half of her writing life as a sports reporter, and was the editor of the athletics section for the newspaper and student-run magazine while at Middlebury College. A joint Spanish and Art History major, Kate graduated in 2005 and took off on a year-long journey around the world. After tasting everything from fried crickets to lavish Turkish breakfasts, she realized she wanted to devote herself to writing about food, a lifelong passion. She lives with three roommates just east of Logan Circle in a house that's often filled with the smell of sauteed garlic, warm banana bread, or fried bacon and eggs.
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Rina Rapuano
Rina Rapuano's English degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond put her on the path to becoming a managing editor of a weekly business magazine; a freelance copy editor; and assistant managing news editor—and later the lifestyles editor—at a weekly paper in Maryland. But she realized her true calling when her descriptions of meals to friends and colleagues always seemed to end with the same statement: “You're making me hungry.” Frankly, it was making Rina hungry, too. She chucked her day job in 2006 to become a full-time freelance writer focusing mainly on food, and now works as assistant food and wine editor at The Washingtonian.
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