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Top Chef: Texas - Exclusive Interview with Keith Rhodes

Posted on 11/18/2011 by Gina in Top Chef and Cast Interviews

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Keith Rhodes from Top Chef: Texas

 

by Gina Scarpa

 

This week, on Top Chef: Texas, the chefs were asked to prepare a Mexican meal to impress for a quinceanera celebration. Keith's two mistakes, using pre-cooked shrimp and a flour tortilla instead of corn, resulted in him packing his knives. During Last Chance Kitchen, he faced Andrew in a clam cook-off, won, and now awaits his next competitor. Today, we caught up with him in an exclusive interview about his experience (so far) on Top Chef.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Tell us a little about your cooking background prior to Top Chef.
A. Keith: I'm from Wilmington, NC. For a very long time, I worked at Deluxe. It's like an upscale American restaurant. I left about 7 years ago and opened up my own restaurant, Catch. I had that for about 4 years. It was small and only had 22 seats. It began to be a problem, it was packed all the time. After that, I went and opened up another one and it was more of the flagship. We were able to do a lot more there. We served local seafood with local, organic produce. These are some of the things we really pride ourselves on. Now I have Phun Seafood Bar, which is a Vietnamnese inspired seafood bar. We do lobster rolls, noodle bowls, and all that kind of stuff. Thing are really good in the community. I'm a community type chef.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: When you arrived to compete this season, were you surprised by how many people were still vying for those Top Chef coats?
A. Keith: I was in shock to tell you the truth. Top Chef had come and asked me to be on the show. I hadn't applied multiple times, or once actually, to be on the show. They called and they called and they called. At first I was like, "Nah, I don't really wanna do it." They reached out to me a little bit more and then I was like, "Okay." I showed up and when we arrived that mrning, like I said, I was in shock. I was like, "What are all these people doing here?!" That was a little something that was left out in the beginning! I had no idea. I'm sure I was one of a lot of people who didn't know they'd have to compete for a slot in the competition. Some people said they knew but I don't think a lot of people knew.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Why did you go with pre-cooked shrimp on this week's episode? Do you think the judges were too hard on you about it?
A. Andrew: Well, I don't think they were too hard at all . Hugh had to bring that element. That's what he's there for. I didn't take it too personal. The part I took personal is when we got back to the kitchen and when Lindsay and Sarah made it a really big mountain out of a small molehill. We are Top Chefs on the show and outside of the show. We should've been able to overcome that. I chose the shrimp because I was under pressure and when we really have to think fast, we might not always make the right decisions. I picked those shrimp for a combination of reasons. I didn't know how we were gonna prep, I didn't know the kitchen we'd be in, or what the time constraint would be. The shrimp I saw in the display case looked fine, like they had just been cooked. Unfortunately, when we got back, the shrimp were frozen and had an odor to them. They were rendered unusable. Ultimately at Judges' Table, that's not what I got eliminated for. It was a flour tortilla. All of that negative energy on something like that didn't work one way or another. You know what I mean? For me, I don't use pre-cooked shrimp in my restaurant at all. Being there, seeing what this place had to offer, I made a decision there, everybody was like, "Grab it, whatever!" And I did.


Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Andrew thought you were doing too much with the clams in Last Chance Kitchen but you ended up defeating him. You must have felt validated when Tom chose your dish.
A. Keith: For me, that was great. My view was always from an Iron Chef type perspective where you get one ingredient and really try to showcase a lot of that one ingredient. Some people only made one thing but I was always in the mentality of trying to showcase as much as I could. When the clams were sitting there I was like, "I'm gonna bring this home. I do this on a daily basis." They weren't pre-cooked clams! I think it was a validation not to have to rely on a team. It was just me, one on one, with my own decision and skills. It was like a comeback.

 


Top Chef: Texas airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on Bravo.

 

(Image courtesy of Bravo)

 


Follow Gina @ginascarpa and "Like" her on Facebook!

 


  


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