Shane Life

I’m currently in New York City for the Web 2.0 Expo and Alli joined me so she could see some of the city with Rachel and we could hang out at night.

Tonight was our big date night in the city. We had tickets to see Complexions Modern Ballet at the Joyce Theater (which was amazing), but before the performance, we had one of the greatest meals I have ever eaten.

I was a fan of Harold Dieterle’s as soon as I saw him on Season One of Top Chef [proof 1 2 3]. In fact, I even put “eat at Harold’s restaurant Perilla” on a bucket list I made in May of this year.

Tonight, I actually got to check that off tonight.

What you’re seeing in this picture is the tasting of Colorado lamb, my entree at Perilla.

I started with the Crispy Calimary & Watercress salad. It had mint and pecans and a chili-lime vinaigrette. Alli started with the Baby Red Romaine salad, which had bartlett pears, stilton cheese and spicy pecan vinaigrette. I tried both. They were so balanced and amazing (you’ll see a theme begin to develop).

For the main course, I had the lamb trio — grilled rack, crispy braised belly, homemade cheese & parsley sausage. Alli had their Red Kuri Squash Agnolotti with chanterelles, grilled halloumi & brown butter-hazelnut sauce. We also got the Farro Risotto on the side to share. We followed it up with a piece of the pumpkin pecan pie with caramel sauce and pumpkin ice cream.

I don’t think that we could have made a bad decision. Frankly, I’m fairly certain that everything on the menu is phenomenal because everything that we had far exceeded my high expectations. Our service was exceptional. The decor is appropriate. The music…well, I don’t know who makes their playlists, but it might as well have been me.

One more thing: at the end of our meal, I told our server to please give our compliments to the chef and that I was a huge fan of everything. She said, “Well, he’s here, would you like to say hello?”

Um…YES PLEASE.

I thought that she was going to bring Harold out to the table…no, she came back and waved to us, signaling us to come with her and we followed her back into the kitchen where I got to shake Harold’s hand and thank him personally for the meal. I admit that I was a bit starstruck, but who cares? It was awesome.

I can’t state this too strongly: our meal was legendary. It’s been 4 hours since it ended and I’m still thinking about it. Thank you so much to Harold and the entire Perilla staff for making our dinner very special. It far exceeded my experience at Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill. Oh, I didn’t tell you about that?

All in due time…

I’ve never made a secret of the fact that Top Chef is easily my favorite reality show. I love the competitions, the drama and I think that the judges are some of the most knowledgeable and respected minds in the culinary world (although I think that Padma sometimes pretends to be a little more knowledgeable than she should).

Last night was the competition finale. Held in the historic Commander’s Palace in New Orleans, Hosea, Carla and Stefan competed in the best competition of the season - cook [the judges] the best three-course meal of your life.

Even Stefan responded by saying something to the effect of, “No challenge? That makes it tougher.”

I had some high hopes for this season. I felt like it was deep with talented chefs, particularly Team Europe (Stefan and Fabio), but I felt like two of the most talented chefs (Jamie and Jeff) were eliminated entirely too early. And while Carla grew on me eventually, the fact that she made it as deep as she did was pretty shocking. She took far too long to find her groove and should have been eliminated earlier.

As far as Hosea winning…I picked him around week four as a finalist and Alli put it best last night when she said, “He seems like a small-town chef. He needs more everything. More experience, more exposure, just more.” Too true. Because currently, I’d say that Hosea is battling Ilan as the worst winning Top Chef of the five seasons. He has a lot of potential and he cooks good food, but there were two huge problems that Hosea encountered:

• He was far too motivated by Stefan. Stefan will not be in his kitchen down the road to challenge him, so he’d better find some more motivation.
• The whole thing with Leah. That was not classy at all. And the on-the-mouth kiss after he won it all…well, we’ll see what that meant in the horribly-hosted reunion show next week.

My highlights of the season:

• The Super Bowl challenge. I loved that one, especially seeing the crazy “I have a culinary boner” Andrew again.
• Thanksgiving dinner for the Foo Fighters.
• The Le Bernadin challenge. Having to recreate Eric Ripert’s food in his restaurant for him…that’s nothing short of daunting.
• The premiere. It was a great way to weed out people and gave them plenty of opportunities to save themselves.
• Toby Young. He can’t really replace Gail, but he was a decent replacement for Ted Allen, who went off to host that horrible Chopped show on the Food Network.

It certainly wasn’t my favorite season of all, but I’m ready for the next season to start. I’m hoping that in the future, they’ll downplay Padma a little more and bring back Tom C. into the mix. He’s such a great chef and I felt like he was lacking from this season.

Don’t forget. The Top Chef: New York premiere is tonight.

Watch it.

(And yes, this is my NaBloPoMo post for the evening. Don’t mess with me on Top Chef Premiere Night.)

My favorite reality TV show is back. Emmy-nominated Top Chef is in New York City this season with new challenges, new food, and a whole lot of kitchen drama.

After spending two seasons in San Francisco, then taking the show on the road to Miami and Chicago, Top Chef is in the culinary center of the universe now. I can’t wait.

For those of you that do not watch this brilliant show, you are fools. It starts Wednesday night on Bravo, so set your DVR now so you don’t miss it. Seriously. It’s Project Runway meets the Food Network and it’s totally awesome.

I predict a possible live-blog of the 9 p.m. Wednesday premiere.

In case you didn’t hear me earlier, my favorite reality show on TV – Top Chef – returned tonight.

There were at least 5 occasions where I turned to Alli and said, “I LOVE THIS SHOW!!!!” Here’s why:

1. The first Quickfire Challenge. I totally predicted that it would be a deep-dish pizza challenge. I was shocked at some of the concoctions and kind of surprised that the didn’t pick an actual winner. No immunity for anyone.
2. Andrew. Christian Siriano would call this dude a Big Hot Fierce Mess. He swears. He’s a hothead. He’s the reason they have reality TV. Just an utter train wreck.
3. The Guest Judges. First, you have Rocco DiSpirito. This guy is thinking, “I had a show about a restaurant. It failed because I was a jerk. Now I’m judging these fools who can’t tell a Chicken Piccata from a Chicken Marsala.” Then, you have Anthony Freaking Bourdain. The original rock star chef. I love that guy. These dudes bring credibility to an already awesome show.
4. The Elimination Challenge. LeAnn Wong (of Season One) is now the food producer on the show and it’s her job to come up with all the challenges. She does a terrific job and I thought this challenge was a great one to start off the season. I liked the head-to-head aspect of it, especially, pitting my #2 up against his nemesis from the Quickfire. Loved it. Plus, the simplicity of the challenge really gave them all a chance to shine since they were all focusing on classic dishes.
5. Padma Lunchmeat. One of the best quotes of the night. Nice one, Alli.

Seriously people. Take the Food Network and reality shows. Mash them together and you get Top Chef. You cannot lose here, folks.

The last bastion of great reality television returns tonight with an all new season. Padma “ex-Mrs. Salman Rushdie” Lakshmi, Tom “Don’t call me Bear” Collichio, Ted “I need work since Queer Eye was cancelled” Allen, and Gail “ummm…last name?” are all back with a whole new set of chefs and challenges.

Given my affinity for all things food-related, I’m a HUGE fan of Top Chef. Ever since I accurately predicted that Harold would win Season One on episode 2, I’ve been totally hooked, never missing a quick-fire challenge, even when they had that crappy host during the first season. I wasn’t happy when Hung won it all last year, but I have high hopes for this season. The talent of the chefs increases every year and I’m looking forward to them being in one of my all-time favorite cities, Chicago.

I’m assuming that there will be at least one challenge tonight related to deep-dish pizza and I can’t wait to see the knives come out. If you aren’t watching Top Chef, you are an idiot. 9 p.m. tonight on Bravo. Watch what happens.

I really liked Brian’s post about his favorites of 2006, so I thought I would drop mine onto the internets.

Favorite Book: This is a tough one. I’ve read more books this year than in any year past. If I wanted to seem all intellectual and whatnot, I’d say that The Tipping Point was my favorite read. And truthfully, it was my favorite non-fiction read of the year. Great writing and a fascinating book. However, I would probably say that my favorite book of the year was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Call me cheesy or whatever, but after reading all 6 Harry Potter books this year, I finally see what the big deal is. While I held high acclaim for several books this year (I had about 8 that scored higher than 9 out of 10 on my scale, including The Historian, which I called “the best book I’ve read in the last 5 years”), I can’t think of a single book outside of the fifth in the Harry Potter series that I enjoyed more.

Favorite Movie: OK, so the year’s not yet over, but I’m going to need to categorize my favorite movies…

Favorite Comedy: There were not a lot of terribly funny movies out there this year. Out of the few, I had a great time watching both The Devil Wears Prada and Little Miss Sunshine. Very different movies, but both were a lot of fun. However, my favorite comedy of the year was Stranger than Fiction. Honorable mentions for Clerks 2 and Thank You for Smoking.

Favorite Drama: Another tough one. I would like to retract my earlier statement that Leonardo di Caprio did not deserve two Best Actor nominations. After seeing Blood Diamond, I realized that he deserved every bit of them. Blood Diamond is excellent as was The Departed. I would give a slight edge to The Departed only because Jack Nicholson is so awesome in it.

Favorite Action: Casino Royale. Hands down.

Favorite Animated: Cars. Pixar does what only Pixar can do.

Favorite TV Sitcom: The Office is my clear choice here, but it is followed closely by How I Met Your Mother, which Alli and I have dubbed “the new Friends”.

Favorite TV Drama: Lost has really lost a lot of steam. Even at the top of its game, I don’t think I would enjoy it more than I am enjoying Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip these days.

Favorite TV Reality: Top Chef. Always Top Chef.

Favorite TV New: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Perhaps my favorite show on TV right now. Honorable mention for the late Six Degrees.

Favorite Album: Either St. Elsewhere by Gnarls Barkley or Continuum by John Mayer.

Favorite Event: Changing jobs. It was really hard to leave PSI, but it’s been a great experience so far. I’m really liking my new position. Also, the Chiefs making the playoffs is up there.

Favorite Home Improvement Project: I would probably say the tiling project if Alli and I hadn’t decided to make our bedroom a priority. We just got a bed, nightstands, new lamps, and drapes. Totally changes it (although we haven’t gotten the bed yet). Now we just need a new mattress.

Favorite Trip: VEGAS BABY.

Favorite Poker Night: Coming back from being desperately short-stacked to winning in the longest heads-up match against Darin at Jason’s house.

Favorite Restaurant: Pizza Shack. Would have been Chipotle if not for an AWESOME 30th birthday outing.

Favorite Present: Easily my painting.

That should be all for now. Here’s to a great 2007.

It’s 1:48 AM.

Big night.

Corporate Challenge Volleyball Finals (we won).
American Idol Finale (Michael McDonald II won).
Top Chef Finale (my boy Harold won).
Lost Finale (I got goosebumps…such an awesome show).

It’s time for bed. More on the above later.

I have a new reality TV obsession. I bow to thee, Top Chef, O King of Reality TV.

Here’s the deal. I never wanted to be THAT GUY. You know THAT GUY…he’s the one who watches all sorts of bad reality television and can’t help but spout off about it on a regular basis. But I am THAT GUY.

The truth is…the only mainstream reality that I watch is the new Season of The Apprentice. The rest of the reality TV that I watch resides on that station in the middle of the numbers called BRAVO. Owned by NBC, Bravo came to recognition originally with interesting shows like Inside the Actor’s Studio with James Lipton (brilliantly lampooned by Will Ferrell years back on SNL). Then came Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. That show was kind of the Tipping Point for the network, which followed it by Heidi Klum’s Project Runway (a show I can’t watch, but that Alli absolutely loves). As the Project Runway season came to a close, they began advertising a show “from the producers of Project Runway” called Top Chef.

Now, I LIKE cooking shows…I don’t love them, but I like them enough to sit and watch Boy Meets Grill with Bobby Flay in about 3 hour blocks if they are running a marathon of shows and there is nothing else on. But Top Chef intrigued me.

Then, Bravo embraced the awesomeness that is the iTunes Music Store and offered the Pilot episode for download through their video store. I thought that was a brilliant move on their part (one that NBC subsequently copied with its show Conviction, a show I downloaded, but never watched). I downloaded the initial episode and I was totally hooked.

What makes Top Chef so completely genius is what makes reality television so popular. THE CHARACTERS. Depsite the fact that they are “real people”, they aren’t exactly what one would call “normal”. There are some of the largest egos and biggest train wrecks ever on that show and I love it for that.

And it is a really interesting show, too. There are some extremely talented (albeit very eccentric) chefs on the show and I have already found myself rooting for my favorite (Harold) and rooting against the “villain” (Steven). It’s just really compelling television.

As much as I hate to admit it.