Bravo announced the eagerly anticipated cast list for the forthcoming season of Top Chef. The show’s seventh season will include cheftestants from many restaurants on the OpenTable network.
* Amanda Baumgarten, 27, hails from Los Angeles, where she currently cooks at Ford’s Filling Station. She has a flair for butchering and loves to cook meat on the bone. Her favorite recipe is roasted baby lamb with pomme cocotte persillade.
* Tracey Bloom, 33, grew up in Shortsville, New York, and now works in Atlanta, Georgia, as executive chef at Table 1280. She attended the Culinary Institute of America, becoming an expert in the sweet and savory side of culinary arts. Her favorite recipe is English pea salad.
* Boston’s own Ed Cotton, 32, is executive chef at Manhattan’s newly opened Plein Sud in Tribeca’s stylish Smyth Hotel. His favorite recipe is fresh farm egg ravioli with a silky English pea puree, spring onion fondue and crispy pancetta, and he loves to serve rabbit.
* Raised in the nation’s capital, Timothy Dean, 39, is the chef-owner of Prime Steak House in Baltimore, Maryland. He trained at Howard University and with the late, great chef, Jean-Louis Palladin. His favorite dishes are Maine lobster with mac & cheese and shaved black truffles and pan seared Hudson Valley foie gras with rhubarb and 20-year-old Port wine sauce.
* Don’t mess with Texas chef Tiffany Derry. She started earning her toque at an IHOP before attending culinary school at The Art Institute. Executive Chef at Go Fish Ocean Club in Houston, Derry, 26, always keeps Dijon, Creole mustard, champagne vinegar, kosher salt and Creole seasoning on hand, and her favorite recipe is spring risotto.
* Chef Kelly Liken, 33, recently made her first appearance on “Iron Chef.” Originally from Steel City, Liken is well-known to Colorado foodies, thanks to her eponymous restaurant. Her favorite recipe is Parmesan-mascarpone tortellini with spring vegetables and crispy artichokes, and she loves to prepare grilled foods as well.
* Brooklyn native Alex Reznick, 33, is executive chef at Ivan Kanes Café Was in Los Angeles. He enjoys pairing local, seasonal ingredients with classic French techniques to create honest, Californian bistro cuisine. His favorite dish is avocado panna cotta with pickled ramps and tomato.
* Kevin Sbraga, 31, is executive chef at the uniquely named Rat’s Restaurant at the Grounds for Sculpture in his hometown of Willingboro, New Jersey. The self-proclaimed “Barack Obama of the cooking game,” Sbraga’s favorite recipe is asparagus and morels.
* Just 24 years old, Tamesha Warren is the sous chef at Washington, D.C., power restaurant The Oval Room. A native of Barbados, Warren serves modern American food with French and Asian influences with a nod toward molecular gastronomy. Her favorite recipe is white asparagus soup.
Other cheftestants include Andrea Curto-Randazzo, 39, Lynn Gigliotti, 51, Kenny Gilbert, 36, Stephen Hopcraft, 40, Jacqueline Lombard, 33, Arnold Myint, 32, Angelo Sosa, 35, and John Somerville, 42.
Good luck to all the competitors. Top Chef season 7 premieres Wednesday, June 16, 2010, on Bravo. Let us know who you’ll be rooting for here or on Facebook.
Yay! Looks like it will be a fantastic season!