I'm just curious.

Because I truly- I do think we need to

pace tonight.

That's true.

Because usually when we go out,

it's basically a lot of drinking.

No eating.

Right. And then

eventually we eat.

That's kind of similar to what's going to

happen tonight.

I mean holy shit.

You think I've done that before.

I did not think that was going to be a whole

fucking bottle.

I'm Gail Simmons, special projects director at

Food Lion magazine, judge on Bravo's Top Chef.

It was a long road to get here and

it actually started 20 years ago discovering

that I wanted to work in the food industry.

I moved to New York and I went to culinary school

and when I felt like I had gotten some good

experience I left the kitchen and

went to work for Jeffrey Steingarten,

who is the food critic at Vogue magazine.

It was through Jeffrey that I came to know so

many of the most talented chefs and

food people around the country,

because he worked with them on so

many different projects.

And one of the people I

came to know was Daniel Boulud.

So Danielle only had three restaurants at

the time, but was opening many

more around the country, writing books,

had tons of events, and his marketing director

needed some help, so he offered me the job.

It wasn't the job I anticipated taking,

because I thought I was just gonna go be

a food writer.

When Daniel Boulud offers you a job,

you take the job.

>From working at Danielle for three years,

I went to go work at Food and Wine Magazine.

And about a year into the job,

Bravo came to Food and Wine to ask them

if they'd help partner on a food show and Food and

Wine sent me on a screen test.

To see if this was something we

could all do together, and Bravo chose me.

Three weeks later, I was shooting Top Chef, and

I guess the rest is history.

I think one of the most rewarding things about

Top Chef, is that after 13 seasons, we can

quantify how successful the winners have been,

and several of the other contestants, too.

There were something like over 100 restaurants that

have opened in America, since we started the show

that are from contestants and you still can't deny

how much of an impact this show and

it's chefs have had on our industry.

I met two of my closest girlfriends at the Food

and Wine Magazine offices in town,

at the iconic Time and Life building.

The girls who came along with me for

the night were Nilou Motamed and

Sarah Rosenberg.

Who are these two people?

That the producer's chose to stand in as my

friends.

She doesn't have any friends.

We're doing well with the script though.

Natural.

Tell me more about your self.

The three of us get together a lot.

We sort of have a big crew of friends that love

to eat and drink, love to travel.

No one will be safe.

And he has done it before.

So he knows.

Okay, where are we going, Gail?

Where are we heading?

Oh we're going to Navy.

Tell us a little bit more about.

Oh right.

She's posting.

No I'm getting out.

I'm done.

What's your Instagram strategy?

Shut up.

All right we're going to Navy.

Camille Becerra's restaurant in SoHo.

Camille was on the third season of Top Chef,

she was a contestant and she did well but

not great in the season.

I could tell she was a great cook and

she's just a great person and

we stayed in touch after the season and she is so

creative, and she has done so

well, and Navy is such a cool little spot.

I chose to go to Navy specifically, because I

think it's such a hidden gem in New York City.

It really is one of those places that

I can eat several times a week.

It's totally unfussy.

The mood of the room is so comfortable and

organic.

I like the way it smells a little smokey.

It does smell good in here.

It's just, isn't it a cool,

pretty little situation?

It's really sexy because you could totally have

an affair here Noted, noted.

What are you?

What do you think we should do because we're

gonna just get a few things

because we're like moving Yeah.

It's a progressive.

Around a bit.

Of course.

So why don't you just do like,

Whatever you think.

Little apps, right?

I would describe Camille's food

as being super seasonal.

Simple.

Very clean.

Bright flavors.

She loves to play with texture.

We started with a scallop svechice which had tons

of lime, lots of herbs and avocado.

Really good.

The bavitas actually.

The bavitas are the shit.

Make it.

Super crunchy.

She knows what she's doing.

She's no dumb dumb.

I absolutely loved the scallops svechice was

a great way to start our night.

A fresh clean bite at the beginning of what

was gonna be a very long night ahead of us.

You can just pick it up and whenever you want.

We also had her liver toast,

which she shaves chocolate onto.

You think that's gonna have a strange,

sweet effect, but

it's a bittersweet chocolate that

really goes well with the richness of the liver.

We had a few salads that I loved especially this

Asian pear and radish salad.

That I expected to be chunky and crunchy,

but she shaved the radish and the Asian pear so

thinly in rounds, on the mandolin, and

then dressed it with a beautiful olive oil and

some, what she called a citronet.

Which, she actually described as a sweet

lemonade vinaigrette that really brought the dish

together.

It was a bit of a revelation.

It's just like fresh and.

She's like, she gets it.

You know what I mean?

Bye, thanks for visiting.

Thank you for having us.

We'll see you soon.

Bye.

>From there we walked to ZZ's Clam Bar.

ZZ's Clam Bar is run by

I have three good friends of mine, Rich Tarrizzi,

Mario Carbone, and Geoffrey Zalazneck.

It's a really special,

kind of magical cocktail place.

The cocktail director, mixologist,

Thomas, is a total character.

He's so talented.

They're usually not open on Mondays,

but we went anyway.