Top Chef All-Stars finale was held tonight and the two remaining contestants or cheftestants as BRAVO likes to call them, cooked their hearts out.

Mike Isabella and Richard Blais went head to head and dish to dish in the Bahamas for the $200,000 grand prize.

No quickfire in this episode for Blais and Isabella, but 15 of the previous chefs were back to compete to be their sous-chefs in the last meal of the season.

Through a blind taste test Isabella ended up with “Mikey’s Angels:” Carla Hall, Jamie Lauren and Tiffani Faison.

Blais chose Spike Mendelsohn, Angelo Sosa and the previously eliminated Antonia Lofaso.

To not spoil it for those who haven’t seen it yet, just highlight below for the winning chef.
And the winner was: Richard Blais!

The fan favorite was down to Carla and Fabio Viviani.
And the winner of the $10,000 prize was: Carla Hall!

This was a fantastic season.

Can’t wait for the reunion show next week when Elia Koteas verbally spars with Tom Colicchio.

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Chef and restaurateur Tom Colicchio and wife Lori Silverbush are proud parents of a baby boy.

Mateo Lev Colicchio made his appearance at judges table on Tuesday, March 22nd weighing in at 7.9  pounds and mom and baby are well, reports People magazine.

The littlest Colicchio joins his two older brothers: Luka Bodhi, 19 months and Chef Tom’s eldest son Dante, 17, from a previous relationship.

The Top Chef judge thanked everyone for the positive vibes on his twitter:

“My wife Lori, baby Mateo and I thank all for the outpouring of love and good wishes today.”

Colicchio, Padma Lakshmi and Gail Simmons will be judging the final three cheftestants on tonight’s episode of Top Chef: All-Stars. Can’t wait!

[image: Ivan Nikolov/WENN.com]

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Padma Lakshmi reclines in a crisp white dress for the cover of Vogue India’s January 2011 issue. Lakshmi is a stunningly beautiful woman and while she looks good on this cover, it’s fairly boring.

The Top Chef host spoke to the magazine about her body, what it was like for her when she was married to author Salman Rushdie and the birth of her daughter:

On her body, flaws and all: Padma Lakshmi clearly states that she has never looked or felt better than what she is today. She believes that what you lose in youth, you gain in sex appeal; what gravity takes away, you gain in wisdom. “My body is a blueprint of my life, of every tragedy — emotional or physical”. Whether it’s the stitches she got from a handsome doctor when she sliced herself while cutting a potato in Corsica, or the impossible-to-miss seven-inch-long scar on her arm, the result of a car accident in Malibu when she was 14. She wears it proudly now, a badge of survival.”

On people’s perception of her during her marriage to Rushdie: “I do think that as a beautiful woman, people don’t want you to be smart. The way I looked may have distracted people. So I had to negate the way I looked. But compared to what I gained, it was a microscopic struggle.”

On daughter Krishna Thea: “I wasn’t trying to get pregnant, I was told I couldn’t,” says Lakshmi, referring to her endometriosis, a cause she now campaigns for fervently. “It’s been such a profound experience. Words seem silly to use. I’m trying to think of something illuminating, but all I can say is that it is by miles the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I am amazed by this ability to produce life, to sustain it. I was so afraid I’d lose her, but she really wanted to be here.”

Follow Padma on her twitter and catch her on Bravo’s Top Chef All-Stars Wednesday nights at 10pm ET.

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Awards show season kicks off tonight with The 37th Annual People’s Choice Awards. Scheduled to appear Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Zac Efron, Katy Perry, Leighton Meester, Teri Hatcher, Conan O’Brien, Mila Kunis, Neil Patrick Harris, The Kardashians, Natalie Portman, and performing Kid Rock and Selena Gomez and the Scene.

But it’s not just that – so many new shows are on tonight: Top Chef All-Stars, Law & Order: SVU, Modern Family and lots more. There is a lot to choose from tonight.

All times listed are eastern and repeats are shown with (R).

ABC

The Middle “Taking Back The House” 8:00 – 8:30pm
Better With You “Better With Skinny Jeans” 8:30 – 9:00pm
Modern Family “Slow Down Your Neighbors” 9:00 – 9:30pm
Cougar Town “No Reason To Cry” 9:30 – 10:00pm
Primetime “Celebrity Weight Loss – What Really Happens” 10:00 – 11:00pm

CBS

Live To Dance “Making The Top 18″ 8:00 – 9:00pm
The 37th Annual People’s Choice Award hosted by Queen Latifah 9:00 – 11:00pm

NBC

Minute To Win It 8:00 – 9:00pm
Law & Order, Special Victims Unit “Pop” and “Possessed” 9:00 – 11:00pm

Hit the link to see the rest and the late night guest line up. (Read the article)

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Top Chef All-Stars turns the heat up on Wednesday nights and the gorgeous host Padma Lakshmi and judge Tom Colicchio grabbed TV Guide’s cover out December 2nd.

The guide ran into a bit of hot water as it was accused by online blog PopEater of lightening Lakshmi’s skin tone for the cover. TV Guide denies this and the original story is removed from the website.

“If her skin appears lighter, it’s because we shot her in a brightly lit diner as part of the cover concept. We did our normal color correcting, which is standard for printing,” the magazine said.

The statement continued, “Padma’s skin tone is beautiful, and we did nothing to adjust it.”

Padma looks great as always, Tom is wonderful – I see nothing out of the ordinary on this cover. Her skin tone does not look lightened. Both Padma and Tom look slightly washed out as the lighting was a bit overzealous, but that is not uncommon on magazine covers.

What do you think?

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The Cheftestants are back and ready to kick culinary booty.

Top Chef season 8 is a departure for the previous years. This time around former contenders to the title are taking each other on to prove that their elimination the first time around was wrong.
This years cast of 18 chefs with brilliant knife skills include:

Season 1: Tiffani Faison and Stephen Asprinio
Season 2: Elia Aboumrad and Marcel Vigneron
Season 3: Dale Levitski, Casey Thompson and Tre Wilcox
Season 4: Richard Blais, Antonia Lofaso, Spike Mendelsohn and Dale Talde
Season 5: Carla Hall, Jamie Lauren and Fabio Viviani
Season 6: Jennifer Carroll and Mike Isabella
Season 7: Tiffany Derry and Angelo Sosa

Now that is a pretty great set up for this battle of the almost winners.

Who’s missing? Stefan Richter (season 5) – the Stefan/Fabio bromance was fab – and a Stefan/Jamie round 2 – Stefan would be so over her by now! Sam Talbot (season 2)  and Bryan Voltaggio (season 6) great chefs, hot guys – what else do you need? Ed Cotton (season 7) – wearing Tiffany’s dress around the TC penthouse was funny stuff – and he was getting under Angelo’s skin in the end – now that rematch could be epic (and get him out of the ho-hum Iron Chef kitchen as Cat Cora’s sous chef.) Lea Ann Wong (season 1) she was a great counter balance to Tiffani D and I think Lea Ann and Carla would be all kinds of hilarious and talented Girl Power!

The beautiful Padma Lakshmi and Gail Simmons return and Big Poppa Tom Colicchio is taking his place at the judge’s table. The formidable (and always good with a sharp verbal sting) Anthony Bourdain pops in to make the contestants quake in their sensible shoes and black chef jackets.

The first elimination is going to be rough. Be ready.

Top Chef All-Stars premieres on Bravo Wednesday December 1st at 10pm ET.

[image: Bravo TV]

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A Top Chef All-Star season has finally been admitted to revealed. Bravo has been rumored to have this show in the works for quite some time now.  Thankfully they came through because this is going to be a killer season.  I love all-star shows.  It’s so much easier to dive into the the first episodes rather than having to get to know the contestants for the first few weeks.

Congrats! Top Chef – Ilan Hall Has A Baby On The Way!

Season eight is going to kick some serious culinary butt!  The premiere lands on December 1st.

You can check out the full list of Top Chef All Star contestants below: (Read the article)

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Now that Lifetime has scooped up Project Runway, Top Chef is now Bravo’s highest rated series… So to keep those ratings high, they are taking the show’s sixth season to the trashiest place in the country: Las Vegas.

Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi, lead judge Tom Colicchio and judges Gail Simmons and Toby Young were all on-board for filming, which has already wrapped. The season is set to premiere later this year.

[image: realitytvscoop]

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Hosea Rosenberg beat out rival and predicted winner Stefan Richter to take home the title of Top Chef on last week’s finale episode. The 35 year old Boulder, CO chef who hooked up with fellow contestant, Leah, during filming spoke with Entertainment Weekly after the big win. Here are some highlights:

Did you think you had it in the bag all season? You were a formidable competitor…

Early on, I really thought that I would do well. Up until halfway through the season, I was really in a groove and really felt like I was showing myself to be one of the top players. And then things got a little unraveled for me. Toward the end of being in New York, I didn�t really feel like I was putting my best foot forward and creating my best food, and I was kind of just getting by. It was all mental. I was getting too stressed out. I had stuff on my mind about my parents and about my relationship and a lot of things. It kind of threw me off my game for awhile. [But] I had that break [prior to filming the finale], and I was able to just recollect, and I was able to put my head back on straight and remember what I was doing. And going back to New Orleans, I felt confident, I felt happy, I was relaxed. I really felt good about being there. I felt I deserved to be there. And I was there to show everybody that I had what it took.

Constantly throughout the season, you said that Stefan was cocky. We viewers really didn�t see too much cockiness until the final two episodes. Was he worse than what we saw on TV?

Stefan is cocky. But he�s cocky for a reason. And he backs it up. I have a lot of respect for Stefan, and I also consider him a true friend. And what you see are those little interactions where we�re getting into it, but overall, 95 percent of the time living with him, we really got along really well. We enjoyed each other and we had a lot of great conversations. We talked a lot about everything. About life, about cooking, about food. There�s a reason he�s cocky. He�s cocky because he knows he was dominating the competition, he�s one of the best chefs the show has ever seen. That�s his style and that�s who he is. I have a lot of respect for Stefan. All the jabbing and all the smack talk you saw in the show was just more playful than it was meant to be mean.

Carla was really doing well toward the end of the season, but you guys seemed to ignore her as a competitor. Why?

Toward the end of being in New York, I was shocked by Carla. She totally surprised every one of us that was there and really showed us that when she�s in her groove, she can really get it done. Going into the finale in New Orleans, I definitely considered her a threat… I was hoping that if I didn�t win it was going to be her. Not that I didn�t think Stefan didn�t deserve the title, but it would have been nice to see her win. And honestly, when she told me what her menu was for that last meal, I really thought she had it. I really thought she was going to end up with the title… It just came down to details in the end. It wasn�t that anybody�s food was bad.�

Are you and Leah still in touch? Any potential for a future relationship?

We�re still in touch. We�re good friends. I care about her. I think she�s an amazing chef, and I consider her a good friend.

Are the two of you still dating the significant others you were seeing during the show?

No, neither one of us is still with our significant others.

So what are your plans for the future?

Looking to open a restaurant in the very near future. I�m also looking on a product line that will be in Whole Foods, some prepared foods. I�m working with a company that�s already established. But we�re going to be expanding their line and doing a lot of work with them. I�ve also been invited to a bunch of food festivals, so that�s something that will be really fun.

It’s interesting that both Hosea and Leah are no longer with their significant others. I am sure the cheating had something to do with that. I still can’t believe Hosea won- I mean he seems like a decent chef, but none of the final 4 were anything special. None of them would have made it halfway through the competition in previous seasons. Pick up the talent next season, Bravo!!!

[image: Bravo]

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Team Europe was split on Top Chef when my favorite contestant, Fabio, was told to “pack his knives and go” last week. But perhaps the most arrogant contestant ever on the show, Stefan Richter, still thought he was the obvious choice for winner of Top Chef. That over-confidence is what probably led to his demise. He made a great alligator soup when assigned the difficult protein by Hosea Rosenberg. He also made the best dish of the night- squab. However, his watery first dish and boring, easy dessert is what lost him the competition.

Hosea brought out 4 strong courses and took home the title of Top Chef. Carla Hall was definitely in the running until she let her assistant chef make some major decisions that ended up costing her the win. Had she done what she wanted, she probably would have won. It was a lesson learned for all of us…

This was the most boring season yet, with the most boring, under-talented contestants. I was ready for it to be over and so disappointed that they brought those people to two of the best cities in the country- New York and New Orleans. Oh well, congrats to Hosea!

[image: Bravo]

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