Posted by The Boulder Camera, CO on November 13, 2008 at 12:01:15:
Two Boulder chefs describe the 'Top Chef' life
By Cindy Sutter (Contact)
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Jax Fish House Chef Hosea Rosenberg will be camped in front of his television set at 8 tonight -- alone.
Rosenberg, along with Centro Sous Chef Melissa Harrison, will debut on the premiere of the fifth season of "Top Chef," a Bravo reality cooking show in which chefs from all over the country compete for a grand prize of $100,000 and national exposure that is, as the credit-card commercial says, priceless.
Like the show's many fans, Rosenberg and Harrison have not seen tonight's episode, shot in July. While they know the outcome, they don't know what from the hours of filming is in the show and what's not.
"The whole thing's surreal," Rosenberg says. "There's no way to describe what that's like, having a camera on you all the time. You don't know what they're picking up on. Something big could happen, and the camera might miss it. Something you don't think is important might end up on the show. It's so nervewracking. I can't wait till the show airs to see what they're using."
Just in case he doesn't cover himself in glory, Rosenberg is planning to take off the next day from work at Jax.
"After I watch, I'll decide if I need to take a vacation or not," he says with a laugh.
For Boulderites who have eaten at Jax and Centro, as well as many other fine restaurants here, it's gratifying to see our community get some props on the national stage.
"Those of us who live here (and dine out) are able to taste how far we've come, how we are definitely on the culinary map," says Karen Barela, chief operating officer of Culinary School of the Rockies and "Top Chef" fan. "To have these two local chefs participating in this well-regarded show helps show the rest of the country that Boulder is here, and we are doing things right."
It's perhaps even a bigger deal, when you consider how unusual it is to have two chefs on the show from a town the size of Boulder, and that those two chefs work a couple of buildings apart on the same street and for the same restaurant group.
"To have one on (the show) is amazing," says Dave Query, owner of the Big Red F restaurant group, which includes Jax and Centro. "To have two from the same block is unimaginable."
Query has never seen "Top Chef." He says his job provides him with enough restaurant reality. In this case, however, he plans to make an exception.
"You can bet I'll be watching," he says.
Both chefs describe the experience as challenging.
"There's a lot to think about, about the food, the guidelines for elimination," Harrison says. "Every day is different. Some days are longer than others. Sometimes you have to drive somewhere."
In some ways, though, the pressure, the sleep deprivation, the physical tiredness are not that much different from a chef's regular life.
"In our normal lives, we're used to a hectic and erratic schedule," Harrison says.
She found the camera troubling initially, but eventually got used to it.
"At first, you're definitely camera shy. You have a filter about things you say and do," she says. "At some point, the filter burns out. ... Someone might ask you a question about what you're doing. You might be upset. You might be happy with it. Other times, you're interviewed, you're there and you're talking, and you go on a tangent. If you're fired up about what happened that day, the interviews are like therapy."
Rosenberg, who was the winner in a long-running Iron Chef contest at Meritage restaurant in Broomfield, hoped that participating in previous contests would give him an edge.
"I've always prided myself for being able to think on my toes, doing well under pressure," he says.
However, he says, "There were times where I felt like I made a bad decision. Once you make a bad decision, you only have a short amount of time. If you feel like you should be doing something differently, it's too late. You have to go with the initial decision and hope it was good enough. I had my confidence shaken a few times."
For those unfamiliar with the show, each episode generally involves a timed "Quick Fire" challenge in which the winning chef gets protection from being eliminated in the second, more difficult challenge. In past seasons, those contests have involved everything from cooking food for airline passengers and police officers to preparing tailgating fare at a Chicago Bears game.
One of the big draws for foodies is that in addition to the show's regular judges -- Chef-owner Tom Colicchio, of Craftsteak in New York and several other cities, host Padma Lakshmi and Gail Simmons, of Food & Wine magazine -- some of the best chefs in the country serve as guest judges.
Says Barela of Culinary School of the Rockies: "I'm not in general a reality show fan, but the thing about 'Top Chef' is that it really is about good cooking and creativity."
The show begins this year with 17 contestants from all over the country. The chefs live in an apartment in New York, dormitory style, and spend all their time together, waiting for whatever challenge comes next and sometimes cooking their regular meals together.
The regular season is typically shot in advance over a period of time -- the CIA-like secrecy of the "Top Chef" producers means that we don't know exactly how many days or weeks it was -- and ends with a live episode featuring the finalists.
Producers will only say that "thousands" of chefs nationwide applied to be a contestant. They won't discuss their criteria for picking chefs to compete or even whether it's unusual to have two from a town of fewer than 100,000 people.
Harrison says she got a call from a producer in late April who asked her to come to Denver for an interview. She was then asked to fill out lots of paperwork and send a resume and a day-in-the-life type video.
"It was a very long process. It was not until the end of June that I got a phone call that I'd been accepted for 'Top Chef,' she says. "There were a lot of other steps, interviews as well. Right up until the time I left I was interviewing and filling out forms."
Both Rosenberg and Harrison say the chefs were bonded together by the experience.
"It's something I only share with 16 other people," Rosenberg says. "Nobody else knows what it's like."
Harrison puts it this way: "There's not one person I wouldn't let stay with me if they were in town."
Barela of the culinary school says that when Rosenberg has served as a guest instructor, he tells students to think creatively, but not to overreach beyond their abilities.
"(He tells them) It's fine to experiment, but you've got to have a good solid base underneath."
That's good advice for "Top Chef" contestants, too.
Contact Camera Staff Writer Cindy Sutter at 303-473-1335 or sutterc@dailycamera.com
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