The Show is UP: Tom Colicchio of Top Chef

Alrighty, Top Chef fans and other foodies. Here's our lengthy conversation with Tom Colicchio for y'all to stew over. Next week, more than likely: Carlos Santana! Click on the date below to listen or right-click and save to your computer. Or subscribe (it's free!) via the iTunes link or via the Zune link. -sf

April 30: Top Chef's Top Chef

Some chefs are TV stars first, then Vegas restaurateurs. Tom Colicchio did it the other way around. The five-time James Beard Award winner already owned Craftsteak and ‘wichcraft at the MGM Grand when he was tapped to become the chief judge for the hit Bravo reality competition Top Chef. The show began filming its sixth season in Las Vegas this week, although this interview took place a day before that was confirmed. Still, Steve spoke to Colicchio at length about everything from his criticism of the show’s finale format to the late Natasha Richardson’s stint as a guest judge last season. Colicchio also explains why he's never had a Food Network show retells how he saved the life of a famous food writer at an Obama inauguration party in January and reveals the secret to Craft's sumptuous monkeybread. Plus, as always, we asked him about his fast food preferences, if any.

In Banter: Top Chef a'coming, Angel v. Perez, the Kelly Monaco break-in, Fontainebleau's problems, coinful slots, changes to WSOP and more.

Links to stuff discussed:

Craft Restaurants’ website
VegasHappensHere.Com on Top Chef Vegas
The UPI wire service on the Kelly Monaco burglary
TripAdvisor.Com on Golden Gate’s $19.06 special
Elvolution star Trent Carlini’s site
Las Vegas Sun’s Joe Brown raves about Elvolution
Norm Clarke’s call for Criss Angel to be fired
Hear the podcast of the vermin Perez Hilton’s panel to Vegas for a charity event
VegasHappensHere.Com’s post about the Fontainebleau problems
The Associated Press on the trend back toward coin-full slot machines
The New York Times on the possible Nevada lottery
VegasHappensHere.Com on the changes afoot for the 40th World Series of Poker
The site for that wacky plastic surgeons convention
the photo Mark from Chicago sent us on VegasHappensHere.Com

Confirmed: Top Chef Season 6 To Be In Vegas!

[UPDATE: Tonight, I got 100 percent confirmation that the show will do its season here. This is really big and really great timing for a much-suffering Vegas. It's a great opportunity for the city to shine not as some crazy, wacky place but as a serious culinary destination. -sf]

The sixth season of Bravo's Top Chef begins filming on Monday, April 27, in a city that has not been disclosed. I had a really fun 50-minute interview with chief judge Tom Colicchio -- and Craftsteak and 'wichcraft owner at MGM Grand -- today for an upcoming episode of "The Strip" and he would not disclose the location, the jerk. He said they avoid announcing the city because if they do, fans start hanging around the house where the contestants live trying to figure out who's been eliminated and so on. I even asked him to tell me if it was NOT in Las Vegas and he wouldn't answer that, either. (Of course, it's really hard for anyone to "hang around" the SkyLofts at MGM Grand to see who's coming and going, hmmm?)

BUT! Rumors abound -- Eater.Com says it'll be filmed at the M, YumSugar.Com has a poll showing most readers want it to take place here -- and I just stumbled over a sliver of a clue. Y'see, the show is filmed in about a month straight through. And yet one of the other judges, Toby Young, is auctioning off dinner with himself at Craftsteak on May 2 on eBay to benefit the Starlight Children's Foundation. The deal also includes two nights at the Las Vegas Hilton.

Now, it's not unreasonable for Jones to fly in and out that night. But isn't it odd that they wouldn't just offer the dinner to the winner for after the end of filming, just to make sure Jones could make it?

One way or the other, if Top Chef's coming to Las Vegas, we'll know pretty soon regardless of Colicchio's best effort otherwise since they'll have to do challenges on the Strip and around famous landmarks, right?