Category — Tom Colicchio

Here they are the three gorgeous stars from the Emmy award winning show Top Chef. From left Padma Lakshmi, Tom Collichio and the delightful Gail Simmons.

Today they stopped The Amazing Race from winning the Emmy for Best Reality TV Show for the eighth time. The other interesting thing is that it is has a smaller audience then the other three nominees. The Amazing Race, Dancing With The Stars, and American Idol.

Jeff Probst won best reality host.

Source (LA Times)

Congratulations to Top Chef for taking out the Best Reality TV Show Emmy. This was quite a coup as The Amazing Race has won it since the award commenced.

For those who don’t know Top Chef it is a quality TV show on Arena TV which comes from the Bravo stable in New York. Up and coming chefs fight it out over three months to see who will become the Top Chef.

There is great cooking, great challenges a lot of which we are seeing on our own Masterchef Australia, and enough interaction and personalities of the contestants to keep it entertaining.

The host is the luscious Padma Lakshmi who has no problem being seen to eat food on TV and give a forthright opinion on it. Also the other co-host is the spunky Tom Collichio a renowned chef in the US. Other judges are Gail Simmons from Food and Wine Magazine, Eric Ripert an uber-chef as well as other guest judges who are leaders in their fields.

The new season set in Washington DC commences on Arena TV 7.30pm the 12 September, if you have pay TV watch it.

However it is time for a free to air channel to get the episodes or even do an Australian version of the show.

I am seriously hoping to catch the ebola virus for the month of September by the look of what Arena has got on its programming next month.

Top Chef Washington will premiere on Sunday at 7.30pm on the 12 September.  The luscious Padma Lakshmi and hunky Tom Colluchio are returning as hosts of this cooking competition where professional chefs battle it out for the title of Top Chef. If you like Masterchef you will love this. In fact quite a few aspects of the Australian version of Masterchef are taken from Top Chef. Well that is my opinion and I am sticking to it.

Project Runway Season 7 will see the crew returning to New York. This will premiere on September 13, Mondays at 8.30pm. Heidi Klum, Tim Gunn, Michael Kors and Neeeeeeeennna Garcia are all returning. This will have to help us get over that there won’t be an Australian version of the show this year.

Models of the Runway, will again follow it on September 13, Mondays at 9.30pm. This is a companion series to Project Runway, which follows the models on the show. I hope they continue to keep it to a half hour show, as this got a bit tedious once all the nuttier models were eliminated last season.

And also one of my favourite reality shows Celebrity Rehab with Dr Drew Pinsky returns for it third season on September 16 at 9.30pm. This is not the Rachael Uchitel one which is currently filming but the series has celebrities Dennis Rodman, Heidi Fleiss, Joey Kovar, Kari Anne Peniche, Lisa D’Amato, Mackenzie Phillips, Mike Starr, Mindy McCready and Tom Sizemore going through an intensive 21-day detox and treatment program.

All-new to Arena is Launch My Line where celebrities will design, cut and stitch their way through a one-of-a-kind creative competition to determine who has the vision to go from icon to fashion star and launch a trendsetting clothing label.

Premiering September 8, Wednesdays at 8.30pm, the celebrity contestants will each be paired with a fashion expert, who will supply the technical know-how to implement the celebrity’s creative vision.

Most of the time I am a bit dubious of reality shows with celebrities in them, Celeb Rehab being the exception, but this is from the Bravo stable which I do worship at the altar of. So will give it a look even though the premise looks a bit spurious.

Another Bravo show that  Arena premiering on September 14, Tuesdays at 9.30pm, is 9 By Design. The series follows husband and wife design team, Bob and Cortney Novogratz and their seven children. Owners of New York based design firm, Sixx Design, this young, hip and artsy couple have developed and designed unique properties in Manhattan, rebuilt entire blocks in the city, and turned funky into fabulous with taste and confidence.

I hope this is more Top Design, than Kate and Jon Plus 8.

It appears lately you can barely open up your internet browser without seeing Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi licking a hamburger, or lolling around a flotaki rug in her birthday suit. The photo above is from Padma’s latest naked romp in Allure magazine.

Padma reveals to www.people.com that her favourite part of her body is the seven-inch scar on her forearm from a car accident at the age of 14. Something that is not showing in this photo.

“I love it because it makes me a person who has an interesting past, and it reminds me that I can survive any pain,”

Anyway I am over Padma and her lusciousness, what I want to know is when are we going to see the bear Tom Colluchio going to get his gear off? Tom the co-host and judge of Top Chef is the thinking woman’s sex symbol and also  something of a gay icon. It is time he decided to attempt to get over exposed like his co-host does so effortlessly.

Should I start a petition?

Now Top Chef has always had some dubious sponsorship deals with some pre-packaged food companies. But food bloggers are aghast that he is now spruiking diet coke. If you don’t believe me here is the ad.

Last night’s episode of Top Chef New York was as ususal very entertaining. The chefs had to cook for Food & Wine Editor and judge Gail Simmons bridal shower. They were in teams cooking under the themes old, new, borrowed, and blue.

Stefan’s arrogance knows no bounds.  He has a crush on Jamie who said “Doesn’t the word lesbian mean anything to him?”. Well Jamie I doubt it, he probably thinks he can turn you.

The elimination challenge was fun to watch. Carla and Danny teams did some sort of DIY deconstructed sushi, which they forgot to tell the guests how to eat. It was a huge mess and you knew someone from that team was going home.  Danny was the one who had to pack his knives and go.

Exit interview with Danny here..

Ariane won much to Jamie’s disgruntlement for her lamb.

Padma Lakshmi and Tom Colluchio

Padma Lakshmi and Tom Colluchio are back for our viewing pleasure with the commencement of Top Chef New York tonight at 8.30pm on Arena TV.

There are some changes this series as Toby Young will be taking over the judging duties from Ted Allen who has jumped to another show on another network. Young is  a best-selling British author and food critic. Early reviews from the US where the show has started give him the thumbs up.

Seriouseats says Young does not hold back. They sayLondon food criticism and nastiness go hand in hand, and Young was nasty in the best of ways.

Could he be the new Simon Cowell?

In addition, Top Chef: New York will also feature guest appearances by several culinary and mainstream stars including Martha Stewart, The Foo Fighters, Jean-Georges, Eric Ripert, Rocco DiSpirito, Wylie Dufresne, Jean-Christophe Novelli and Natasha Richardson

However what you really want to know is who are the chef’testants.

Cast Of Top Chef New York

The 17 new Top Chef: New York contestants — whose ages range from 21 to 44 — are:
 
- Alex, a 33-year-old executive chef from New York, NY who currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.

- Ariane, a 41-year-old chef and restaurant owner from Verona, NJ.

- Carla, a 44-year-old chef and catering business owner from Nashville, TN who currently resides in Washington, D.C.

- Danny, a 26-year-old executive chef from New Hyde Park, NY.

- Fabio, a 30-year-old restaurant owner from Florence, Italy who currently resides in Moorpark, CA.

- Gene, a 33-year-old executive sushi chef and chef consultant from Whitmore Village, HI who currently resides in Las Vegas, NV.

- Hosea, a 26-year-old executive chef and restaurant owner from Taos, NM who currently resides in Boulder, CO.

- Jamie, a 30-year-old executive chef from New York, NY. who currently resides in San Francisco,
CA.

- Jeff, a 30-year-old chef du cuisine from Niceville, FL who currently resides in Miami, FL.

- Jill, a 28-year-old executive chef from Latrobe, PA who currently resides in Baltimore, MD.

- Lauren, a 24-year-old chef tournant from Cincinnati, OH who is currently stationed at Fort
Stewart in Georgia.

- Leah, a 27-year-old sous chef from Scarsdale, NY who currently resides in New York, NY.

- Melissa, a 28-year-old sous chef from Maryland who currently resides in Boulder, CO.

- Patrick, a 21-year-old culinary student from Quincy, MA who currently resides in Hyde Park, NY.

- Radhika, a 28-year-old executive chef from Chicago, IL.

- Richard, a 27-year-old executive sous chef from Long Island, NY who currently resides in San Diego, CA.

- Stefan, a 35-year-old chef from Tampere, Finland who currently resides in Santa Monica, CA. 
 

By the way Bravo TVare now selling I heart Padma t-shirts for $24.95.

Don’t worry hubbie I have got one ordered for you for Valentine’s Day.

Top Design 2 a fantastic reality TV show where interior designers  compete against each other also commences tonight at 9.30pm on Arena. As does the Australian made series The Phone which debuts on Fox 8 at 8.30pm. This show is like The Amazing Race where a person is given clues by phone that they have to follow to win the $25,000 prize money.

Scary Spice To Strut Her Stuff On a Reality TV Show.

Mel B will be having a reality TV show based on her fashion label. Lets hope it is more successful then Posh Spice’s reality TV show. Victoria Beckham only managed to get one episode of her show of her poncing about in LA.

Ok I admit I was about the only one I know who enjoyed the first episode, especially the scene where they used the blowup doll that looked surprisingly like her as a decoy.

Source here.

Jeff Probst Stoked About His Emmy Win.
Jeff Probst won the first Emmy award for Best Reality TV Host, and he tells how happy he is about the honour in an interview here in Reality TV Magazine./

Women That Want To Stalk the Very Sexy Tom Colicchio Are Guaranteed to See Him At His Tuesday Dinners.
Tom the co-host and judge on Top Chef has oodles on restaurants, but will be doing Tuesday Night Dinners where he will cook a set menu for 40 people every second Tuesday in the private dining room at Craft. However expect to pay the big bucks for it.

The article here in Gawker shows that they are not very impressed with the concept nor the price tag of up to $250 per person.

For those who cannot afford the price tag but want to eat at is flagship restaurant here is the menu for you to peruse.

So You Think You Can Dance Tour – Indepth Review
There is no rest for the cast of the So You Think You Can Dance dancers, as they head off on a nationwide tour of the US. Sherry Lipp here writes an entertaining and indepth review of one of the performances.