The sixth season of Bravo's Top Chef begins next month, and we've got a first look at the season's one out gay man (and two gay women).
Look below for pics and profiles, and be sure and catch the season premiere of Top Chef (this year from Las Vegas) when it airs on Wednesday, August 19th at 9PM EST (and for a refresher on what it's like being an out Top Chef contestant, check out our interview with Season Four Chef Dale Levitski.)
Ash Fulk
Age: 29
Hometown: Pleasant Hill, Calif. - currently resides in New York City
Profession:: Sous Chef at Trestle on Tenth
Culinary Education: Self-Taught
Favorite Simple Summer Recipe: Grilled Corn on the Cob with Mayonnaise - with a sweet tea to wash it down.
Foodie Fact: Fulk enjoys working with foods that are regional and seasonal and follows the motto "if it grows together, it goes together." Ash enjoys whipping up custards and cooking with leeks, and some of his favorite chefs include Dan Barber and Claudia Fleming.
Preeti Mistry
Age: 33
Hometown: San Francisco, Calif.
Profession:: Executive Chef, Google, Bon Appetit ManAgement Company
Culinary Education: Le Cordon Bleu, London
Favorite Simple Summer Recipe: Fennel Crust Marin Sun Farms’ Rack of Lamb, Saffron Parsnip Puree, Heirloom Carrot and English Pea Ragout with Pinot Noir Reduction
Foodie Fact: Preeti’s commitment to seasonality, and her relationship with small local farmers are at the core of her cuisine. If she were a food, what food would she be? "I would be a green zebra tomato – extremely distinctive from all the others, a little hard on the outside, but pure love at the center."
Ashley Merriman
Age: 32
Hometown: Center Sandwich, N.H. – currently resides in Seattle, Wash.
Profession:: Chef at Branzino in Seattle, Wash.
Culinary Education: Institute of Culinary Education, New York, N.Y.
Favorite Simple Summer Recipe: Pan-Fried Soft Shell Crabs with Ramps and Morels
Foodie Fact: You don't have to become a chef if you hail from a town named Center Sandwich, but don't tell that to Ashley Merriman. Merriman's five kitchen must-haves are quality extra virgin olive oil, champagne vinegar, lemons and thyme.
Damn, now I'm hungry. Well, except for "grilled corn-on-the-cob with mayonnaise". I think I'll pass on that.
Submitted by
on Mon, 2009-07-20 12:40.
Grilled Corn on the cob
Butter and salt, yes...
Uh oh - Self Taught
The self-taughts don't normally last that long, do they? I don't have stats, but it seems from past seasons they usually went home pretty early on...
"Open up your mind and then open up your heart. And you will see that you and me aren't very far apart." - Blessid Union of Souls
umm... i might be a horrible person...
is it bad that i totally saw the first pic and was like, oh they have a twinky looking guy, a more dorky guy(bowties do it everytime...) and a punkish kind of guy....
then i read the sentence under that pic that informed me that i was looking at two girls and one dude... def. made me feel like a douche, but i'm sure you guys would get a good laugh out of it
I did the same thing, so
I had a similar thought...
I thought it was a woman and two men, until I read the sentence underneath.
"Open up your mind and then open up your heart. And you will see that you and me aren't very far apart." - Blessid Union of Souls
Is it wrong...
that I found the two lesbians more attractive than the gay man? o_o
Maybe I just have a thing for androgynous people. Preeti Mistry is absolutely adorable. It wouldn't be too hard to imagine her as a gay boy. ;) And is it just me, or does Ashley Merriman (in the lower pictures) look a little like Dana Carvey? (Who, for that matter, very much resembles a lesbian himself...) And Ashley's glasses are totally channeling Rachel Maddow. (Who is very attractive in her own right.) ... Oy vey.
I'm not bisexual, I swear! :)