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Top Chef: Seattle - Exclusive Interview with Carla Pellegrino

Posted on 12/05/2012 by Gina in Top Chef and Cast Interviews

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Carla Pellegrino of Top Chef Seattle

 

 

by Gina Scarpa

 

Top Chef: Seattle lost both a fierce chef and competitor in Carla Pellegrino last week. She tried to let her food do the talking, but she often did her fair share of it, which rubbed some of her fellow contestants the wrong way. In the challenge to recreate the original menu from famed Seattle restaurant Canlis, Carla was stuck with a dish she didn't want, quail, and had to rely on two other chefs to cook it in a very small kitchen space. Her undercooked, and then overcooked, bird got her sent to Last Chance Kitchen where she lost to Kuniko in a redemption challenge. We caught up with Carla today to find out what prompted her to do the show, people's perception of her, and what she got out of Top Chef.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Tell us a little about your cooking background and what made you decide to do Top Chef after so many seasons.

A. Carla: I've been cooking all my life, since I was 10. My mother had a store and did catering in Brazil. Every time she had a gig, I'd skip school, and cook with her all night. I never thought about being a chef, I just wanted to cook for people with love. I had been cooking forever, I got to New York to the French Culinary Institute and graduated with honors in 1999. I opened my first restaurant in 2000, I got married and became part of Rao's, and then I moved to Vegas in 2006 to open at Caesar's Palace. They bought me out so I opened Meatball Spot. I did not try to get on Top Chef, it was a business decision. It was my third invitation, three years in a row they asked. I said no, because I don't like the competition side for me. I'm not really a good competitor, I don't feel like I'm supposed to be racing or proving anything to anybody. This year, because I wasn't in the Rao's family anymore, I was opening my own restaurant, my partner influenced me, and everybody got so excited. It was a business decision.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: You're very passionate, you have a big personality, but that rubbed some people the wrong way. Was that hard for you to watch and hear what your fellow contestants had to say about you?

A. Carla: I was kinda worried about that because I am what I am, and that's the way I am. Day by day, with me, you see that I have a very big heart but I am very honest. I scream and then two minutes later, it's over. I was very surprised with the chefs because they think my personality was threatening. That was something that I was afraid of and I think it came across like that but I am too old to change. The people who know me, I have nothing but love, I have nothing but friends. I have food critics, guests, they are my friends for a long time. I don't know anybody that goes in and says something bad about me. I come across at first as weird, but this is who I am! I know how it can come across, I took the risk, it is what it is. I did the best I could.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Last week, you were asked to cook quail, which you did not want to do. What was your issue with it?

A. Carla: It's really personal, I never cook small birds on my menu. When you already don't like the way they taste, and it looks like your'e eating a little corpse... I like birds, I like to se them fly. When I see the small birds, it just creeps me out and I really don't like to cook them. Because it's not something I like to cook every day, it freaks me out to serve it medium rare. I know that's the way people like to eat it. I had some older people that agree with me and were sending it back. I knew it wouldn't work and I was trying to avoid it. The worst thing was that I didn't even get to cook it. I left the show for something I didn't even cook. In my own restaurant, I don't cook my own food, but I tell them how to cook it. They need to abide by me in order to be in my kitchen. You can't possibly compare!

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Then, I can't imagine your reaction in Last Chance Kitchen when you lifted the cover and saw that squab again!

A. Carla: I wanted to cry! I couldn't do it in three hours, how can I do it in 20 minutes? Really! I really wanted to cry and it was so crazy because I just blanked out, I had deja vu, and I couldn't even open my mind to cook something else. I just tried and it couldn't possibly work.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: You were hesitant about doing Top Chef initially but are you now glad you did it? What's been one of the best parts of appearing on the show?

A. Carla: I think it is amazing. I went home traumatized because I have a great relationship as a chef. I built that working 17 hours a day. I've been a James Beard five times. The feeling I had was that I destroyed myself but it is amazing how it turned out. People actually liked me. I went from 50,000 followers on Twitter to 70,000! I've been building that over the last three years and got like 20,000 overnight. I think that was the biggest surprise. I was really worried about my reputation. Instead, I saw that I was good tv and people didn't mind. I lost a few followers from the fact that I left the show but I don't think it was bad. It got me a lot of business. At the end of the day, it was worth it to see what the kids are doing out there. The nature of the business, we usually only look at our own stuff. We don't have the time to see what other chefs are doing. I don't like to follow culinary trends anyway, I like things the way they are, but it was a nice thing to see these different styles. I got to see molecular culinary that I hated, but now I have some respect for it. I think it was refreshing.

 

 

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

 

(Image courtesy of Bravo)

 

 

Follow Gina @ginascarpa


  


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