Cheflebrity Smörgåsbord: Masters of the Foodiverse

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The latest and greatest news about celebrity chefs, served up buffet style.

– The crew for the second season of Top Chef Masters was announced and includes Wylie Dufresne.  I’m installing him as an early 4-to-1 favorite and placing the over/under for foams at 7.5.  I suggest you take the over.

– Speaking of Top Chef, you can now pay to take a TC-themed walking tour of NYC.  Just remember…our Top Chef NYC guide is free!!!

After the jump…Tony Bourdain freelances in the sports section, The Ripper regresses to his dorm room days and our latest Old Media Update.

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Top Chef Masters Interview: Episode 2

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Left to right: Wylie Dufresne, Suzanne Tracht, Graham Elliot Bowles, Elizabeth Falkner

Well Top Chef fans, the moment has finally arrived and the long awaited Masters edition is upon us. It may be lacking in on-air hook-ups, phallic cooking references and involuntary head shavings, but goddammit, the food porn is back! And quite frankly, I’m not ruling out the headlock/head shave just yet.

ES sat down with this week’s masters as they discussed getting a taste of their own medicine.

For anyone who hasn’t seen the show yet, the format has changed: instead of a bunch of aspiring chefs in a house for six long weeks arguing and crying (while the audience takes bets on who’s getting the boot), Masters features a four-person competition of seemingly well adjusted, professional chefs battling it out for their respective charities.

For someone like myself, this is a wonderful shift from the predicable sound cues and “suspenseful”  final product.  For others, this show losses the edgy addiction of watching who’s going to win, have a mental breakdown or make Padma spit out her food. But come on, if you want over-hyped reality television, I’m pretty sure Bravo has something to meet that need.

Maybe in the weeks to come, we’ll see these top caliber chefs succumb to their baser, reality show instincts, but tonight’s episode seems like a bunch of friends coming back from a camp retreat still high from group hugs and ‘smores. So we decided to provide our own interpretation by reading in between the lines of the interview.. Ali G like liberties were taken.

Our full interview as well as some smack talk commentary after the jump.

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