Forget all of the hype in Washington, D.C. about the filming of ‘Top Chef.’  Atlanta’s got ‘Top Chef’ too!  Well, ‘Top Chef:’ The Tour, that is.

Yesterday I went to ‘Top Chef: The Tour,’ featuring Atlantans, Kevin Gillespie and Richard Blais. Under a tent in the Westside Provisions’ parking lot, Blais and Gillespie performed a cooking demo/improv comedy routine.  The rain could not keep me away from checking out the tour and getting a glimpse of two of my favorite local celebs.  Even though the closest I got to Padma and Tom were cardboard cutouts, I still thoroughly enjoyed my brush with fame and the opportunity to listen to Kevin and Richard’s banter, while watching Blais’ science tricks.

So what happened during the show?  For the first half of the show Blais created a ‘quick fire’ dish that was his twist on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Of course he did not disappoint in his use of fancy gadgets.  Every seat had a great view of the demo stage, and they had mirrors above the stage so you could get a better view of what was being prepared.

First, Blais created a Thai-inspired peanut butter adding lime, fish sauce and cilantro.

Fancy Thai-peanut butter

Blais then moved on to liquid nitrogen-created ‘grapes’ made from preserves in a sous vide.  He shamelessly plugged this new sous vide that can be purchased for a home.  (Perfect for a wedding gift, right?)  Giving Blais a hard time about his marketing, Kevin then asked if any of us were interested in GE appliances.

Richard Blais' new marketing plug: the sous vide for the personal kitchen

Liquid Nitrogen...

Making 'grapes' with preserves

Blais served the Thai-peanut butter and ‘fruit caviar’ on a sponge cake made with CO2, using just three ingredients, and heated in the microwave.  (Apparently, Blais also made this sponge cake on his recent appearance on Iron Chef.)

Showing off the sponge cake, fresh out of the microwave.

Sadly, the sponge cake was not gluten-free, so no sampling for this girl.  Blais even managed to incorporate truffle oil into this dish.  (He glazed the paper cups that he used for heating the sponge cake with a mixture of truffle oil, brown sugar, and something else.)

After the cooking exhibition, Blais and Gillespie took questions from the audience.  A sampling of the questions included:

“What’s your least favorite food?” Gillespie responded with hazelnuts.

“What happens when you get kicked off the show?”  Contestants are sequestered in apartments, but they can go out to restaurants, hang out at the pool, and relax.  Unfortunately they still have to live with the fact that they got kicked off the show.

“Was the show stressful?”  Of course it was!  Interestingly, they said that it was hard to be in empty bedrooms as the show got down to its final few contestants, a constant reminder that people were getting kicked off.

Of course the teacher in me couldn’t resist asking a question.   I’m fascinated by what happens behind the scenes so I asked how long judges’ table takes.  They said as the show gets down to fewer contestants, judges’ table gets longer.  Kevin and Richard both said that their final judges’ table took over nine hours!!  I knew it was long but that’s crazy!

Richard and Kevin made quite the team.  While Richard was the center piece of the demonstration, the two made a clever, and funny, duo.  They were goofy, made jokes (some good, some bad) and actually seemed like they wanted to be there.  If ‘The Tour’ comes to your town, I highly recommend checking it out.  I didn’t get tickets in advance, just arrived 20 minutes before hand.  They had lots of extra tickets, which are free, and you get to sample the food, if you’re not gluten free.  Let the stalking continue…

I’m a little quirky; I know that.  My quirkiness factor shines through when I talk about my passions.  Three of my favorite things are fresh produce, folk music, and local celebrity chefs.  Yes, it’s an odd assortment but those are some of my loves.  Well, Sunday evening I got to be part of an event that involved all of the above favorites.  Can you believe it?  What a lucky girl I am!

On Sunday night, Slow Food Atlanta put on this incredible ‘family dinner’ at Watershed Restaurant in Decatur.  Slow Food founder, Carlo Petrini, was the guest of honor and other important ‘Slow Food’ folks attended. This event was a great way to conclude the Georgia Organics weekend and brought many amazing people from Athens back to Atlanta.  Even a couple of speakers that I heard at the Georgia Organics Conference attended the dinner, including Michel Nischan of Wholesome Wave Foundation and Diane Harris of the CDC.

Not only was this an amazing culinary event, but the money raised from the dinner went towards Slow Food’s Terra Madre Foundation.  What is Terra Madre?  This international foundation works to “bring together different players in the food chain who together support sustainable agriculture, fishing, and breeding with the goal of preserving taste and biodiversity.”  I love the emphasis put on taste and biodiversity.  For example, it’s good to have many varieties of apples and potatoes, not just russet and golden delicious. Agricultural variety is beneficial to all of us because it encourages local farming, develops our taste buds, and allows us to enjoy better and healthier foods, packed with vitamins and tasty goodness.  If we support small, local farmers, we’ll be ‘preserving taste and biodiversity.’  Petrini and Terra Madre believe “eating is an agricultural act and producing is a gastronomic act,” therefore we need to be followers of both farming and flavor.

How did I get to be at this incredible event?  Unfortunately I was not a paying customer, but I participated as a volunteer server and greeter for the night, allowing me to enjoy the festivities and be a part of the action. This was my first experience waiting tables and let me just say, I have a whole new appreciation for the food service industry and all of the work involved in getting a plate of food in front of the diner.  Watershed’s kitchen is pretty small (at least it seemed small to me) and there were a lot of cooks in the kitchen, trying to complete their dishes and get food out to the tables.  The menu for this meal was created by the chefs, and each course represented a meal from that chef’s childhood.   One of the things I enjoy most about cooking is the memories that taste can trigger.  Each of these chefs poured their heart and stories into their dishes and every plate looked absolutely gorgeous.

If you’re like me and love all things foodie, you’re asking yourself, “who were the celebrity chefs?”  The list is long, with an extensive number of James Beard nominees in the group.  So while I was already star struck from shaking hands with Carlo Petrini when he walked in the door, being in the same kitchen with all of these celebs just about put me over the top.  I could care less about Johnny Depp or any other movie star, but chefs fascinate me and I’m awed by their talents.  Chefs for this family dinner included Linton Hopkins of Restaurant Eugene, Kevin Gillespie of Woodfire Grill, Steven Satterfield of Miller Union, Kevin Ouzts of The Spotted Trotter, Billy Allin of Cakes & Ale, Scott Peacock of Watershed, and Cathy Conway of Avalon Catering.  Ridiculous, right?  To have all of these guys and their cooking entourages in the same kitchen, with me carrying out their incredible food, I felt like I’d died and gone to food heaven.  I didn’t even get to eat the food, but I didn’t mind at all.

I was so busy once the guests arrived that I did not get to take photos of the actual event or the beautiful food.  I’ve included some photos of Watershed and the room before the family dinner.  Now just visualize it packed with people, amazingly presented food, chefs wandering the room talking to the diners, and us servers in our white button downs.  Highlights of the meal were the Kevin Gillespie’s ‘One Dish Hog Dinner’ served in individual cassoulet dishes, and Steven Satterfield’s roasted oysters, Savannah red rice, served family style with Kevin Ouztz’ biscuits.    Here’s a look at the program and menu so you can get a better picture of the event since there are no photos to document it.

Menu
Cocktails
Woodford Reserve Mint Julep
Prepared by: Mark Williams, Slow Food Bluegrass
Daniel Morrison, Watershed
NV Bodegas Matilde Totus Tuus Brut,
Cava; Spain
Red Brick Blonde Ale;
Atlanta, Georgia

Hors d’oeuvres
Scott Peacock, Watershed

Music
Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls

Beet Salad
2005 Domaine du Viking Sec Tendre,
Vouvray; France
Linton Hopkins, Restaurant Eugene

One Dish Hog Dinner
2004 Kluge Albemarle “Simply Red” Bordeaux Blend;
Charlottesville, Virginia
Kevin Gillespie, Woodfire Grill

Roasted Oysters, Savannah Red Rice
with Andouille Sausage & Shrimp
served with
Green Salad and Angel Biscuits
2006 Domaine de la Chevalerie ‘les Galichets,’
Bourgueil; France
Steven Satterfield, Miller Union
Kevin Ouzts, The Spotted Trotter

Applesauce Cake with
Calvados-Vanilla Cream and Caramel
Cafe Campesino Coffee
Cathy Conway, Avalon Catering

Each chef is listed with the item he/she created and presented to the diners for this special meal of memories and good food.  You can also click on this link to see the entire program, read about each chef’s culinary inspiration for his dish and learn the evening’s recipes.  You’ll notice that a lot of these dishes are entirely gluten free!  Doesn’t it make your mouth water just looking at it?I also loved that Charlottesville’s Kluge wine was represented on the menu.

The evening’s program was not just about food.  Slow Food Atlanta’s, Judith Winfrey, opened the evening with a beautiful welcome, followed by a performance by Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls, one of the owners of Watershed, hence rounding out the evening for me by adding some folk music to the event.  Saliers sang two songs, including the crowd pleaser, ‘Galileo.’  It was a lovely way to start the evening.  To hear her play the guitar and sing, just her, in such an intimate setting was incredible.

When Carlo Petrini spoke to conclude the night’s program.  he addressed world wide agricultural issues and the importance of supporting farmers in all countries.  Petrini believes in the importance of connecting and collaborating with all parts of the food system, including chefs, farmers, and consumers.  As we listened to Petrini’s words, it was incredible on to be surrounded by incredible chefs and farmers as we celebrated slow food and mother earth.  When Petrini talks about ‘the pleasures of the table’ and enjoying cultures through food, you feel like you’re there with him, tasting the cuisine and enjoying the people he’s describing.  Petrini has an incredible ability captivate an audience, speak to our hearts, and allow us to feel his passion.  These are rare talents for public speakers in general, but Petrini has to speak through a translator and you still feel his love, energy and enthusiasm for good tasting food.

Many people worked hard and were involved to pull off this incredible evening and I’m so glad I got to play a (minor) role in the event.  Was I exhausted afterwards?  Yes.  Do I ever want to be a full time server?  Never.  Did I love every second of this event that combined my favorites: local food, celebrity chefs, and folk music?  Absolutely.

I have a confession to make.  I love reality television.  I know, I know.  As a high school teacher, I should scoff at shows like ‘The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love’ and ‘The Real World: XXIV’  (Yes, ‘The Real World’ is on it’s twenty-fourth season and finally in Washington, D.C.)  Hurray! As someone who loves cooking and reality television, it’s only appropriate that I always wait in eager anticipation for each season of ‘Top Chef.’  Ok, that’s an understatement.  I’m obsessed with Top Chef.  Padma is gorgeous, Tom Colicchio cracks me up, and the food is absolutely beautiful.  I love the quick fires, elimination challenges, and the contestants.  These folks are real chefs.  They know what they’re doing and all have established culinary careers.  This is not the amateur reality television.  ‘Top Chef’ is the real deal.

When David and I moved to Atlanta last summer, we decided to go without a television for the year.  Leaving the flat screen at home, I was a little nervous about this life change, especially considering my love of all things “reality,” but my students had introduced me to the world of Hulu so I figured it couldn’t be too bad.

Upon moving into our quaint apartment, I found that I loved not having a TV clogging up the living room.  Hulu, Netflix and the internet have allowed me to continue watching the shows that I’m particularly interested in like ‘The Office,’ ’30 Rock,’ ‘Mad Men,’ ‘Dexter; and yes, ‘The Bachelor.’  We watch sporting events at friends’ houses when we want to but I definitely watch less television.  It’s been great.  We don’t just turn on the tube when we’re looking for something to do.  We cook more and have more people into our home as a result of going “sans TV.”

BUT, the major downer of this whole ‘no TV’ phase of life is that it’s impossible to get episodes of ‘Top Chef’ on the internet.  Bravo is super stingy about releasing its episodes, causing me much frustration as week after week of episodes passed with me missing them.  I had to scour the internet to learn about the contestants, find out Padma was pregnant and figure out what SUV would be featured in their trips to Whole Foods, and shamelessly promoted throughout the season.  I was particularly saddened by this unexpected internet let down because I moved to Atlanta right when the latest season began and three of the chefs from this past season run restaurants in Atlanta.

I tell my friends back in DC that Atlanta has some of the best restaurants in the country and Top Chef is a perfect example of this.  Richard Blais owns Flip, Hector owns Pura Vida and Eli used to be the head chef at Eno.  My favorite, Kevin Gillespie, owns and cooks at Woodfire.  How can you not love Kevin?  Great smile, fabulous beard, so well composed on screen, and he loves pork!  Did you notice that the Top Chef producers always used Kevin’s interviews to debrief and explain challenges.  Great chef and public speaker.  Kevin avoided drama, befriended many, excelled at ‘Pigs & Pinot,’ and was very funny.  Even though the last episode didn’t go his way, he still won fan favorite, (and “Betsy’s Favortite”) as well as so many challenges throughout the season.  Kevin also supports local farmers, including Crystal Organics, by buying their produce.    He even hosted a benefit dinner for Love is Love Farm when they were hit by the floods this fall.  A southerner and an Atlantan, Kevin’s here to stay and working to create the perfect restaurant for Atlanta diners.  Check out this recent interview with Kevin from yelp.com where he discusses his future in Atlanta. Doesn’t he sound great?

Now you’re probably asking yourself, “Betsy, how do you know so much about last season’s Top Chef  if you’ve just been complaining that you couldn’t find it on the internet?”  Good question.  Bravo so nicely put two episodes on bravo.com during the season.  Of course I watched those.  When I visited my parents in October, I immediately set their Tivo for every ‘Top Chef’ rerun that would air throughout the weekend.  My friend, Laurel, had me over for the finale at the end of the season.  (If only I’d known her earlier in the season!)  So I ended up getting to watch the majority of this season’s episodes, but not as many as I would like.  Bravo, I beg you, put episodes online next season!  I miss Padma’s outfits, judge’s table, the “Gladware Kitchen,” the GE equipment, trips to Whole Foods and other product plugs.

All of this being said, hopefully you now understand my love for all things Top Chef.  While I’m sad that I missed out on watching this last season in its entirety, (Bravo, if you just put it online, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now)  I’ve loved being in the midst of the Atlanta restaurant scene during the Top Chef hype.  I’ve already dined at Flip, Pura Vida, and Eno, but I have not yet been to Kevin’s Woodfire.  Business has been booming for Kevin since the show aired.  This is wonderful news except for people, like me, who have trouble planning ahead and getting reservations.  Good news!  I just made my reservations for Woodfire for Thursday, February 18^th.  Yes, it’s over a month away but I’m already thinking about it.  I’ve looked at the sample menu and am hungry just thinking about it.  (The menu changes every day of course.)  I’m not even worried about gluten-free options because I’m sure the folks at Woodfire will do it right.  Maybe I’ll even get to meet Kevin…