Huzzah! The new season of Top Chef is upon us tonight! Washington, D.C. will be the host city for this season's culinary showdown among 17 chef'testants from all over the country. Tom, Gail, and Padma return sans Toby Young but with world renown chef Eric Ripert in tow.
From the video previews below, it looks like my Top Chef stereotypes are shaping up nicely. I believe I've already pegged The Whiny One, The Strong (sometimes bitchy) Female, The Crybaby, and there seems to be a hybridization of The Old One and The Hippie (read more below).
Their first challenge is to create a dish that represents the region they're from and the second video (below) shows them scrambling for ingredients around — you guessed it — a Whole Foods Market. Much like "the chicken or the egg" conundrum, I'm wondering if the producers choose their shooting locations based on if there's a Whole Foods in town or if they choose the location and then build the Whole Foods.
My current favorite contestant (to make fun of) so far is the old hippie-looking white dude. If you thought Ashley from last season's hair was funky (as in, "needs a good washing") then you've got to check out the long, stringy dreads this guy is sporting. When talking about their first challenge he says, "I wanna give the judges a piece of who I am." Like what? A gray hair in their peyote-laced vegan chili?
Words cannot express how very exited I am. I may even have a culinary boner.
Tune in to Bravo tonight at 9 pm EST/8 pm C, join our Twitter party during the show (Jeff: @JeffHouck, Katie: @culinarypirate), and listen to our podcast here tomorrow! (You can even download us on iTunes!) Check out our fellow Top Chef fanatics, Please Pack Your Knives And Go and All Top Chef, for the latest news (and some laughs).
Videos after the break:
This article appears in Jun 17-23, 2010.