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Food

Blood Spills at Top Chef's Taste of the Five Boroughs!


By

John Del Signore

Published Oct 28, 2008

Modified Oct 28, 2008


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Top Chef contestants with Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons and Padma Lakshmi

 

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By

John Del Signore

Published Oct 28, 2008

Modified Oct 28, 2008


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Top Chef fever is spreading like salmonella, and who among us can resist the hype, especially considering that the new season of Top Chef, premiering next month, was filmed here in NYC? Last week the Top Chef Truck concluded its tour in Union Square with former cheftestants Richard Blais and Andrew D'Ambrosi cooking for us in the tractor trailer's kitchen. And yesterday a slew of Top Chef stars, past and future, were wrangled for cooking demos and flesh-pressing at the Taste of the Five Boroughs fundraiser for City Harvest. Blogger Life Vicarious was on the scene, which turned into a bloodbath:

We did find Andrew D'Ambrosi at his knife skills demo across Vanderbilt Hall where he was proud to represent the restaurant "rockin' the three stars." And how he represented! Showcasing his non-sissy knife skills at breakneck speed, he started supreming fruit before carving into his finger, began bleeding, turned to the demo sinks disappointed to discover they're just props, was first handed paper towels, then a bandage, then finally left the stage as an EMT arrived, and wanting to shift the focus and cameras away from him and back to his demo partner Spike Mendelsohn he went backstage to be tended by the EMT. (We can't even imagine how an actual sissy would have handled this!)

There was also plenty of food from restaurants all over NYC; though anyone hoping for a taste of Le Cirque was probably stymied—Vicarious reports that the restaurant ran out within an hour. But it wasn't a wasted trip: The gift bag came with a sample of the new Top Chef video game!!!

Tagged

city harvest

food

grand central

nyc

padma lakshmi

photos

season five

taste of five boroughs

top chef


John Del Signore

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Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.

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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations


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