by Chandra Clewley

 

 

For over 25 years,Top Chef Masters Season 2 chef Carmen Gonzalez has worked a kitchen. She has worked in restaurants, hotels and has even run a catering company and her own flagship restaurant Carmen the Restaurant in Miami. Now, back in New York City, Carmen is working on a cookbook and several other projects. Today, Carmen who specializes in American cuisine with a Puerto Rican flair, spoke with Reality Wanted about her experience on Top Chef Masters.

 

Chandra, Reality Wanted: What made you decide to go on Top Chef Masters Season 2?

Carmen: I have done pretty much everything in this career, from owning a restaurant to working for hotels, to having a catering company. First of all, I was totally honored that they thought of me and invited me because I don’t have a flagship restaurant right now, so I have been living a little under the radar for the past two years. So, it was a great honor and also I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to do something different and prove to myself that I was made of nerves of steel, and I could go there. I had seen my peers doing this, and thought they were amazing to take such challenges that could be very degrading for you and really pull it out. I really wanted to challenge myself and see how far I could go.

 

Chandra, Reality Wanted: Once you got to Top Chef, how much different was it than actually watching it on TV?

Carmen: Well, you know what, everything is totally different from what you can see on television, it is very difficult, it’s stressful, it’s tiring, but at the same time it’s just lots of fun! I thought it was going to be stressful and tiring, but once you are there you are in a pressure cooker, and you have to pull every ounce of yourself in order to make it work, and I think it was a lot more intense than I thought it was going to be. 

 

Chandra, Reality Wanted: When you forgot the stew at the Top Chef kitchen, how long did that actually take you? It seems like it was a blessing in disguise because you won the challenge.

Carmen: In order to go get it and come back, it took me about an hour and fifty minutes! I literally used about two hours of the challenge just sitting in traffic. Miami is so much like LA with traffic; I love New York because you can just jump on the subway. I think that I am at my best when I am under stress because it brings out all you know. I think that was a big example of that.  When I got out of the car, I had to make a decision that I was not going to be too stressed out and waste my brain cells being upset or angry. 

 

Chandra, Reality Wanted: Looking back on last night’s episode, what would you do differently?

Carmen:  I would have chosen a stronger dish instead of doing three smaller things, and I would have done something a little more time consuming and where I had to put a little more into it. I think at the end of the night what happened was that everyone liked what I did, there was nothing wrong with what I cooked but unfortunately, for them I didn’t do a strong enough item in the scale of the menu. 

 

Chandra, Reality Wanted: Watching the show, it seems like the biggest challenge is pleasing the people you are cooking for and the critics too. How did you feel the judging went?

Carmen:  They are both trained totally different, there is one that’s there very casually having drinks, and enjoying the food. The other ones have a job that this is what they do. That’s the trick of this whole competition is to keep everyone happy.

 

Chandra, Reality Wanted: How different is cooking in a restaurant versus catering?

Carmen:  The most difficult part of catering a wedding is the different types of clients that you have. You need to make sure you keep your own identity but also please those that at the end of the night are paying the bill and eating your food. There is a big difference with catering and you have to be careful with what you cook because of chafing dishes. Steam is not very good for food, and it can go bad really quickly, but with last night everyone was rushing through and doing other stuff, so it was a little easier in  terms of keeping the things fresh, but in a restaurant you are cooking a la minute, the order comes in and you start cooking it. In a wedding party, whatever you cook, you also have to think it might be in a chafing dish for an hour. You need to remember, we are all trained to do restaurants and we have the restaurant mentality. Caterers have a totally different mentality and I was very blessed to do both (in my career). The chefs last night, everyone was stressed out because it was very challenging. We had hours to do what people do in months, and also you have to please the critics and the guests. When you are in your kitchen you have your support staff, you know exactly how everything works, every pan, every oven. When you take this group of chefs and put us in this environment, you don’t know how things are going to work. Everyone was really stressed out. Ultimately, we had a responsibility that this wedding went good and everyone was happy with the food. As chefs that is our greatest concern.

 

Chandra, Reality Wanted: What’s next for you?

Carmen: Well, right now, I am working on a few new projects. I am finishing my cook book, I am working on a children’s book and working on a couple things for TV.

 

Top Chef Masters airs Wednesday night 10/9 c on Bravo.

 

(Image courtesy of Bravo)

 

 

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