Get the Flash Player to see this player.

how2heroes had the opportunity to interview Chefs Hector Santiago and Ashley Merriman from Top Chef Season 6 before the Top Chef Tour event started in Boston on Tuesday. Following are some highlights from the event as well as the video interviews with the chefs.

The Top Chef Tour rolled into Boston on Wednesday about mid-way through its 21-city tour and set up a working kitchen in the middle of City Hall Plaza. Chefs Hector Santiago and Ashley Merriman from Season 6 charmed the audience by sharing cooking tips as well as some good dirt about what goes on behind-the-scenes of the show. Did you know they take your wallet, keys, phones, search your luggage and don’t allow you to read the newspaper or watch television when you’re on the show? Even when you get eliminated! After you “pack your knives and go,” you move to another house where you have those same restrictions except you can at least watch TV. We were amazed to find that out. As far as their thoughts on the judges, let’s just say they’re not big fans of Padma.

There were 4 separate sessions at the Top Chef Tour. Each accommodated about 45 people. In the first one we attended, Chef Santiago did the cooking and Ashley chatted with him while he made Mussels with Smoked Herring and three kinds of garlic (raw, roasted & pickled) – not exactly date food, as he mentioned, but really delicious and simple. Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to see Chef Merriman make her homemade Ricotta but we hope to go to New York and film her at some point.

Chef Santiago owns Pura Vida in Atlanta – he serves tapas style food with his native Latin influence with the occasional molecular gastronomy technique thrown in just to keep things interesting. Check out his Tofu Ceviche recipe to see how he works molecular magic with Latin flavors. Chef Merriman is from New England originally and now resides in Brooklyn. She is the Chef de Cuisine at celebrity hotspot Butter in New York City where she works for celebrity chef and  Food Network’s “Chopped” Judge, Alex Guarnaschelli, who she considers to be her mentor.

The event was a lot of fun and gave Top Chef fans the opportunity to get up close and personal with the chefs. It also was the perfect opportunity for Bravo to announce that Season 7 of Top Chef begins in July. And we just found out that how2hero Angelo Sosa of Xie Xie in NYC is going to be one of the cheftestants!!  Watch him on how2heroes making one of the best sandwiches you will ever have, the Chaca La Vong fish sandwich with Onion Marmalade (SO good!) and Chili Mayo. Get ready to set your DVRs for some goooood television!

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Posted in Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.