Kelly Choi is so hot right now
Kelly Choi, pictured with a chicken who asked to remain anonymous.
Everyone’s buzzing about Kelly Choi, who landed a job that many foodies, pop culture lovers and TV watchers envy. She is the host of Bravo’s new competitive cooking series, “Top Chef Masters.”
This spinoff from the original “Top Chef” series, which was wildly popular, will no doubt translate into big profits for the producers and for Bravo. However, even better than that is the fact that Kelly Choi’s show means lots of money will be going to deserving charity organizations.
Kelly Choi on the economy
Kelly Choi has been interviewed by many big-time and small-time publications recently. Of course, you can’t write an article nowadays without using the phrase “in this economy,” and interviews with Kelly Choi are no different. Here is a clip from her interview with Slashfood:
Why do you think this show matters in this economy?
Why not? Everybody loves food. The alternative is to cook at home and you can totally pick up tips. It’s a fun way — to be inspired by fun and passionate people — to cook at home.
Some of the budgets the chefs get for one meal on “Top Chef Masters” are bigger than payday loans in Arkansas, so using the same recipes they do might cost you money instead of saving it. Nonetheless, Kelly Choi makes a good point, that cooking at home is generally less expensive than going out, and that the show inspires people’s cooking.
Background on Kelly Choi
Before “Top Chef Masters” she hosted her own series called “Eat Out NY,” on which she picked restaurants to visit and cooked with chefs in New York. Someone saw her show, liked it, called her and asked her host “Top Chef Masters.” How could she say no?
Kelly Choi is 33, and before she was a TV show host she was a model. She was born in Seoul, Korea, and raised in the suburbs of Richmond, Va.
Donating to charity
One of the important differences between “Top Chef” and “Top Chef Masters” is that “Top Chef Masters” pits already well-established, successful, famous-in-the-food-world chefs against each other. Because these chefs don’t need the money to open a restaurant, like the beginners who compete in “Top Chef,” the money goes to charity.
The grand prize is still $100,000, but instead of going to the winner, it goes to a charity of the winner’s choice. Also, each of the first six episodes will pit a different group of four chefs against each other. The winners of these semifinal competitions gets to pick a charity that receives $10,000. On the first episode, Wednesday, chef Hubert Keller sent $10,000 to the Make a Wish Foundation.
Quotable quote
Here’s another snippets I liked from Kelly Choi’s interview with Slashfood:
What was the best tip you took away from the show?
I won’t tell you who it was, but it was sauce of mustard and bananas. It was sweet and tangy and it was a nice thick sauce. Kind of bizarre, but I am totally going to use it the next time I cook. The chef who made it is a total mack daddy master chef and it was really good.
Tune in to watch Kelly Choi in action and find out which charity will get the dough Wednesday nights at 10 on Bravo.
