Wow has the past week been busy – a winning “Top Chef Masters” debut, doing a Wine Bar Food segment on the TODAY show and gearing up to host a Spiaggia 26th Anniversary dinner at the James Beard House tonight in New York City.  Everyone has been so enthusiastic and supportive of my “Top Chef Masters” involvement.  There are so many questions from “Were you nervous,” “how was it spending time with other chefs,” and “what’s next?”  All I can say is that my time on the show was an incredible, unparalleled experience.

Chef Susan Feniger and I won the quickfire and elimination challenges a a team. 

We had a viewing party at the Spiaggia Private Dining Rooms last Wednesday to celebrate the season premiere and my participation in the episode.  The viewing party was a last minute decision on our part.  No more than 15 minutes after announcing the event, just a week before the premiere, we SOLD OUT!  It’s a real honor to know that Chicago was supporting Spiaggia and me.  Since we were only able to accommodate 150 of our closest fans, I thought you might like to hear some of the evening’s highlights and some of my behind-the-scenes reflections after the jump.

  • To start, I was more anxious to watch the show for first time than I was during the actual filming, especially with 150 fans. But, that’s nothing a few glasses of Prosecco couldn’t help.  
  • Me, plucky?!  Who knew that I would be the “plucky comic relief?”  My comment about going to Chinatown for our first quickfire: “not my forte” had everyone in the room cracking up.  
  • One thing all aspiring chefs should know is that good kitchen chemistry is everything.  I’m fortunate to have this at Spiaggia, but also during my Top Chef Masters experience.  Some post-show blog recaps dubbed Susan Feniger and I as “The Odd Couple.” Working with Susan couldn’t have been a more harmonious, fun-filled experience.  We were literally a winning duo and the proof was in our dishes. 
  • On the other hand, I was surprised to see so much discord between Govind Armstrong and Jimmy Bradley, especially since Jimmy is such a fixture on the New York dining scene where it can be very hard to succeed with one restaurant let alone managing two successfully.  I’d argue that the tension between them cause for tension in their dish that was felt by the judges at the tasting table.
  • Kelly Choi was great, she really made us all feel on edge and comfortable at the same time. Her curveball on the quickfire really threw us all off track.  I think she had fun pulling that sly prank.

I know I looked happy at the end of the show for the obvious reason, but I was also very pleased that I still had “it”. The fact that I can still cook with the best of them is a great feeling.  Stay tuned from some more updates from NYC and a recap of our James Beard Dinner.

written by Tony Mantuano