Top Chef Texas Premieres Tonight On Bravo TV 9/8C

Tom & Padma in Top Chef Texas

Seconds ago I saw this ad on my Durango TV Blog. I then checked to make sure what the ad was telling me was correct.

It was.

Tonight Top Chef Texas has its premiere on Bravo at 10/9C.

Top Chef Texas takes place in Austin, San Antonio and the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

I was at the Fort Worth Stockyards a week ago today. As I was sitting on a bench beside the main street that runs through the Stockyards I saw a beautiful brunette in cowboy boots and a short skirt walking towards me with a group of less beautiful sorts. From a block away I thought it was Padma Lakshmi. I was soon to be disappointed that it was not Padma.

Celebrity Chef, Tim Love, who has been on Top Chef and Top Chef Masters, has two restaurants in the Fort Worth Stockyards, the Love Shack and the Lonesome Dove Bistro. I suspect Tim Love will show up on Top Chef Texas.

Former Top Chef cheftestant, Casey Thompson, was associated with a restaurant in Fort Worth, the Brownstone, but she was rarely there and has now moved on to a new restaurant in California's wine country.

Tre Wilcox, who was on both Top Chef and Top Chef All-Stars, has a restaurant in Dallas. I believe Tre ceased being Executive Chef at Loft to open his own restaurant, named, I think, Marquee Grill.

Defunct Restaurant Go Fish Boat Club's Website

Fan favorite, Tiffany Deery was Executive Chef at Go Fish Ocean Club in Dallas. However, according to Dallas News "DRG Concepts has closed Go Fish Ocean Club , the North Dallas restaurant where "Top Chef" star Tiffany Derry ruled the stoves."

I thought I remembered reading that Tiffany had moved on, but not that her restaurant had closed.

Go Fish Boat Club still has a website up and running, on which they feature Tiffany Deery. Maybe with the recovering economy the restaurant re-opened and re-hired Tiffany.

I must remember to make sure my DVR is set to record Top Chef Texas.

Top Chef All Stars: Tre Wilcox Packs His Knives & Goes While Antonia Wins With Mussels

Watching Wednesday night's latest episode of Top Chef All Stars I was sure we were finally going to get Mike Isabella of our TV screens. Instead it was the much less annoying Tre Wilcox who had to pack his knives and go for bad risotto.

Risotto gets so many TV chefs in trouble. risotto is a regular woe on Hell's Kitchen. I don't know that I have ever had risotto.

Apparently Tre messed up his risotto real bad. Did not cook the rice right and then drowned it with other stuff.

Isabella made pasta, from scratch, badly. And then undercooked it. Apparently it was his sauce that saved him.

Mike Isabella is sort of amusing. He is so ridiculously cocky. Makes rude remarks about what the others make, like Antonia's mussels and Tiffany's polenta, while both were among the favorites of the night, along with Carla and Fabio.

Antonia's mussels were the winning dish. Which really annoyed Isabella.

And then what is further amusing about Mike Isabella is his confidence is so fragile. He puts on a big act of confidence while his inner voice is telling him he totally mucked it up. He was so sure he had this challenge nailed, what with him being Italian and it being Italian food they were cooking.

With the cooking taking place in a famed New York City restaurant called Rao's, that I'd never heard of til last night. Apparently it is impossible to get a reservation at Rao's. The place has only 10 tables, with each table only doing one seating per night. Regulars have ongoing reservations. If they can't make it they can send someone in their place. Seats get auctioned off. Apparently this is the way Tom Colicchio ate at Rao's his one and only time.

Richard Blais won the Quickfire Challenge and Immunity with black ice cream. The challenge was to make your dish look good, how it tasted was irrelevant.

Antonia Lafaso did not win anything extra for winning the Elimination Challenge. I like Antonia. She thinks it is time Mike Isabella gets told to pack his knives and go.