DFW.com/Rodger Mallison
Chef Tiffany Derry at Go Fish Ocean Club in Dallas
Ranking the seasons
If there's one thing we've learned about Top Chef, it's that no two fans seem to have the same opinion about which seasons are the best. We always look for a few ingredients: When it comes to the "cheftestants," we want a quality chef who also has a strong reality-show contestant personality, but the strength of the judges, the hosts and the challenges are also factors. With that in mind, here's our completely arbitrary -- but in order, from top to bottom -- list of favorites.
1. Las Vegas (Season 6): Take the rivalry between brothers and formidable chefs Bryan and Michael Voltaggio, add the down-to-earth simplicity of Kevin Gillespie, the no-nonsense-in-the-kitchen attitude of Jennifer Carroll, and the arrogance (which he occasionally backed up) of Mike Isabella, and you have Top Chef's strongest group of front-runners -- so strong, in fact, that some complained about this season's lack of balance. Carroll and Isbabella are on All-Stars.
2. Miami (Season 3): Besides North Texans Casey Thompson and Tre Wilcox, both of whom were strong competitors, Season 3 had the abrasively egotistical Hung Hyunh (who backed up his ego by winning the thing) and the likable Dale Levitski, who joins Thompson and Wilcox on All-Stars. But the contestant we liked the most, very tall and very funny Chris "CJ" Jacobsen, is MIA on All-Stars, which is too bad, because his sense of humor helped make Season 3 one of the best.
3. Los Angeles (Season 2): Although this season's winner, Ilan Hall, hasn't stuck in our memory quite as well as All-Stars' outspoken, wolverine-haired Marcel Vigneron, this season did more than Season 1 in setting the show's tone. It also introduced host Padma Lakshmi, who some contestants have said is the show's toughest judge. It's also memorable for a late-in-the-season hair-shaving spree that got contestant Cliff Crooks disqualified when he tried to shear an unwilling Vigneron. Elia Aboumrad, who did shave her hair, is on All-Stars with Vigneron.
4. New York (Season 5): Hosea Rosenberg was the winner, but it's really the also-rans -- especially the eccentric Carla Hall and the funny but pugnacious Fabio Viviani -- who make this season linger in our minds. Hall, Viviani and Jamie Lauren are on All-Stars.
5. Chicago (Season 4): Notable for the molecular gastronomy techniques of All-Stars' Richard Blais, who manages to come off as a nice guy despite being a kitchen hot shot. This season also featured the entertaining, hat-sporting Spike Mendelsohn (another All-Star) and Dale Talde, who came on like Hung II. All of them are on All-Stars, which makes sense, because we remember them more than we remember the appealing but forgettable winner Stephanie Izard. But then, Antonia Lofaso is also on All-Stars -- and we don't remember her at all.
6. D.C. (Season 7): Maybe it's just because this followed Las Vegas, but the quality of chefs in this one just didn't seem as strong as it should've been so far along in Top Chef's run. We did like Dallas' Tiffany Derry and her fellow All-Star Angelo Sosa (perhaps the most insecure arrogant chef in the series' history), as well as Sosa's rivalry with Kenny Gilbert, and the maturity of young chef Kelly Liken. But we think that by this time, we were suffering some Top Chef fatigue -- All- Stars couldn't have come at a better time.
7. San Francisco (Season 1): Yes, it deserves some credit for starting it all, but it didn't even have Padma Lakshmi, and repeats reveal that her predecessor, Katie Lee Joel, was nowhere near a standout as host or judge. Tiffani Faison and the dapper Stephen Asprinio represent the season on All-Stars.
Top Chef: All-Stars begins Wednesday on Bravo with a simple format: It's more or less Top Chef, with some of the best players who didn't win their seasons back for a chance at redemption.
Judging from what we've seen, redemption won't be easy -- the judges are being tougher than ever, especially new regular judge Anthony Bourdain, who lives up to his reputation for brutal candor in the first episode.
Three of the All-Stars -- Tiffany Derry, Casey Thompson and Tre Wilcox -- have North Texas connections. Here's a look at their journeys before and since their Top Chef seasons.
Tiffany Derry
Hometown: Beaumont; until recently, was executive chef at north Dallas' Go Fish Ocean Club.
Contestant on: Top Chef: D.C. (Season 7), in which she made it to the top five before being taken down to Earth during a space-food challenge: The contestants had to prepare a dish that could be eaten by astronauts in space, but some overfrozen mussels kept Derry grounded while other contestants soared.
Known for: Upbeat personality, sense of humor and infectious laugh that helped make her a fan favorite; flirtatious friendship with fellow Season 7 contestant Ed Cotton; getting married between her Top Chef season (in which she won enough prize money and trips for two honeymoons) and that season's reunion show.
Before Top Chef: Derry began her culinary career at ... IHOP, which is not exactly known for the seafood dishes that have become her specialty. She told DFW.com's Heather Svokos in a recent interview that she began as a server and within three months, she was cooking pancakes, becoming kitchen manager and then assistant store manager not long after that. Oh, yeah, and she was a teenager at the time. She also has worked at restaurants in Houston and taught culinary classes at the Art Institute of Dallas.
After Top Chef: Derry remained executive chef at Go Fish till it unexpectedly closed in November. This stumbling block doesn't seem to have slowed Derry down much: According to the Chef Tiffany Derry page on Facebook, her hometown honored her with Chef Tiffany Derry Day not long before Go Fish closed, and since then, she has attended the Gourmet Food & Wine Expo in Toronto. She was also a candidate for Entertainment Weekly's Underappreciated Entertainer of the Year.
Casey Thompson
Hometown: Cedar Hill
Contestant on: Top Chef: Miami (Season 3), where she made it to the finals, which took place in the Colorado Rockies -- where high altitude does strange things to people and to cooking techniques, sabotaging Thompson's four-course finale dinner.
Known for: Strong competitive nature, Southern-inspired as well as pan-Asian cooking, keeping herself above typical reality-show backbiting, slow onion slicing and -- let's be honest, here -- good looks. Like Derry, she was voted fan favorite for her season.
Before Top Chef: A protégé of Dallas celebrity chef Dean Fearing, for whom she worked at Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, Thompson was best known during her Top Chef season for being executive chef at Dallas' Shinsei, an Asian restaurant co-owned by Lynae Fearing (Dean's wife) and Tracy Rathbun (wife of Dallas celebrity chef Kent Rathbun).
After Top Chef: Thompson continued at Shinsei for a while before taking off for San Francisco, then traveling to places such as Thailand and Argentina to learn more about culinary techniques. She has also worked with many Napa Valley and Sonoma wineries, but around here she is best known for returning to Texas to open (along with friend and businessman Sam Sameni) Fort Worth's Brownstone Restaurant, which began service in June and emphasizes using local ingredients.
Tre Wilcox
Hometown: Duncanville
Contestant on: Top Chef: Miami, where he was eliminated during the traditional "Restaurant Wars" episode. At eighth place for his season, Wilcox has one of the lowest finishes among the All-Stars, and his early ouster didn't go over well with the show's fans. Even the Top Chef Web site calls it the biggest upset in the series' history.
Known for: Strong cooking skills, physical fitness and perhaps being a little too laid-back when being "executive chef" of a Top Chef "restaurant."
Before Top Chef: Wilcox got his start in the fast-food world (hey, there's an idea: Top Chef: Fast Food) but wanted to go beyond the want-fries-with-that universe. He eventually became chef de cuisine at Dallas' respected Abacus, one of Kent Rathbun's restaurants (in a 2007 interview, Wilcox and Thompson said they rarely crossed paths at each other's restaurants, despite all the connections among their bosses).
After Top Chef: Wilcox spent a couple of years as a traveling private chef before returning to North Texas, where he is executive chef at Plano's Loft 610. He plans to open his own restaurant, Marquee Grill, next year in Dallas.
Robert Philpot, 817-390-7872
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