[Televisionary]

I already spoke in general terms about the season premiere of Top Chef over in my advance review of the episode , but now that the episode has aired, we can get down to the details of the food that the cheftestants prepared this week. First episodes are always tricky as there are a lot of new contestants and it's often hard to keep track of all of them, particularly when there are seventeen of them being introduced all at once. But this is Top Chef , after all, so it's only typical that the strongest performers would stand out in the first week... along with some of those who might be destined to be packing their knives sooner rather than later. This week's episode of Top Chef ("What's Your Constituency?") found the new crop of contenders heading to Washington D.C., where they were immediately put through their paces in a round-robin Quickfire Challenge--with only four chefs actually getting to create a dish--before heading into their first Elimination

Before we can even catch our collective breath after the end of Top Chef Masters , Bravo has brought back the original Top Chef to the lineup, beginning with tonight's season premiere ("What's Your Constituency?"). While I've loved seeing master chefs hone their craft even further on Top Chef Masters , I have to say that I'm really excited by the return of Top Chef itself. There's an even fiercer air of competition from these chefs, many of whom are just beginning their culinary careers... and are therefore less likely to play nice and be as helpful as the masters. Which means more drama, inevitably. Heading to Washington D.C., this season of Top Chef finds the seventeen new contestants attempting to outdo their competitors in the nation's capital, which means that the setting is only too apt for the backstabbing and manipulation likely to unfold as this season's episodes get underway. In the first installment alone, we're treated to

After a day of interviews and covering press sessions at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour, I had the honor of dining at Top Chef winner Michael Voltaggio's restaurant, The Dining Room at The Langham, in Pasadena. I've been dying to eat there since Top Chef ended... and what an evening it was. I was joined in this culinary adventure by several fellow television journalists/foodies including: my editor at The Daily Beast, Kate Aurthur; Denise Martin of The Los Angeles Times ; Zap2It's Hanh Nguyen; and St. Louis Post Dispatch TV columnist Gail Pennington. Arriving at the Dining Room, we were greeted with several warm welcomes by the restaurant's manager and the hotel's PR executive. We sipped on some lovely glasses of non-vintage champagne while we perused the menu and ultimately decided to go with a five-course chef's tasting menu, with the dishes to be expertly selected by Michael Voltaggio, with whom we visited in the kitchen following the

As 2009 begins to wind down, I figured now was the perfect time as any to look back at the series that that have entertained and inspired me over the past calendar year. And what a year it was for the television industry, which was (and is) still recovering from the writers strike of 2007/08. This past year also saw NBC box up the 10 pm hour for scripted programming, a move that hasn't had quite the effect that the network hoped (I do feel for poor scapegoat Jay Leno), while sending viewers scurrying over to cable, which continued to make huge inroads this year. It was also a year that saw comedy make a huge comeback, from the success of FOX's musical-comedy hybrid Glee to the season's biggest critical hit, ABC's Modern Family and the surprising resilience of NBC's Parks and Recreation (hands down the winner of the Most Improved Series award). And a year that saw much beloved series Chuck teeter dangerously towards cancellation, only to receive an eleventh hour

Perhaps because this season focused on the strengths of the competitors and one particular sibling rivalry rather than on any animosity between the contestants, there wasn't a hell of a lot of controversy for Andy Cohen to discuss. (Certainly no wigs were ripped off anyone's head on Top Chef this season.) So last night's Top Chef reunion was a rather low-key affair (especially compared with the histrionics seen on Real Housewives get-togethers), with the only remote sparks of controversy being those emanating from Eli's cancer comment to Robin, Ash's feeling that Padma hated him, and, well, that was about it. Hell, anyone hoping to learn who the fan favorite would be from Top Chef: Las Vegas still has to wait until tonight to find out as someone decided not to announce the fan favorite winner during the reunion special (a likely place to do so) but to wait until Andy Cohen's Thursday latenight talkfest to do so. (In other words: Grr. Though there's no do

Was I the only one on the edge of my seat last night? Last night's season finale of Top Chef ("Season Finale, Part Two") found the final three chefs going head-to-head with the title of Top Chef and a cool $125,000 cash prize on the line. It was really anyone's game as all three remaining contestants have proven themselves not only worthy competitors but also talented and accomplished chefs in their own right. As always, it would all come down to one last challenge. The task seemed simple enough: cook a fantastic meal for the judges and a panel of esteemed restaurateurs with the bounty of Napa Valley at their disposal. But this is Top Chef and these three chefs are each killer competitors, so the three-course meal at Cyrus in Healdsburg (which is in Sonoma rather than Napa Valley but I'll let this change in locale slip by) quickly turned into a twist-laden multiple-course meal with multiple hindrances and curveballs. How did the three remaining chefs perform? An

Only three chefs remain. With the season finale of Top Chef: Las Vegas set to air tonight, I'm curious to see just who you think will walk away the ultimate victor of this season of Bravo's deliciously addictive culinary competition series. (I'm still bummed that Jennifer Carroll is out of the running, however. Sigh.) Personally, my money is on Kevin. He's proven himself more than capable of not only dealing with the intense pressure of the competition but also staying true to his culinary ethos and style and his deceptively "simple" dishes have wowed the judges and diners alike throughout the course of the season. Of course, Bryan and Michael Voltaggio are both extremely talented competitors and either of them could create the winning dish. But I have a feeling that the sibling rivalry that's marked the competition so far could be their ultimate undoing. Will the Voltaggios cancel each other out? Are they more focused on beating one another than on beati

And then there were three. This week's episode of Top Chef: Las Vegas ("Season Finale: Part One") had me on the edge of my seat, not just for the inherent tension (believe me, I was on pins and needles by the end) but also because I'm a huge admirer of Napa Valley cuisine and produce. The region itself holds special meaning for me: it's where I proposed to my wife and was married (on the same spot in both cases), just a few hundred feet from Rutherford Hill Winery, where the Elimination Challenge took place. Napa is a magical place where food and wine are celebrated in the most exquisite way and this week's challenges for the final four contestants had the chefs putting local produce on a pedestal as they were tasked with creating a grape-centric dish aboard the Napa Wine Train for their Quickfire Challenge and with creating two dishes (one vegetarian, the other protein-based) with local ingredients for Rutherford Hill's annual crush celebration. I have t