
Currently the fifth season of
Top Chef is filming in New York City. Although the competing chefs are still unknown, details of the upcoming season are being released.
Last week
Tom Colicchio went on the Today Show with three dishes created by 13 of the current contestants.

This week, there are things going on all over the map.
Beer lovers unite in both Honolulu and California. Colorado's busting out the buttered
corn (and the sounds of country star Travis Tritt) as well as hosting a festival for tea enthusiasts.

Last week I had the wonderful opportunity of going into the kitchen at San Francisco's
Mission Beach Cafe. Chef
Ryan Scott, a competitor on this season's
Top Chef, invited me in for a crouton cooking lesson. The friendly, good-looking chef told me about his re-creation of the menu and his hopes to build the restaurant's status.

From
teens to
tours,
Bravo's been busy announcing
Top Chef spin offs. Yesterday at the
TCA press tour in Los Angeles, they publicized another: Top Chef: Masters. 2009 will bring us a culinary competition that unites some of the brightest stars of the food world.

In an attempt to make herself more likable,
Lisa Fernandes, the
Top Chef runner-up who everyone loves to hate, has made her first cooking video for
Time Out New York. Sporting her fabulously boyish haircut, Lisa takes viewers inside the kitchen of the New York City restaurant where she works,
Mai House. She promises to teach us how to make an
entire Asian meal, complete with five dishes, for less than $20.

The just-ended season four of
Top Chef was one of my favorites so far — not just because a female chef finally won (
go Stephanie!) but also because I found myself wanting to make more of the recipes than ever before. I've rounded up some of my favorites from this season's challenges; to check out my picks, just click "start," then tell me which dishes you most want to try.

It wasn't till I was reading YumSugar this morning that I realized I'd completely forgotten to watch the
Top Chef reunion special. Luckily, she had a great
rundown of all the action. Still, I'm a little surprised that the reunion didn't stand out more in my mental TV schedule, since I usually love watching reality contestants come back and dish on what happened behind the scenes while the show was filming.

All season I've been asking if you pay attention to
Top Chef. Each week I expect you to score well on our quizzes, and this week is no exception. So did you check out last night's reunion special.

Well folks with last night's reunion show, the fourth season of
Top Chef has finally come to a close. What did you think of the reunion. Check out all of my questions and thoughts, and let us know what you thought of the special, as well as the whole season.

One memorable highlight of the
Food and Wine Classic was the
Top Chef demonstration. Instead of featuring the winners or cheftestants, fans watched
Tom Colicchio and
Padma Lakshmi cook together. He made an asparagus, mushroom butter fondue and she made flautas.