Tuesday, July 21, 2009

What happens in Top Chef...

Chefbians, chefbians, everywhere chefbians. Top Chef is back, flavor lovers. And it’s bringing two chefbians, one Padma and more tattooed gals than you can shake a ladle at. I’m not kidding, there is some serious ink happening this season. (Yes, I cropped Toby Young out of that top picture. But, yes, he will be back. And, no, I’m not pleased about it.) Now before we get to the painted ladies, we need to get to the gay ladies. On “Top Chef: Las Vegas” we’ve got two: [Click any, all to embiggen]

Bay Area chef Preeti Mistry, 33Seattle chef Ashley Merriman, 32

Well, they sure weren’t making it hard on our gaydar this season. I think I could have spotted them blindfolded from 30,000 feet. Faux hawks, copious tattoos, bed head. It’s all there.

But, interestingly, the lesbians aren’t the most extreme ink bearers this season. No, that distinction lies with two apparently straight contestants: Philly-based chef Jennifer Zavala [left] and Baltimore-based chef Jesse Sandlin [right]. A full-on neck tattoo and dramatic décolletage decoration? Whoa.

Rounding out Team Rainbow on the fella’s side is Ash Fulk, a 29-year-old New York-based chef. The tie is, apparently, the giveaway there.

But, I rather thought these two guys might be covert Team Rainbow members. A jaunty scarf and a bear beard? Puh-lease.

The scarf dude is French so, well, that explains that. Chef Bear still has some explaining to do.

The rest of the ladies, ranked in order of gayness [starting top left]: Robin Leventhal, Laurine Wickett, Eve Aronoff and Jennifer Carroll:

Now my other big take-away from the new Sin City edition was this little nugget from the press release:

Some of the top names in food, movies and entertainment including Wolfgang Puck, Todd English, Natalie Portman, Daniel Boulud, Penn & Teller, Hubert Keller, Laurent Tourondel, Tim Love, Michelle Bernstein, Tyler Florence, Charlie Palmer, Paul Bartolotta, Nigella Lawson, Jerome Bocuse and Thomas Keller.

Dear whatever deity you believe or don’t believe in wherever he or she or nothing may reside, Padma Lakshmi and Nigella Lawson are going to be in the same room eating food and, if history is any indication, licking it off their fingers/spoons/whatever other lucky inanimate object may be nearby. That thud you heard was me passing out.

Natalie and Padma in the same room is all kinds of awesome, too. But I’ve never looked at Natalie and thought, “Now there’s a big eater.” Nigella, on the other hand, wrote the book on food porn. “Top Chef: Las Vegas” premieres Aug. 19 on Bravo. I’ll be there, bib at the ready.

p.s. Did you know Padma is working on her own sitcom? No, I’m not kidding. No, really, I’m not kidding. Check the date. It’s not even close to April 1.

10 comments:

Lindsay said...

"jaunty scarf" just made my morning!

no said...

I thought the show premiered August 26, and I really hope that is because if it's the 16th, I need to get in gear and upgrade my cable. Stat.

elliB said...

Oh be still my Indian woman loving heart. Erm, my heart loves Indian women. I'm not an Indian who loves women. Oh god, someone please just help me with a hyphen! I'm so excited my grammar/syntax/etc has left me. Indian-woman loving heart? Yeah? How long until Preeti Mistry is on my teevee!

TheWeyrd1 said...

omg...a sitcom too. I would have to actually watch that and not just read the recaps!

La. said...

this is gonna be soooooo gay. and i'm sooooo excited.

and padma?! por favor. i've been counting the days til I can sit on my couch and watch my wife-to-be (she's gonna come around any day now) ooh and ahh over top chef food.

she makes my heart skip a beat. no joke.

btw -- am I the only one that's smitten with that pic of Gail? Tom, you lucky dog...

Big Shamu said...

We'll see if they can cook. I'm still crying that Elizebeth Falkner crapped out in Top Chef Masters.
Thank you for the much needed, totally ignored our pleas, cropping of the Doofus. Actually Jay Raynor is turning out to be a pretty decent Top Chef Judge. I like a man who knows his way around a Panna Cotta, tattooed or not.
Mmmmmmm, Michele Bernstein. Me like.

Anonymous said...

Nigella Lawson for many a year...makes my day
:-)

Too nostalgia:-
Amanda Mealing as Jojo Spears in "the lakes".

Simone Lahbib and Mandana Jones in "Bad Girls"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNp5i0KNv7Y

Unknown said...

I presume that's a scar on Lakshmi's right arm. I'm rather impressed they didn't photoshop it out in the promo shots.

Anonymous said...

The androgyny confounded me for a moment I must admit!

Unknown said...

Im absolutely smitten With Jesse... she is just so damn cute... yet another reason to watch Top Chef.