Yesterday I had the unique opportunity to get up close and personal with
Top Chef's Richard Blais (from season 4) and Carlos Fernandez (from Season 2). The Top Chef tour made a stop
in Tampa this weekend with a gigantic tractor trailer that included a fully equipped kitchen and indoor seating
area for about 30 people. I was fortunate to get entry to the first seating, along with Tampa's mayor Pam Iorio and Chef
Blais's in-laws, wife and newborn daughter.
Though he cooked a simple dish of Mediterranean style lamb chops and
potato salad, he did it with flair, even branishing a blowtorch to give the chops a "steakhouse broiled" finish.
During Top Chef's competition, Blaise was given the name "Willy Wonka" because of his love of playful toys,
innovative gadgets and his use of molecular gastronomy (as well as his choice of the movie for a themed dinner).
And true to his style, Richard did break out the blowtorch as part of his cooking demonstration.
But although he's known as the guy to likes gadgets and cooking with nitrogen,
we learned that his style really is rather simple. We were able to watch him prepare such a basic, yet
satisfying meal using fresh ingredients bought the previous day at a local Whole Foods Market. There
were no scripts and no recipes, just cooking and commentary, which kept the entire demonstration interesting and
fun. While adding ingredients to a home made potato salad, we learned about one of Richard's favorite
herbs, dill, as he made the comparative statement "cilantro is like rap music, while dill is like Jackie O."
His point being that cilantro is cool right now, but he prefers the classy swagger of dill.
So how was the food? Fantastic. The lamb chops were perfectly seasoned
with rosemary, coriander and cumin and cooked to medium rare; the potato salad was creamy and balanced
with salty capers and fresh dill. Although Richard Blais did not win season four of Top Chef
and was not even elected fan favorite, he was my favorite. And having the privelidge of shaking his hand and tasting
his food affirmed not only that he is a great chef, but also a great guy.
