James Beard Award Winner Tony Mantuano is busy. Opening a handful of wine bars later this year, recently receiving a boat load of press for his new restaurant in Chicago’s Art Institute and appearing on Top Chef Masters Season 2 have kept him on his toes in 2010. As we get deeper into the Top Chef Masters season, we see that chefs are not eliminated for lacking anything so much, as they are eliminated because “someone has to go”. Tony’s pizza was, according to some tailgaters, the best they had ever had! Tony sat down with Reality Wanted today and shared his Top Chef experience with us.

 

Chandra, Reality Wanted: What inspired you to go on Top Chef Masters?

Tony: The opportunity came along. I have so many young people that I work with, that when it came my way, I asked them if I should do this. It seems like that generation of 20’s and 30’s are all about Top Chef, and it really resonates with that crowd more than I ever knew. They really pushed me to do it.

 

Chandra, Reality Wanted: Looking back, what was the overall competition like?

Tony: It is so physically demanding that I am not sure the sense of how hard we work on the show gets shown since it is edited down. There is so much work on the show from the prepping and the shopping. For the Wedding Wars alone, I personally cleaned 300 shrimp. Usually I have three other people helping me do that. It is really physically challenging and you really feel like you are put to a great test. You have to make it happen, and you have to work hard.

 

Chandra, Reality Wanted: How did you feel about your competition with the other chefs?

Tony: We all have become really good friends. With professionals like that, you spend so much time together, there is a lot of time that we wait for the shots or the judges, and we sit around the table and have a glass of wine together. We have all become very good friends. We all continue to stay in touch, except for Susur who doesn’t seem to have a phone or an email address!

 

Chandra, Reality Wanted: Speaking of Susur, can you touch on the comment that he made about Tony Soprano. Were you really offended by it?

Tony: I wasn’t throwing any Asian stereotypes at him and I think you have to put your foot down somewhere. Come on, let’s let go of these stereotypes. Italian Americans have done great things for this country, and to compare me to a New Jersey gangster was offensive.

 

Chandra, Reality Wanted: At the USC Game, it seemed like the tailgaters really liked your pizza, so what happened?

Tony: Your guess is as good as mine! I invite you into Café Spiaggia to try the pizza! It was pretty much what we serve everyday. I took a lot of effort to make the dough right, I made it the day before and let it rise naturally overnight; I thought that was my point of difference from the other chefs who used store bought tortillas, buns and pitas. I took a lot of time to make that dough from scratch and I was pretty proud of it. You heard the comments from the tailgaters that it was the best pizza they had ever had so it is beyond me what happened. Grilled pizza isn’t that common so maybe it was an unusual taste for the critics? I don’t know.

 

Chandra, Reality Wanted: As a James Beard award winner, can you enlighten us on what it is like to receive the award?

Tony: It was one of the highlights of my career. It really is being recognized by your peers, past winners, committees, writers. It is validation. It is a cliché to say, but it is like winning an Oscar for the food world. I was nervous going on stage but my wife Kathy said, “Whatever you say, just smile when you say it, and it will come off fine.” And she was right.

 

Chandra, Reality Wanted: What advice do you have for young chefs?

Tony: My first advice to them would be to decide what you want to specialize in whether it is modern American, molecular gastronomy, Italian, French. Do something you really love to do. It isn’t as important to work in every cuisine. Travel to that place too, so much of the cuisine is about the culture. It is difficult to cook Italian if you have never worked in Italy. Go to that place. Food is rooted to culture, and that is where the soul of the cuisine comes from. That is what will really set you apart. Seven countries on a plate never did it for me. It doesn’t even have to be a country; it could be a region, like Cajun food.

 

Chandra, Reality Wanted: What is next for you?

Tony: We just opened a restaurant at the Art Institute of Chicago (Terzo Piano), which is going extremely well. We are going to open two wine bars at the US Tennis Center in Flushing, NY this summer. These wine bars are becoming the new way people eat; it’s really casual with small plates and terrific wine.

 

Catch an all new episode of Top Chef Masters Season 2 on Wednesday at 10/9 c on Bravo.

 

(Image courtesy of Bravo)

 

Follow Tony Mantuano at http://twitter.com/tmantuano

Follow Chandra at http://twitter.com/ChandraClewley

 

For more Top Chef Masters visit Sirlinksalot.net