Alas, possums, if you were hoping this post would be about a quasi-sexual fantasy involving Top Chef Harold Dieterle, adjudged Top Chef winner Ilan Hall, and the rattan chair and whip from Casino Royale, you will be sorely disappointed.Instead, we wanted to note that the charming and no-nonsense Harold, whose new restaurant, Perilla, is slated to open very, very soon, was featured at the Food and Wine Best New Chefs Showcase. As per Bravo blogger and boy reporter extraordinaire Raggaydy Andy Cohen, other Top Chef alumni in attendance were Ilan Hall, Josie Malave-Smith, Sam Talbot, and Season One's Andrea Beaman and Miguel Morales. Our haughty, lynx-like, Canadian schoolmistress pinup Gail Simmons (when we're feeling a little lezzie, we have fantasies of Gail in a culinary remake of Mädchen in Uniform) also was present.
So what was on the menu? Ilan "Mutton Dressed as Lamb" Hall ("What about 'Wolf in Sheep's Clothing' or 'Shorn Sheep'?" asks Miss XaXa) served "a fantastic lamb medley and Harold made some rock shrimp and mushroom with some Marcelian foam." Alas, no word from Raggaydy Andy as to what "Knock-Off King" Ilan was wearing.
