Top Chef, continues to mesmerizes with its faux-real amalgamation of culinary school, rehab, group therapy and sleep-away camp rolled into one supersonic pupu platter for the senses.
It also produces celebre-chefs the entire country conspires to either hate or adore (or both, as is the case with Sam Talbot, who recently got the fawning, barftastic New York Times Style section treatment–”When two nonmodel women came up, stammering and giggling, he politely helped them talk”).
Harold Dieterle, the winner of the first season of the first iteration of Top Chef, is one of the lucky beloved. Probably because he got in on the ground floor, when we were still young and innocent, before Marcel, Lisa and Howie slithered onto the screen.
Not convinced? Check out his appearance on Nightline, where he chats about the importance of giving grandma the all-star treatment (in the form of magnum-sized Beringer white Zinfandels on the rocks, natch).
TOPICS: Eat to the Beat, Kathleen Willcox