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Food

New 'Top Chef' season should sizzle

Season 2 ingredients include a saucy new host and a healthy serving of conflict in the kitchen.

By PETER COUTURE
Published October 18, 2006

How do you spice up an already successful reality series?

The producers of Bravo's hit culinary competition Top Chef needed to look no further than their own Project Runway for inspiration.

Get a version of uber-model Heidi Klum.

In this case, Top Chef's new model-host is Padma Lakshmi.

In tonight's premiere, it is immediately apparent that Lakshmi is a vast improvement over the bland Katie Lee Joel - the "Katie Leebot," as a TV Web site dubbed her. Lee's resume seemed to begin and end with being the wife of singer Billy Joel. Lakshmi, who is of Indian heritage, has experience in global cuisine as a cookbook author and Food Network host. And, to be fair to her predecessor, Lakshmi also has a famous husband: author Salman Rushdie.

Though the producers have added a spicy ingredient in Lakshmi, they also chose a new domestic location. Top Chef has moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

Chef Tom Colicchio returns as judge (as does panelist Gail Simmons of Food & Wine), but the other major change is in the star power. Season 2's guest judges include Top Chef winner Harold Dieterle, celebrity chef Ming Tsai, rising L.A. star Suzanne Goin, renowned French chef Eric Ripert and Kitchen Confidential bad boy Anthony Bourdain (we can't wait for that encounter).

If the first episode is a taste of what's to come, then the Top Chef approach of characters over cuisine continues (no, the food isn't shortchanged). The contestants seem more experienced (there's a pastry chef, so maybe last season's cake-mix fiasco can be avoided), but the archetypes that make for kitchen conflict - and cattiness - return:

The prima donna: The snooty sommelier Stephen set the standard in Season 1. In the premiere, Marcel, who specializes in "avant-garde molecular gastronomy," already is wearing out his welcome.

The down-home cook: This season, it's Mia, and we like her cowboy hat and her way around a deep fryer.

The loose cannon: This year it's Michael, who seems to have mistakenly wandered in from the set of Hell's Kitchen. He deserves Gordon Ramsay.

So who's likely to be the next Harold? Judging from the premiere, our bet is Sam. Like Harold, he's a no-nonsense New York City chef with an aversion to shaving. And he shows the promise to outlast, outsmart and outcook 'em all.

Peter Couture can be reached at couture@sptimes.com

PREVIEW

Top Chef

Top Chef premieres tonight at 11 on Bravo after the season finale of Project Runway. Padma Lakshmi, at right, replaces the bland Katie Lee Joel as the show's new host. It debuts in its regular 10 p.m. slot Oct. 25. To learn more, go to www.bravotv.com.

[Last modified October 17, 2006, 11:00:48]