Chris Cosentino wins Top Chef Masters
From Inside Scoop San Francisco:
Earlier this month, San Francisco’s own Chris Cosentino (Incanto, Boccalone) was declared “the best chef in history,” and if you were anywhere near the Twitter machine last night (or you know, a television), then you know that he followed it up with another cooking show win. Cosentino won the fourth season of Top Chef Masters, following in the footsteps of prior winners Rick Bayless, Marcus Samuellson and Floyd Cardoz.
Upon topping fellow finalist Kerry Heffernan, Cosentino uttered an instant classic of a slogan: “Guts prevail.” He explained that the way he won the show — using his signature offal cuts, on a national stage — was validation that America can and should be cooking with offal more often.
Cosentino’s win was also a victory for his charity of choice, the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. He’s discussed his connection to Parkinson’s in the past, and now he’s contributed over $140,000 to the cause.
Here’s the winning moment:
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Chefs vs. City Season 2
This Sunday Iron Chef: America (the greatest show on TV – sorry, Smallville) takes the night off so that former ICA challengers Chris Cosentino and Aarón Sánchez can kick off season 2 of Chefs vs. City. And just as in the season 1 premiere the guys will be going up against two of their own, Sunny Anderson (Cooking For Real) and Claire Robinson (Five Ingredient Fix and Food Network Challenge).
For those unfamiliar with the show Food Network describes it thusly:
This is the ultimate foodie tour. In each episode of Chefs vs. City, Food Network chefs Aarón Sánchez and Chris Cosentino challenge two local foodies in an action-packed food adventure to locate that city’s biggest, boldest, most unexpected food places. From wine stomping in Malibu, to eating the spiciest curry in all of NYC, to braving the coldest room in Las Vegas, Chefs vs. City will test the wits, guts, and skills of both teams as they race to the finish line.
In other words it’s an extravagant scavenger hunt.
Aarón Sánchez was one of the early Food Network chefs having hosted the ethnic culinary kaleidoscope known as The Melting Pot. Sánchez co-hosted the show with, among others, Rocco DiSpirito, Padma Lakshmi and future Iron Chefs Cat Cora and Michael Symon. These days Sanchez is often seen as a judge on Chopped and is is the owner and executive chef of Paladar and Centrico in New York City. Aarón is the son of famed cookbook author and restaurateur Zarela Martinez of Zarela.
Since taking over as executive chef at San Francisco’s Incanto quickly earning the Italian eatery a 3-star review from the San Francisco Chronicle, Cosentino’s star has been on the rise. Chef Chris has gained notoriety as a leading proponent of offal cookery (the preparation of organs, entrails and lesser used cuts of meat). In 2007 his passion for offal gained national attention when he was a contestant on the Next Iron Chef where he competed against Sánchez and eventual winner Symon. In addition to Chefs vs. City Chris is still at Icanto and is the founder of Boccalone, an artisanal salumeria.
This year’s season premiere was shot in Miami during the South Beach Food & Wine Festival which is hosted each year by the Food Network. The festival is akin to a family reunion of Food Network celebrities and is the setting for several shows each year featuring any mixture of culinary all-stars.
The show is scheduled to air each Sunday at 9pm/8c. Next Sánchez and Cosentino head to Hotlanta to take on Dinner Impossible’s Robert Irvine and George Galati.
