It’s been a whole… (eep!) 5 days now…and I still can’t get over the fact that Top Chef Chicago is no more. So, in order to give myself a Top Chef fix, I thought I’d pass along some interesting tidbits you might want to check out!

1. Finalist Richard Blais had a baby girl! - Photos courtesy of Our Labor of Love (click on link for more photos). Does anyone remember the “Common Threads” episode, where Antonia started bawling when she saw all the kids? Well, in that same episode, Richard made some comment to the effect of finding it all so emotional and wanting to go home and make “Baby Blaises.” It looks like he succeeded (has it really been 9 months since they taped the episode?!)

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After 14 grueling episodes, it’s all over. Can you believe it? We have a top chef! And honestly…it’s SO hard not to talk about the results in these first sentences but in an effort not to spoil it for passers by, I’ll wait….just a few….more….words…

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I think the whole experience of being on Top Chef is a great education for anyone involved. Last week, they had to butcher a rack of beef and this week they had to prepare their meals out an entire pig that they butchered themselves! And I have to say many of the contestants seemed to have done a great job.

Warning: Spoilers after the jump!

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Oh man! This episode was probably the most exciting for me so far because it was filmed RIGHT down the street from my house at Tramonto’s Steak and Seafood! But unfortunately I’ve never been to the restaurant. Because even though it’s very close, it’s also very expensive :) Either way, it was still awesome to know exactly where they were.

The results of this episode, however, were a little less thrilling

Warning: spoilers after the jump!

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IT’S RESTAURANT WARS! I sort of thought that the Wedding Wars episode was in place of Restaurant Wars but apparently I thought wrong. But I’m glad they brought Restaurant Wars back in its own episode because this challenge is a great one. A true test of a chef’s ability to both conceptualize and execute a menu, this one always seems to make or break the cheftestants.

Warning: Spoilers after the jump!

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This was one of my favorite episodes! Not only did the quickfire involve my favorite (and apparently Tom’s favorite) challenge: the relay race, but the elimination challenge was a wedding! How much more fun can you ask for?

But the chefs might have a different opinion. While they loved the relay race, I don’t think they had too much fun in the elimination challenge after staying up for 36 straight hours consisting of 14 hours of prep work before the actual wedding buffet service.

Warning: Spoilers after the jump!

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This week’s episode was all about constraints. The quickfire posed a 15 minute time constraint to make an entree, while the elimination had a budget constraint of $10 for a well balanced, healthy and simple family meal. A chef can cook anything he wants in an ideal competition, but the measure of a good chef can only come from the presence of restrictions.

But the episode had another element to it, and that was family. When you’re cooking for your family in everyday life, you often have these sorts of constraints, all the while having to be concerned with how healthy the meal actually is.

In other words, I thought this week had great challenges.

Warning: Spoilers after the jump!

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DA BEARS! I think Chef Tom Colicchio said it best: “There are two things Chicagoans are really passionate about: One is their sports teams, and the other is their food.” So this week’s elimination challenge of cooking for a Bears game tailgate put Chicago sports fans in heaven. Paired with a”simple pleasures” quickfire, this episode was all about good food and good beer.Warning: Spoilers after the jump!

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This episode went back to the basics of flavor and taste to see whether or not contestants had truly mastered their most important tool: a strong palette. And it wouldn’t be considered going “back to the basics” if we didn’t visit the infamous elements of air, water, fire, and earth. In a nutshell - I liked this episode a lot. Not to mention, it had my FAVORITE quickfire - the blindfold taste test!Warning: Spoilers after the jump!

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Leave it to me to completely fall for the Top Chef Cookbook. Even though I have my occasional tiffs with the show, I’ll always be a fan of Top Chef. So why not indulge in some memorabilia? There are certainly some recipes on the show I’ve always wanted and it’d be great to have them all together in a handy little book.

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