Subject: Top Chef (TV Show)

• SF Weekly's 7-Day Dish

  February 14, 2008

• Attention Faux-Hawks: Top Chef Casting Call

  April 21, 2008

• Vittles du Video

  Throughout my television-viewing life there have been certain programs that I've obsessed over, planned my schedule around, discussed with my fellow zealots over water cooler and barstool and, in short, made a point to watch without fail, but nowadays there's only one show I can't live without, Top Chef, a reality show on Bravo. On Top Chef, a dozen or so line cooks, restaurant owners, caterers and cuisiniers from across the country gather in some food-obsessed metropolis (San Francisco, New Yor

  February 11, 2009

• Orson Not Well

  Ambitious, edgy California cuisine flirts with the future in uneven fashion.

  July 23, 2008

• Bewiched

  A top chef expands his brand, and we follow

  November 29, 2006

• Work in Progress

  Our early responder finds some good things to eat among some chaff at S.F.'s new retail paradise

  October 11, 2006

• Twitter-Size Recipes: Jen Biesty

  If you think you recognize the executive chef of Scala's Bistro (432 Powell at Post) wihtout ever having eaten there, it's because Jen Biesty competed on the fourth season of Bravo's Top Chef in 2008, where she cooked meals inspired by penguins and the film Il Postino. SFoodie challenged Biesty to create a recipe the length of a Twitter message; she responded with a squid salad in two tasty tweets: Pt. 1 (Squid salad): Squid rings & tentacles sauteed over hi heat w/few whole grlc dried chillis

  May 12, 2009

• Hubert Keller Wins First Top Chef Masters Episode with Dorm-Room Mac and Cheese

  On last night's premiere of Top Chef Masters, Hubert Keller, executive chef/owner of Fleur de Lys (777 Sutter at Taylor) charmed a gaggle of Girl Scouts and a mess of college students and whipped up the winning meal: Cold Scottish salmon, hardy carrot and petit pea soup with cinnamon croutons, and creamy mac and cheese with prawns, mushrooms, and fresh herbs (recipes are here). His victory scored $10,000 for the Bay Area chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Keller will compete against the w

  June 11, 2009

• S.F. Chef Falkner Takes on 'Top Chef Masters' with Boar, Beef Jerky, and Extra-Credit Cookies

  S.F.'s own Elizabeth Falkner (pictured, second from left, with Wylie Dufresne, Graham Elliot Bowles, and Suzanne Tracht) competed in last night's episode of Bravo's Top Chef Masters. And while she didn't win (that honor went to Tracht), the Orson/Citizen Cake maven's dishes were certainly memorable.The episode's first Quickfire Challenge, taken from an early season of Top Chef, had the chefs hitting up vending machines to find ingredients to make an amuse-bouche. Falkner's creation: Braised

  June 18, 2009

• Ten Gourmet Hot Dogs That'll Make You Sit Up and Beg

  A dog with ketchup and mustard? Nothing wrong with that, but sometimes you crave a bit more refinement than the classic red hot provides. There's a whole of craving going on these days -- gourmet wieners are poised to become a national (even an international) phenom, and that's just fine with us. Behold our list of the 10 best gastro-dogs currently gracing buns in San Francisco and beyond. Eat and enjoy -- cocked pinky optional. 1. Foie Gras and Duck Sausage with Truffle

  July 1, 2009

• Our Handicap for 'Top Chef' Season 6: Will S.F. Root for the East Bay's Little Bear?

  Ash Fulk/Facebook Ash Fulk: Will the Bay Area native prove a local fave? In case you've turned to reading and misanthropy lately, allow us to break the news that Season 6 of Top Chef begins on Bravo tonight (9 p.m., channel 48 on Comcast). It's based in Sin City this time around, so expect plenty of guest-judge star chefs with namesake Vegas eateries flogging Quick Fire prizes that include, oh, autographed books and signature cookware. (Could this be the moment the rather scary Bradley Og

  August 19, 2009

• Preeti Mistry of 'Top Chef' Season Six: The SFoodie Interview

  Bravo TV​We were worried when local girl Preeti Mistry turned to her three colleagues last week during the first Quickfire Challenge of Top Chef Las Vegas -- a mise-en-place battle for which she'd have to open 15 clams before others on her team could move on to other tasks, including trimming a rib eye. Mistry said, "It's the same as an oyster, right? Clams?" Virgin clam-shucker Mistry, an executive chef at Bon Appétit Management Company who runs Charlie's Café at Google in Mountain Vi

  August 26, 2009

• Laurine Wickett of 'Top Chef': The SFoodie Interview

  Left Coast CateringWickett: Not exactly in love with Vegas.​The 38-year-old Rochester, New York, native has an earthy, tousled vibe that makes you think of a Montessori teacher sipping post-pilates soy chais in Cole Valley. When she arrived in S.F. in 1990, Wickett started cooking at long-defunct Ernie's. By 1999, she helped create the pastry department at Delfina, even as she was landing catering gigs of her own. In the two episodes of Top Chef Season Six that have aired so far, the chef

  September 2, 2009

• Local Gal Preeti Mistry Got Canned from 'Top Chef' Last Night. We Have Her Exit Interview

  Bravo TVPlanning to launch a taco truck?​Watching last night's episode of Top Chef, we were nervous as soon as we saw our two S.F. homegirls --- teamed up for the big feed-the-troops challenge -- preparing pasta salad. With bowties and sundried tomatoes, no less! Oy. Meanwhile, the competition was braising slabs of bacon, roasting loins of beef, and barbecuing pork shoulder, while little Jen took command of the whole brigade like a four-star general. When we talked to Preeti Mistry last we

  September 3, 2009

• Mattin Noblia of 'Top Chef': The SFoodie Interview

  ModelMayhemThe French-born chef isn't without cheesy model shots.​An ooh-la-la, scarf-wearing dirty blond, 29-year-old Biarritz native Mattin Noblia is the Frenchy eye candy -- complete with model portfolio -- of Top Chef Season Six. He opened his own restaurant, Iluna Basque, in North Beach, at the tender age of 23, featuring the cooking of Southwestern France, replete with Spanish influences. Bonus: His tattoos (irises and butterflies) are among the sweetest we've ever seen -- check out

  September 9, 2009

• 'Top Chef' Postmort: Mattin Gets Drunk and Cocky, Then Cocks up His Velouté

  ModelMayhemMaybe he should've stuck with modeling. Or not.​S.F.'s own Mattin Noblia, chef-proprietor of Iluna Basque, did not cover himself with glory (or even the tricoleur) in last night's French-themed episode of Top Chef. The escargot Quickfire challenge pleased him: "I feel good," he said. "I'm from France, you know. Escargot is my whole youth!" Yet his dish, fava bean crostini with escargot sautéed in anise and the piment d'Espelette he told us reminds him of his mom, failed to el

  September 10, 2009

• Top Chef's Ash Fulk Got Kicked to the Curb. He's Not Bitter -- Except About Padma

  Fulk: He won't be inviting Padma over for snacks.​In case you were glued to Glee last night, you missed Ash Fulk getting bounced from Top Chef. Fulk might be the nicest contestant ever. "I was outcooked," he said this morning by phone. And he wouldn't diss anybody on the show -- except for Padma. More on that later. Born and bred in Pleasant Hill in the East Bay, Fulk worked as a prep cook at LMNO in Oakland (now defunct), did catering for the California Shakespeare Festival in Orinda, th

  October 15, 2009

• S.F.'s Laurine Wickett Got Canned from Top Chef Last Night. Now She's Cooking Up an Homage to Balls

  Bravo TVWickett: Not totally bummed about getting axed.​Laurine Wickett of San Francisco's Left Coast Catering made it all the way to Episode Nine on Top Chef, last night's infamous Restaurant Wars competition, by pretty much flying below the radar. Things looked tense in Episode Three, when the notorious pasta salad she helped concoct at an air force base sent fellow San Franciscan Preeti Mistry home. But though Wickett never won a challenge in the ensuing weeks, she never lost one either

  October 22, 2009

• Bay Links: Scarifying Halloween Edition

  This will unavoidable this Halloween.​Spooky Muni! [Muni Diaries]Trick or Treat! Who wants to live in a candy factory? [Curbed]Absolutely ridiculous photo collection of pets in costume. [SF Gate]Need a last minute costume idea? Go as the entire city of San Francisco. [The Tens]Snarf, Kris Kringle...Who should Top Chef's Kevin Gillespie be for Halloween? [Grubstreet]Chilling: School trips to Angel Island will be almost bathroom-less. [The Bay Area NYT]This guy dressed up as his blog post about

  October 30, 2009