Posted by chicagomedia.org on October 02, 2008 at 07:15:41:
Wicker Park chef on 'Top Chef' cast
A little-known local chef of a small Wicker Park restaurant is about to be catipulated into reality television fame.
Radhika Desai (right), executive chef of Between Boutique Café & Lounge will compete with 16 other chefs in the next season of "Top Chef," which premieres Nov. 12. She joins the likes of such past Chicago contestants of the cooking competition show as Stephanie Izard, who won last season, and Dale Levitski, runner-up of season three.
Desai’s place among the cast had been rumored, but Bravo refused to comment until today’s annoucement of the fifth season. You can read more about Desai and the rest of the cast on Bravo’s site. Here’s a little of what we know: The Ohio-born chef is a graduate of the Cooking & Hospitality Institute of Chicago; she’s trained in classic French and Indian cuisines. Her bio says she likes to cook with spice and bold flavors, "combined with grace and restraint." Favorite dish to cook: spicy chicken and potato curry with cumin scented rice with clarified butter and mint.
The fifth season of the show, which was filmed in New York, will air at 9 p.m. Wednesdays.
(Joe Gray, Chicago Tribune)