Shane Life

Sometimes, my life is just far too awesome for words.

Sunday night, I was invited by a friend to attend an amazing event at The National Golf Club in Parkville — a 6-course dinner prepared by season six Top Chef contestants Eli Kirshstein and Kevin “Beardy” Gillespie and The National’s Executive Chef, Eric Barkley.

You may remember a few weeks back when I talked about the Top Chef Tour coming to Kansas City. In that post, I said:

[My friend] Eric [who is the Director of Food & Beverage for The National] is actually bringing back Eli and one of my personal favorites, Kevin “BEARDY” Gillespie for a special 6-course event (two by each Top Chef and 2 by Chef Barkley from The National) at their clubhouse in May.

Well, I was lucky enough to be invited as a guest to this amazing event. Alli and I were seated next to the pastry chef and executive chef (and 4-time James Beard Award nominee) of bluestem in Westport, which was really a treat. Not only were we treated to an amazing meal, but we had some great company and got some insight into the cooking side of things from Colby and Megan.

And now, the food…

The first course was prepared by Chef Barkley. It was a walleye served on a bed of sweet corn topped with ramps (wild leeks), morels, black truffles with a white wine foam. There were a lot of things that I just typed that I had never eaten before Sunday night, particularly ramps, which are apparently a very difficult to acquire vegetable (unlike normal leeks). As a lead-off dish, this was bright and interesting, but kind of large. The sweetness of the corn counteracted the acidity of the pickled ramps and the richness of the walleye and black truffles. I liked it a lot.

The second course was prepared by Chef Kirshtein, a scallop served on top of black garlic with Enoki mushrooms. I was really looking forward to having some scallops, but was a little disappointed in this dish. The scallop itself was nicely cooked and the black garlic was delicious, but I couldn’t get into the mushrooms. I want to be adventurous in my eating, but these were a little out there.

This next dish surprised the crap out of me. I did not expect that Chef Kirshtein’s chicken with broccoli gremolata and lily bulb puree would be my favorite course of the night. I have never tasted a chicken that was cooked better. The skin was crispy and the meat of the chicken was rich and tender and in stark contrast to the vinegar-y broccoli gremolata. Another wonderful surprise about this dish was the lily bulb puree. This was a point in the meal where it was extremely helpful to have chefs Garrelts at our table. I learned that lily bulb was actually a fancy name for onion. So basically, it was like a potato puree, only with onions. And it tasted awesome.

The fourth course was our first from Chef Beardy Gillespie, and it was actually a Top Chef challenge winner from last season’s Pigs and Pinot challenge. What was it? It’s difficult to tell from the picture, so let me help: it was a pork terrine with a pickled cherry and a mushroom salad (not like a green salad, but like a chicken salad…it’s that gray stuff on top of the pork terrine slice). I really liked this dish. It wasn’t amazingly appetizing to look at (although it was extremely cleanly plated), but it tasted salty and sweet and balanced. Yum.

Our next dish, from Chef Eric Barkley, had my favorite side item of the night. Served with a wagyu Kansas City (they called it New York…I refuse to do so) strip loin topped with a vidalia onion compote was a completely EPIC gorgonzola bread pudding with bacon. (Okay, so the dish was technically centered around the strip loin, but not for me.) So much awesomeness here. If I described it more, you might become insanely jealous and hunt me down.

The final savory dish was from Chef Beardy and was quite an experience. Now, I’ve had lamb loin before at Perilla in New York. I have not, however, had lamb loin with sweetbread (most mis-named food EVER) fricassee, lemony greens and potato cream. I wasn’t too hip on eating the thymus and pancreas of an animal, but I figured I had to give it a shot. Really weird. The lamb was pretty good too and the pomegranate brown butter that it was served with was quite tasty.

I didn’t actually photograph the 7th bonus course, which was prepared by the Herndon Career Center from Raytown. The dessert plate was a myriad of deliciousness — a Meyer lemon verbena sponge cake, chocolate two ways, homemade orange “pop rocks” and some nitro ice cream in a macadamia nut cone. The cone was the best part, but considering that it was concepted and prepared by high schoolers, I was really impressed.

After the meal, the chefs came out and answered some questions and told stories of their culinary background and their experiences on the show. I’d heard some of Eli’s stories from the Top Chef event from last month, but it was really fun to hear some of Beardy’s stories, since he was my favorite from last season.

I can’t thank my friend Eric enough for inviting me and Alli to attend this event. It was such a great experience to each such delicious food. I know that The National is working on another Top Chef-inspired event in September. Be sure to follow me on Twitter and I’ll be sure that you know about the event if you’re interested. If you love food and you love Top Chef, you really shouldn’t miss these special events.

I know that I’m glad I didn’t miss this one.

I got to check out the Kansas City stop of the Top Chef Tour last Friday.

Eli Kirshtein from Season 6 and Nikki Cascone from Season 4 came into KC and showed off their culinary chops and answered some questions in four sessions outside Cosentino’s Market. The first 15-20 minutes were spent making a quick Scimeca’s Sausage meatball with sauerkraut, aioli and topped with some gala apples.

By themselves, I like very few of the components in this dish. Sauerkraut? EW. Mustard? No thanks. But as a dish, it totally worked. The flavors worked together to create something really simple and tasty.

My favorite part of the event was the Q&A, though. As someone who’s been watching Top Chef since season one (and I’ve talked about it plenty), I was interested in hearing about the show and their experiences. One of the things that cracked me up was Eli and Nikki talking trash on some of the more well-known chefs of the world, particularly Bobby Flay (“Just throw it on the grill with some chipotle in adobo and some cilantro.”).

I was actually really surprised at how open and honest they were, pulling no punches about the contestants they competed with (Eli still hates Robin, it seems) and the challenges they competed in.

It was a really nice event and I have to say thanks to my friend Eric from The National, who got me the tickets. Eric is actually bringing back Eli and one of my personal favorites, Kevin “BEARDY” Gillespie for a special 6-course event (two by each Top Chef and 2 by Chef Barkley from The National) at their clubhouse in May. As amazing as the event sounds, the price tag might be a little out of my range.

For the rest of my pictures, check out my Flickr photoset.

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.