So do you want to be one?





When my baby girl Micky grows up, I don’t want her to go corporate. I want her to be Top Chef!
That’s what a dose of nonstop viewing of Bravo TV’s Top Chef has made clear to me. Oh yeah. No spreadsheets, volume and forecast projections, marketing campaigns for my baby. She’s going to cook up a storm!

From the makers of Project Runway (“One day you’re eeeeen, the next day, you’re out!”) comes this wholly entertaining, amazing, I daresay addicting reality show on manic cooks who duke it out for the title of Top Chef. Chef Tom Colicchio (of Gramercy and Craft) is the resident judge, along with Gail Simmons of Food and Wine Magazine. They’re joined by different guest judges each episode: known chefs and food enthusiasts.

And the challenges! There are two per episode: quickfire for immunity, plus the elimination challenge. Consider these -

Create a sexy dessert for an S&M party. Someone came up with a cookie necklace that you have to bite off your partner’s neck, in the grand tradition of tequila body shots.

Create a gourmet dish out of ingredients you picked out. You have 10 minutes to shop – in a petrol station convenience store!

Choose a fastfood favorite and transform it completely: fyi, the winning entry was popcorn cake.


And that’s just a few of the fun tasks in Season One!

I am now in the middle of Season Two and the action is simmering quite nicely. They started the show with the Mystery Box challenge: 2 hours to cook a dish incorporating the flavors of all 5 mystery ingredients inside the box. One box had escargot, American cheese, peanuts, artichokes and one other ingredient I can’t recall. What I clearly remember though was the reaction of Yaya Michelle, our cook who is also my Top Chef viewing buddy. “Ma’am hindi ko ma-imagine… kuhol at keso?! Ang galing ng Top Chief!”

Email me at mrs_so_rocks@yahoo.com to know where to score dvd copies. Once you’ve seen one episode, you’ll likely want to see all – in one sitting!