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'Top Chef' Hearts Healdsburg and You Can Too
Top Chef and wine country fans alike will be happy to hear this insider scoop we were passed along: This season's finale was shot in one of Northern California's culinary havens, Healdsburg. Those in the know have long been trekking to Healdsburg to eat at restaurants like Cyrus, which one of our close friends—a nearby Sonoma resident—counts as one of her favorite places to dine. It was at Cyrus that part of the finale was shot, according to our channels.
With all of this Top Chef love being thrown Healdsburg's way, we thought it might be an appropriate time to list some hotel options for foodies whose trips are centered around tasting, sipping, and even gorging in extreme cases.
We've heard a lot of good things about Hotel Healdsburg—once again from Northern Californian natives who know the hotel and restaurant scene well. It's the home of Dry Creek Kitchen, which where chef and TC guest judge Charlie Palmer has made his name. One of the biggest events that the hotel hosts is Parker's annual "Pigs and Pinot" weekend, set to return in March of 2010, and involves exactly what the name implies: a helluva lotta Pinot Noir and pork goodness, with real-life top chefs contributing to the benefit weekend. Booking early for the popular event is a smart call.
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Top Chef's Michael V. Rocking It at the Langham Hotel in Pasadena
We love the newest season of Top Chef for many reasons but namely because it takes place in Vegas and our baby sibling, VegasChatter gets tickled to see Vegas restaurants and chefs featured each week.
But we also love it because several of the chefs are working at hotel restaurants including one talented punk rocker chef, Michael Voltaggio, who is now the chef de cuisine at Dining Room at the Langham Hotel in Pasadena, Calif. He's also one of the fiercely competitive brothers on the show. Did you see the daggers he gave his older bro after Bryan won the last challenge? Oooweee.
From the hotel's website:
Chef de Cuisine Michael Voltaggio’s celebrated style is described as new American cuisine using classic discipline and modern trends, and he delights in utilizing the bounty of seasonal produce that California offers while showcasing the best quality ingredients from around the globe.
Tags: Top Chef / Hotel Restaurants / Ritz-Carlton Hotels / Celebrity Cehfs / Jenny Carroll / Eric Ripert / → All Tags
The Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia's Chef Getting Fancy on 'Top Chef'
Top Chef’s Season 6 in Las Vegas may have started out with two Jennifers, but the one left standing after two episodes is Jenny Carroll from the kitchen at the Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia. For those of you just catching up on the season, she’s the blond one, not the one with those scary earlobe-stretching rings.
This Philly native studied her craft at The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College in her hometown, and now works as the Chef de Cuisine at 10 Arts by Eric Ripert. That means she does the real work in the kitchen every night. Ripert handpicked her from his staff at New York’s famed Le Bernardin to lead his team at his new digs at the Philadelphia Ritz-Carlton right across from City Hall.
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Overheard at Art Basel: Andre Balazs Talking About His "Shack"
Blogger All Purpose Dark kindly sent over the link to her party report from Art Basel. And she got some good scoop. Starting off with what she overheard sexy hotelier Andre Balazs saying at the Raleigh Hotel for Kelly Klein's book party.
Highlight: Overhearing Balazs say to someone: "You can do that, you have a real house. I have a shack." Of course he does.
Hmm...what shack could he be talking about? The Maison Tropicale? Or could it be that he really has a shack somewhere? (Note: AB's version of a "shack" is probably still bigger than our apartment.)
More party report after the jump.
Tags: Sneak Peek / Inside SLS / Hotel Restaurants / Hotel Openings / Los Angeles Hotels / Jose Andres / Top Chef / Sam Nazarian / → All Tags
Inside The Bazaar at SLS Hotel
This is the second part of a three-part series on the SLS Hotel.
Now that we've taken you through the lobby and check-in and up to your room, it's time to explore The Bazaar at SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills and helmed by chef Jose Andres.
Much like the guest rooms inside the hotel, The Bazaar changes all your preconceived notions about a hotel restaurant. For starters, it's actually three restaurants. There's Bar Centro, Pâtisserie, and Rojo y Blanco. In addition, there is a Moss custom-curated retail area where guests can purchase eclectic pieces which are all on display in free-standing glass vitrines.
Walking through the Bazaar is no easy feat. Not because you can't make your way past stuff but because you can't make your way past all the stuff without stopping to stare and look at it. Like the dark-humored mobile that hangs from the ceiling of a hideaway nook and features plastic guns. Or the wall of shelves with dozen of photographs of the back of people's heads. And like the rest of the hotel, the furniture is Starck-inspired (remember this man loves chairs) and almost every piece, whether it's a lamp, chair, ottoman or vase, is different from the next.
In short, Bazaar is quite bizarre.
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Loews Hotels Wants Your Favorite Snack Recipe
Wanna be Top Chefs, knives at the ready!
Another hotel has partnered with a magazine: Loews is sponsoring a contest with Food & Wine.
If you've got a knack for creating bite-sized snacks, Loews Hotels wants you:
Loews Hotels is looking for recipes that capture a full spectrum of flavors in a single BITE/BYTE to be enjoyed while on your laptop and will be offered at reasonable prices. Entries must be created with the following in mind: - easily eaten in 1 bite (3-5 pieces per order) - designed to be served with a bamboo spear or a pick without the need for forks and knives - avoid overly expensive ingredients - avoid labor intensive techniques - create with a production scale of 100 pieces at a minimum
If the judges like your byte, it will be featured on the forthcoming, ominous sounding Bytes Menu that will accompany free WiFi in the lobbies. Woo! Plus, you'll get a free trip for two to the South Beach Wine & Food Festival and the opportunity to showcase your recipe at the Grand Tasting Tent. Basically, a wanna be Top Chef's dream.
Selections will be judged by none other than Top Chef's Gail Simmons and Loews Chairman and CEO, Jonathan Tisch.
Gather up bamboo spears and 100 of your closest friends and start cooking. Submissions are due here by November 15.
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Top Chef's CJ Cooks Up Healthy New Breakfast Menu for Hilton Garden Inn
Where: United States
Faithful Top Chef viewers (or dedicated Padma Lakshmi oglers) may remember CJ (Chris Jacobson) as the absurdly tall, absurdly handsome Season 3 chef who -- spoiler! -- was doing really well in the competition until a particularly disastrous "broccolini" dish sent him packing. Of course, his departure was sealed with a kiss by guest judge Anthony Bourdain, who went through the trouble of gently letting CJ know that his dish "wasn't fit to serve in prison."
But still, we know in our heart of hearts that our big tall kitchen-man is an all-star chef when broccoli isn't involved -- and CJ, who was also a pro volleyball player, definitely knows healthy food.
Apparently, the Hilton Garden Inn chain agrees with us because they commissioned him to design some items for their brand new Big Day Breakfast Menu. Ahem, sorry: "BIG DAY Breakfast" Menu.
Check out highlights from the new menu after the jump. Hint: there does not appear to be any broccoli, but there IS brisket.
Tags: Top Chef / TV Set Hotels / Manhattan Hotels / Hotel News / Affinia Hotels / Hotel Restaurants / Reality Shows / → All Tags
"Top Chef" Season Five Contestants to Heat It Up at New York's Benjamin Hotel
We love the reality show Top Chef on Bravo and it doesn't hurt that the show always has some hotel element that we can grok about. Like Season Three when the contestants shacked up at the Fontainebleau in Miami.
Now for the fifth season, the show is headed back to New York City and The Benjamin Hotel in Midtown East will play a big role.
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'Top Chef's' Padma Lakshmi Also Allowed into Gramercy Park
The scene at Rose Bar at Ian Schrager's Gramercy Park Hotel has caused us to scratch our heads many a time-- Paris Hilton is not welcome there, yet Mary Kate Olsen is. Anne Heche was spotted there flirting with chicks in the middle of all her divorce stuff, and Lil' Kim's been kicking around that place too.
So the latest in this random assortment of celebs on the GPH rooftop is Padma Lakshmi, the host of Bravo's Top Chef (who is somehow qualified to judge contestants' culinary skills since she's a model that wrote a cookbook.) She's supposedly still married to author Salman Rushdie, who was off last week being knighted by the Queen of England while Miss Padma was at Rose Bar.
Page Six reports:
"Lakshmi was spotted hanging out into the wee hours...with a well-known chef who was there without his spouse. 'They seemed to be quite interested in what each other had to say,' said a witness. 'They were oblivious to the people around them.'"
Omg, please let us find out the "well-known chef" was Mario Batali. Not because of the scandal so much, but because we just want to know whether Schrager would ever let someone into the GPH wearing orange Crocs. We certainly wouldn't.
Related Stories:
· What's Cooking? [PageSix]
Tags: TV Set Hotels / Miami Beach Hotel Reviews / Top Chef / Reality Shows / → All Tags
'Top Chefs' Cut It Up at the Fontainebleau Resort
We were traveling last week so we had to miss the premiere of one of our newest fave shows ever, Top Chef. But yesterday, we hunkered down in front of our TiVo and caught up on all that we missed (Entourage, Flight of the Conchords and Lauer's interview with the dreamy Princes of Wales included.)
The first two seasons of Top Chef took place in Los Angeles but for the third season, the show was moved to Miami and guess where the first meeting of the contestants took place? Gianni Versace's former residence-turned-exclusive-hotel, Casa Casuarina.
And that's not all, the contestants are being put up in the Penthouse suite of the Fontainebleau Resort and Tower on Collins Ave, a la Real World Las Vegas at the Palms.
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