Top Chef: The All-Star Dinner

Top Chef: Las Vegas is taking a break this week so that we can catch up with some old friends. Bravo is having Fabio Viviani host a reunion dinner party for a number of favorites from seasons past. Since this is essentially a clip show and just a lot of talking, I won’t be going into nearly as much depth as I usually do, but still, there should be some interesting moments, so as Bravo always suggests, I’ll watch what happens for you, good?

Top Chef Season 5 fan favorite Fabio greets us and introduces us to the concept here: It’s a dinner party at the Social nightclub in Hollywood for 11 other former cheftestants. Sparks will fly, air will be cleared, and good times will be had by all. Probably.

Ah, Harold Dieterle, Season 1 winner: When he signed up for the show, he had no idea what he was getting himself in for. “We were totally the guinea pigs.” Dale Levitski from Season 3 might have retired if not for Top Chef. He credits it with changing his career. Tiffany Faison has traveled the world and done a lot of consulting, but her goal is still to open her own restaurant. Shoulda won Season 1 then!

Tiffani is first to the club to greet Fabio, Harold is second, and Ilan Hall is third. Ilan, who won Season 2, remembers this club from one of his challenges that go-around.

Marcel Vigneron – he of the Wolverine haircut and the fondness for foam – appears to be doing really lame parkour as he comes up the sidewalk. The Season 2 bad boy greets his old nemesis Ilan with a warm handshake. He recently moved from Las Vegas to L.A. to open up a restaurant at a major hotel. Fabio was there only a month before. Marcel says he learned a lot of himself during Season 2, and says he was just young back then and a force to be reckoned with – that’s why all the animosity. I guess we’ll find out whether or not he’s grown.

We get to see Ilan and Marcel fight back during Season 2, but they say they’re good friends now. Marcel says they’re “culinary brothers of other mothers,” but not BFF.

Season 3’s Dale pops in, as well as castmate Casey Thompson, looking as beautiful and classy as ever. She says former cheftestants getting together is like a family reunion, being with a cousin you haven’t seen in a while. Dale looks sharp in his suit too. He’s opening a restaurant in Chicago, and also does a weekly supper club. His roommate his Season 3’s Sara Nguyen, whom we see call Dale her “gay boyfriend” in a clip. Dale calls her his “long lost little sister.” Of course, after she got kicked off, Casey became his new sister. Casey says Hung Huynh was her sister. Heh.

Speak of the devil, in walks Hung, Season 3’s winner. He’s been trying to get his restaurant started and a doing a lot of charity work. Fabio recalls that Hung was maybe the fastest contestant ever in the kitchen.

He says he’s calmer now after seeing himself on the show.

One of my favorites, Richard Blais, gets the Season 4 party started. His wife had a baby, he started a high-end burger joint in Atlanta (with liquid nitrogen milkshakes, naturally). Richard’s hair, which is doing a sort of faux hawk, wave-type thing, gets noticed by Fabio, who wonders if Richard is copying Season 4’s Jennifer Biesty. Heh. They really do look similar!

Now for one of my least favorite contestants, Lisa Fernandes of Season 4, sporting the really short haircut she ended her season with (sorry, I know she doesn’t really care, but I just can’t stand the way it looks). Lisa is still with her girlfriend she was with last time we saw her, and is a sous chef at a Park Avenue restaurant.

Carla Hall walks in. Yay! We like Carla. Fabio’s glad to finally see someone from Season 5. Casey is a bit nervous, as she helped Carla in the finale of that season and was blamed for exerting too much influence over the final product, part of the reason Carla lost. She seems to be worried Carla will still hold it against her. I doubt it. Casey says it’s like messing up at schools, and being embarrassed to back the next day. No worries; Carla and Casey share a big hug.

Fabio’s Season 5 Euro buddy Stefan Richter is last to enter, and naturally the two are drawn together. Stefan says they’ll be friends forever. Aww.

Marcel heard a rumor Ilan was going to open up a taco truck. No dice, but Ilan admits it would have been super-profitable. Fabio is glad to see Lisa’s “beautiful smile” – she’s known for her scowl. She thinks she was portrayed as a villain on the show. Well … the editors can only work with the material you give them, Lisa.

Fabio says Marcel, Tiffani, and Hung all showed “strong personalities.” That’s one way to put it. Hung wasn’t bad, but the other two … hmm. Tiffani admits that a lot of her previous behavior came from insecurity, and she admits responsibility for it. You’re responsible for your actions and the things you say, she notes – at least she isn’t blaming the editors for making her a villain!

Marcel, on the other hand, is snidely upset that Fabio is “trying to bring up all this drama” as the host. He seems very resistant to talk about his time on the show. Then he deliver this gem to Fabio: “I’d talk to you about your season … but I never watched it.” For a moment, maybe the first in his life, Fabio is speechless. I guess Marcel hasn’t grown after all. What a jerk. “That’s why you’ve got the reputation that you’ve got,” he finally responds. Go Fabio!

Fabio has a little surprise for everyone: They’re drawing knives! Will there be a competition after all? Harold hates to see it come out – he wants to see the knife block napalmed. Heh. Richard, however, misses the competition a lot.

Someone from each season draws a knife. The corresponding number represents one of five courses that season’s alumni will prepare for the dinner. They have $500 to shop at Whole Foods.