What a weekend. Jesus. I spent the last 2 days cooking my ass off but Im not complaining…no no, far from it. This weekend was a privilege, an honor really…I mean, how often does one get to climb aboard a Top Chef tour bus and play sous chef to celebrity chefs? Almost never right? Well, this weekend I got to do exactly that. The story goes that Top Chef/Bravo contacted Le Cordon Bleu and asked them to send a couple students over to work alongside their celebrity chefs during the Seattle leg of the Top Chef Tour. Le Cordon Bleu extended the offer to me & Karissa (another student in a different class) and together we weathered a phenomenally challenging, fun and overall unique experience.

Early mornings and long fast paced days, we spent most all our time cooking away with Top Chefs Ash Fulk & Eli Kirshtein. The AM hours would be packed full of prep work and service/plating would be done throughout the day. The Chefs had 4 separate “showtimes” during which they would demonstrate dishes on stage and interact with the audience. The foods they were demonstrating would be served at this time, meaning Karissa and I would be busting our ass preparing & plating 70 dishes to be taken out by the waitstaff. Chaos…absolutely splendid chaos.

We assisted & made sure the Chefs had everything they needed on stage for demo while keeping our eyes on whatever was up next, constantly preparing for the next service. It was exhilarating and exhausting. Getting to know the guys was a pleasure, both chefs were enjoyable to work with and were good teachers to boot. At one point, Ash nicknamed me “Julienne” after I spent a considerable amount of time performing that cut on a pile of vegetables for a slaw we were putting together…I should mention that he did correct my technique initially so the nickname was also his way of poking fun at me. 

The food? We made Strawberry Gazpacho and Cured fish, a Southern take on Eggs Benedict and Salmon a half dozen ways, Mint Aioli etc. etc. Honestly, I cant recall all the foods I had my hands in- its all a blur now. Oh and there was autographs constantly being signed by the Chefs along with photos, big crowds and all manner of craziness that goes along with that whole celebrity bit. It was entertaining as hell. Karissa and I couldnt help but tease the two of them whenever they came back into the kitchen. I mean, it all just seemed so absurd especially after we had gotten to know these “stars”. So thats that. Theres the weekend, theres my little peek into Hollywood and hotshot chefs. 

The best part may be that I walked away with a couple really great contacts- Ash & Eli were kind enough to offer up their information for me to use on my resume. Nice. Real stand up guys those two.

I hope some if not all of this post made sense. Worn out cannot even begin to explain how I feel right now…Im tired to the bone.