No announcement of a premiere date yet, but we just got word that the sixth season of Top Chef will take place in Vegas, Baby!

Those of you that have been to Las Vegas know that some of the most incredible, high-end restaurants are located there. It’s a city based on pampering the tourists and it should prove to be a fantastic venue for the sixth season of the series.

The usual faces will be returning; host Padma Lakshmi, head judge Chef Tom Colicchio, judge Gail Simmons and that cranky, British judge Toby Young. He certainly did mix things up a bit, didn’t he?

I love Top Chef and I love Las Vegas, so I can’t wait for this new season to begin. I’ll keep you informed of developments as they are released.

We have just found out who Maxim named for their annual Hot 100 list and two reality TV hosts are on the list this time.

[Photo: Zuma Press]

No one should be surprised that the absolutely stunning model/Project Runway show host Heidi Klum is #62 on the list. She is so beautiful both inside and out, it seems completely deserved.

[Photo: Zuma Press]

And Top Chef host/model Padma Lakshmi has been named #95 on the list. She’s been on the list for several years now and truly is amazing looking.

Congratulations to both women for being recognized for being so beautiful!

Padma Lakshmi, the beautiful host of Bravo’s Top Chef is among the Sexiest Stars on TV, according to TV Guide. She’s included in the feature about TV’s sexiest stars and is truly deserving of the title. I know a lot of men who watch Top Chef, not for the competition, but to get a glimpse here and there of Padma.

Here’s a great little clip for us all to drool over. It’s a behind the scenes look at the TV Guide photo shoots and some words from the Sexiest Stars on TV, including Padma. She’s among very good company too. My own personal TV crush, Simon Baker is on the list along with a ton of other male and female hotties. So, sit back, relax and hit the play button. Enjoy!

[Photos: © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

[Photo: Barbara Nitke, © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

This week’s guest judge was the legendary Chef Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin in New York. He’s incredibly talented and his standards are quite high!

The Quickfire Challenge was to perfectly filet unusual types of fish in a three-round challenge. Round 1 was Sardines. The two who were eliminated this round were Jamie & Carla. Round 2 was Arctic Char. The two eliminated this round were Leah (she just gave up!) and Fabio. The third round was Fresh Water Eel. Stefan smoked Hosea and won the challenge.

[Photo: Virginia Sherwood, © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

The chefs found out that they were all invited to be Chef Ripert’s guest at his restaurant the next day. They all sat down to try six of his signature seafood dishes. After they had finished, they were told that the food they had just tried was part of their Elimination Challenge. They each had to re-create as closely as possible, one of the six dishes.

Since Stefan won the Quickfire Challenge, he got to choose his dish. The rest had to draw knives to find out which dish they would create. Here are the dishes:

• Stefan: Baked Lobster with Asparagus & Hollandaise Sauce
• Fabio: Sourdough Encrusted Red Snapper with Tomato Basil Consomme
• Leah: Baked Mahi-Mahi with Miso & Matsutake Mushroom Sauce
• Carla: Oil-Poached Escolar with Potato Crisps in a Red Wine Bearnaise Sauce
• Hosea: Za’atar Spiced Monkfish with Black Garlic
• Jamie: Sauteed Black Bass & Braised Celery with Serrano Ham & Peppercorn Sauce

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[Photos: © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

Tonight on Top Chef, Fabio and Stefan react to having been in the bottom three last week. They are both starting to really feel the pressure, now that things are down to only six chefs. And even though Carla won last week’s challenge, she feels that she’s still not taken seriously:

World-famous chef Eric Ripert is the guest judge this week. So, he will judge a three-round fish filet challenge. OMG!! Leah is soooo bad at fileting fish! I wonder if she’ll be able to pull it out for this challenge.

For the Elimination Challenge, Chef Ripert will turn over the kitchen of his New York restaurant, Le Bernardin. I guess we’ll see whether the chefs can live up to his level of quality…

Be sure to watch Top Chef on Bravo, tonight at 10/9c.

[Photos: © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

On last night’s Top Chef New York, the guest judge was Chef Scott Conant, owner of Scarpetta Restaurant and a heavy hitter in the culinary world. For the Quickfire Challenge, Padma had the chefs write their names on a “Football Squares” chart. It turned out that the only variable they were choosing was the food group with which they were to combine Quaker Oats to create their dish. It was a tough challenge and these were the dishes they created:

• Stefan (Dairy): Banana Mousse with Quaker Oats & Oat-Almond Petit Four
• Fabio (Vegetables): Quaker Oat-Crusted Eggplant with Corn & Parmesan Salad
• Carla (Nuts & Grains): Pecan & Quaker Oat Crusted Tofu with Oatmeal & Lentil Salad
• Jamie (Fruit): Coconut & Quaker Oat-Crusted Shrimp, Nectarine Salsa & Avocado Crème Fraiche
• Hosea (Meat): Quaker Oat-Crusted Weiner Schnitzel with Warm Potato Salad & Mustard Sauce
• Leah (Seafood): Quaker Oat-Crusted Branzino & Mussels with Escarole & Bacon
• Jeff (Poultry): Quaker Oat-Crusted Chicken Paillard, Grits & Fried Zucchini

After tasting them all, the guest judge announced that the worst dishes were those of Leah, Jeff & Fabio. As for the best, he said it was Carla, Jamie & Stefan. The winner was Stefan. He’s won 5 challenges in a row now!

[Photo: Virginia Sherwood © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

For the Elimination Challenge, they were all given chef jackets with their names and the number 5 for Top Chef 5. When they went back to the kitchen, they were met with previous season all-stars against whom they would compete in the challenge.

[Photo: Virginia Sherwood © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

They each competed against an all-star and had to cook the food from the region of an NFL football team. (Talk about a convoluted way to tie in with the Super Bowl…) Any season 5 chef who lost their head-to-head challenge would go to judges’ table.

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[Photos: © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

Tonight on Top Chef New York, the chefs will get in the spirit of the Super Bowl with a couple of seemingly football challenges. The Quickfire Challenge will have them playing Football Squares, Top Chef style. After the categories are revealed they find out that they have to find a way to create a tasty dish using Quaker oats and a food group. That’s a pretty tough challenge!

Then, in the Elimination Challenge we’ll get to see some of our favoirites from past seasons of Top Chef come back to challenge them. Hurray! Two of my all-time favorites, Andrew & Spike will be back tonight! And watch how the veterans will try their best to intimidate the current season of chefs. This is going to be fun!

Be sure to watch Top Chef on Bravo tonight at 10/9c.

[Photos: © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

[Photo: © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

This week on Top Chef, the guest judge is a very prestigious chef and is the owner of Starr Restaurants, Stephen Starr. For the Quickfire Challenge, the cheftestants were tasked with creating a tasting item to present to Chef Starr as if he were a potential investor in their restaurant. They were given only 30 minutes to create their dish. The pressure was really on.

Here were the chefs’ dishes:

Carla: Cod Seared in Tomato Oil with Italian Salsa & Mache Green Salad
Hosea: Shrimp with Morel Mushroom Cream Sauce, Garlic Potato Puree & Poached Asparagus
Leah: Tempura Poussin with Dashi, Soy Sauce & Rice Wine Vinegar
Stefan: Fried White Asparagus with Trout, Asparagus Salad & White Asparagus Soup
Jeff: Grilled Salmon with Sunchoke & Artichoke Puree, Grilled Corn & Asparagus Salad
Radhika: Pan-Seared Cod, Butter Braised Corn, Spinach & Chorizo with Cream Sauce
Jamie: Chilean Sea Bass with Creamed Corn, Bacon, Peas & Garlic Scape
Fabio: Tuna & Swordfish Carpaccio, Roasted Vegetable Salad, Filet Mignon Sandwich

After tasting them all, Chef Starr said that his least favorites were the dishes by Jeff & Fabio. He announced his favorites were the dishes by Radhika & Leah. They were both made the team leaders for the Elimination Challenge, which was the traditional Restaurant Wars. These were the two teams:

Sahana: Radhika, Jamie, Carla & Jeff
Sunset Lounge: Leah, Hosea, Fabio & Stefan

The night before the Elimination Challenge, Leah & Hosea were lying together, snuggling and kissing on the couch. They both have a significant other back home and it seemed like behavior that would be way over the line… They both called it “flirting.” I think most people would call it much more than just flirting.
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[Photos: © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

Don’t miss tonight’s new episode of Top Chef. Now that the competition is half over, the chefs begin to realize that it’s just as much psychological warfare as it is being a good chef that will take them to the end. Tonight, it’s season 5 of Restaurant Wars. This is always a tough challenge and tonight will be no exception.

In this first spoiler clip, we see a bit of how last week Hosea and Leah were instrumental in having Ariane sent home. Wow! Things are getting tough!

For this week’s QuickFire Challenge, the chefs will create a “tasting” for a “potential investor” in their fictional restaurant. The two people who win the challenge will become the head of their restaurant’s team. Jamie says she doesn’t even want to win this challenge because the leaders for Restaurant Wars are usually the ones to go down.

Here we see that the chefs are under the gun to get everything perfect for the judges. And I think I’ve figured out that the judges take great pleasure in “torturing” the chefs during each season’s Restaurant Wars. See what I mean:

Be sure to watch Top Chef on Bravo tonight at 10/9c.

[Photos: © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

The chefs on Top Chef this week are starting get really annoyed with Stefan, but all that gets put aside when Padma announces the Quickfire Challenge. The chefs will have to use canned goods and will only have 15 minutes to prepare something really delicious. Needless to say, they weren’t happy about it at all. The guest judge, season 3 winner, Hung, was not at all sympathetic, since he’s the fastest chef ever on the show.

Here are the Quickfire Challenge dishes they created:

• Leah: Waffles with Strawberries and Sausage
• Stefan: Baked Bean Soup with Grilled Cheese & Spam Sandwich
• Fabio: Mac & Cheese with Roasted Artichoke & Chili Pepper
• Radhika: Spicy Red Bean Dip with Grilled Bread
• Hosea: Sweet Pea Soup with Spam, Onion Rings, Pork Rinds & Hearts of Palm
• Jeff: Deep Fried Baby Conch, coconut Sauce & Pina Colada
• Jamie: Buschetta With Garbanzo Beans, Artichoke & Smoked Mussels
• Ariane: Open-Faced Turkey spam Sandwich with Gravy & Cranberry-Pineapple Chutney
• Carla: Asian Salmon Cake with Fried Green Beans & Lemongrass-Ginger Mayo

After tasting everything, Hung said the three worst were Radhika, Leah & Jamie. He said the three best were those of Hosea, Stefan & Jeff. The winner of the Quickfire Challenge is Stefan. He was given immunity, much to the dismay of his fellow chefs.

[Bravo Photo: Barbara Nitke, © 2008 NBC Universal, Inc.]

For the Elimination Challenge, they drew knives for their proteins and divided into teams. They had to fix a family-style meal, including dessert for 16 people using their protein and seasonal ingredients.

All night long, people were re-thinking their menus and when Jamie tried to make a change, Stefan refused to let her do it, even though he’s the one with immunity.

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