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And what's our plan for pacing?
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I'm just curious.
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Because I truly- I do think we need to
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pace tonight.
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That's true.
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Because usually when we go out,
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it's basically a lot of drinking.
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No eating.
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Right. And then
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eventually we eat.
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That's kind of similar to what's going to
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happen tonight.
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I mean holy shit.
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You think I've done that before.
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I did not think that was going to be a whole
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fucking bottle.
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I'm Gail Simmons, special projects director at
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Food Lion magazine, judge on Bravo's Top Chef.
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It was a long road to get here and
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it actually started 20 years ago discovering
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that I wanted to work in the food industry.
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I moved to New York and I went to culinary school
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and when I felt like I had gotten some good
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experience I left the kitchen and
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went to work for Jeffrey Steingarten,
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who is the food critic at Vogue magazine.
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It was through Jeffrey that I came to know so
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many of the most talented chefs and
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food people around the country,
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because he worked with them on so
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many different projects.
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And one of the people I
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came to know was Daniel Boulud.
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So Danielle only had three restaurants at
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the time, but was opening many
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more around the country, writing books,
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had tons of events, and his marketing director
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needed some help, so he offered me the job.
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It wasn't the job I anticipated taking,
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because I thought I was just gonna go be
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a food writer.
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When Daniel Boulud offers you a job,
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you take the job.
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>From working at Danielle for three years,
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I went to go work at Food and Wine Magazine.
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And about a year into the job,
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Bravo came to Food and Wine to ask them
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if they'd help partner on a food show and Food and
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Wine sent me on a screen test.
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To see if this was something we
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could all do together, and Bravo chose me.
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Three weeks later, I was shooting Top Chef, and
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I guess the rest is history.
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I think one of the most rewarding things about
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Top Chef, is that after 13 seasons, we can
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quantify how successful the winners have been,
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and several of the other contestants, too.
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There were something like over 100 restaurants that
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have opened in America, since we started the show
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that are from contestants and you still can't deny
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how much of an impact this show and
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it's chefs have had on our industry.
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I met two of my closest girlfriends at the Food
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and Wine Magazine offices in town,
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at the iconic Time and Life building.
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The girls who came along with me for
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the night were Nilou Motamed and
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Sarah Rosenberg.
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Who are these two people?
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That the producer's chose to stand in as my
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friends.
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She doesn't have any friends.
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We're doing well with the script though.
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Natural.
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Tell me more about your self.
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The three of us get together a lot.
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We sort of have a big crew of friends that love
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to eat and drink, love to travel.
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No one will be safe.
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And he has done it before.
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So he knows.
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Okay, where are we going, Gail?
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Where are we heading?
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Oh we're going to Navy.
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Tell us a little bit more about.
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Oh right.
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She's posting.
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No I'm getting out.
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I'm done.
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What's your Instagram strategy?
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Shut up.
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All right we're going to Navy.
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Camille Becerra's restaurant in SoHo.
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Camille was on the third season of Top Chef,
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she was a contestant and she did well but
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not great in the season.
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I could tell she was a great cook and
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she's just a great person and
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we stayed in touch after the season and she is so
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creative, and she has done so
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well, and Navy is such a cool little spot.
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I chose to go to Navy specifically, because I
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think it's such a hidden gem in New York City.
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It really is one of those places that
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I can eat several times a week.
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It's totally unfussy.
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The mood of the room is so comfortable and
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organic.
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I like the way it smells a little smokey.
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It does smell good in here.
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It's just, isn't it a cool,
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pretty little situation?
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It's really sexy because you could totally have
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an affair here Noted, noted.
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What are you?
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What do you think we should do because we're
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gonna just get a few things
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because we're like moving Yeah.
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It's a progressive.
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Around a bit.
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Of course.
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So why don't you just do like,
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Whatever you think.
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Little apps, right?
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I would describe Camille's food
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as being super seasonal.
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Simple.
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Very clean.
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Bright flavors.
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She loves to play with texture.
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We started with a scallop svechice which had tons
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of lime, lots of herbs and avocado.
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Really good.
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The bavitas actually.
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The bavitas are the shit.
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Make it.
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Super crunchy.
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She knows what she's doing.
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She's no dumb dumb.
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I absolutely loved the scallops svechice was
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a great way to start our night.
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A fresh clean bite at the beginning of what
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was gonna be a very long night ahead of us.
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You can just pick it up and whenever you want.
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We also had her liver toast,
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which she shaves chocolate onto.
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You think that's gonna have a strange,
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sweet effect, but
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it's a bittersweet chocolate that
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really goes well with the richness of the liver.
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We had a few salads that I loved especially this
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Asian pear and radish salad.
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That I expected to be chunky and crunchy,
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but she shaved the radish and the Asian pear so
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thinly in rounds, on the mandolin, and
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then dressed it with a beautiful olive oil and
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some, what she called a citronet.
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Which, she actually described as a sweet
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lemonade vinaigrette that really brought the dish
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together.
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It was a bit of a revelation.
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It's just like fresh and.
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She's like, she gets it.
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You know what I mean?
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Bye, thanks for visiting.
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Thank you for having us.
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We'll see you soon.
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Bye.
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>From there we walked to ZZ's Clam Bar.
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ZZ's Clam Bar is run by
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I have three good friends of mine, Rich Tarrizzi,
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Mario Carbone, and Geoffrey Zalazneck.
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It's a really special,
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kind of magical cocktail place.
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The cocktail director, mixologist,
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Thomas, is a total character.
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He's so talented.
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They're usually not open on Mondays,
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but we went anyway.
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It was amazing because we got to saddle up to that
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beautiful marble bar.
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We should not be sitting,
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here this is not usually how we sit.
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We're blocking the view,
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we're distracting poor Thomas from his work.
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But, tonight's a special night.
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So this is cilantro and jalapeno juice tequila.
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That's my jam. Yeah with house made
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grenadine.
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That's so good.
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That's unbelievable.
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My whole face is on fire.
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It's not, it's not not spicy.
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Pass that baby over here.
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It's not not spicy. It's bananas.
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The food is absolutely beautiful here, but
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you go for the cocktails.
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You can not believe how stunning and creative and
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really insane these cocktails are.
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Thomas, is a mad scientist, he's a genius.
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We went in thinking we would try one
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or two cocktails.
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Maybe among the three of us, we'd have five
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to get a feel for how awesome they are.
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But of course we ended up drinking eight,
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eight cocktails at that bar.
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So Thomas, would you say the recipe for
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a really sloppy night is to have
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eight different cocktails right in a row?
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Correct.
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Yeah, it depends on what kind of champ
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you are, I think.
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I mean I can do eight cocktails.
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Wow. That's ugly.
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Mm. So the next one I'm
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making for you is the pistachio.
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I absolutely went crazy for this pistachio
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cocktail that had kumquats on top of it.
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Another amazing combination.
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Oh, my God.
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This is like an Italian rainbow cookie.
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So good.
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It's like a dessert.
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We also ate some amazing things at ZZ's.
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We had these beautiful, perfect little Japanese
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sardines with blood orange and other citrus.
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We had this fantastic scallop dish.
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Live scallop that had been thinly sliced and
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then drizzled with brown butter.
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And we had some lobster svechice
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Since you've worked at
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a lot of bars in your history in San Francisco
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what's the worst and
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best pickup line you've ever heard?
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It was a guy talking to a girl.
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And it was something like are you Mumford?
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Because I wanna make your sons.
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Oh. But why?
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It was so bad, like she was so confused.
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I don't even know if she knew who the band was.
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Right. Oh.
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Anyway, the band sucks too, so.
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Yeah, whole thing.
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But we do have to leave you, don't you think?
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Thomas, thank you.
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Any time. Thank you for having us.
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Wait, with or without the stir.
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That was appropriate,
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actually, just make it like that.
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It feels good.
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We're making a drink right now.
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>From there we headed to Miss Lily's 7A.
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Are you sober, Alana, to be driving right now?
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Because I am not.
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Listen, Alana, I know
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you sucked down
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Pistachio I downed it.
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I downed it.
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I downed the pistachio ladies.
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Hey ladies, where we going next?
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That's the worst, that the worst.
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Ladies, no it like.
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Like the Liza Minnelli coming out.
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Hey ladies, where we coming next?
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We're going.
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Where are we going?