Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Ilan Hall Pops Out with the Truth About His Cherry

In an interview with The New York Times, adjudged Top Chef winner Ilan Hall discussed his first encounter with an unknown cherry.

The Surinam cherry, that is, which, this being Ilan, turned out to be something quite different than what it seemed at first--not a cherry at all:

“It was one of the things that grew on the Big Island that was at the great market they brought us to,” Mr. Hall said in a telephone interview, referring to an outdoor farmers’ market the contestants visited. “It was the first time I had seen three-quarters of the things there.”

The Surinam cherry, which Ilan used in his dessert dish for the finale, turns out to be related to the clove and, according to Ilan, tastes “sort of cool and perfumey.” And Ilan “wanted to use it because it was so out of left field.” Hmmmm. Sort of like...never mind.

4 comments:

hughman said...

yso 3/4 of the things there = vaginas, women naked and integrity. well done.

drop talking about this show. the 15 minutes are over. let it fade into the reality foam. you are way, way, way too good for this car wreck.

only because i love you.

Anonymous said...

i like reading about top chef. i'm going through withdrawals. luckily, lost is on tonight. so, my wednesday won't be as lonely.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you're still following up with tidbits about Top Chef. Looking forward to some media story reporting on how disappointed so many viewers are with the choice of Ilan as the winner, based on the comments in Bravo blogs and Top Chef message boards. Most of the comments I've read about Ilan are negative--what a hollow victory for him.

BTW, that was a very short interview blurb in the NY Times--what was that?

Anonymous said...

I want to know why Ilan made a cherry dessert after relentlessly mocking Marcel's cherry one. Why didn't the judges confront him on that?