Anthony Bourdain

It says something about a person when you put chicken Caesar on the menu. You’ve crossed a line and you know it. It’s the chef version of sucking Ron Jeremy’s cock. If you do it late in your career, any notions of future stardom are usually pretty much out the window

Of the contestants, Erik had obviously been designated the “bad-ass.

You could tell the cooks from the civilians by what they drank. Civilians drank the free mimosas. The industry types were deep into the Fernet shots

From within the hulking body and the designed-to-intimidate look—half pirate, half Aryan Brother—there’s a vibe of a scared and damaged little boy

Or, depending on who’s going to be looking at your résumé, T.G.I. Friday’s or Thataway Cafe can be replaced by “traveling in France.

They made their own charcuterie, roasted fish whole, on the bone, and grilled fresh sardines

My recollection is that he appeared to agree with my suggested course of action—before offering me a bump.

They wanted to know if I could exercise my critical duties without any personal considerations coming into play.

I assured them that I could.

Not too long after, Erik Hopfinger found himself boarded up and under guard with fifteen other contestants at an undisclosed location in Chicago, deprived of television, Internet, unsupervised telephone calls, and subject to a secret agreement so draconian as to be the envy of the NSA.

What should be stressed here is that what the contestants on Top Chef are asked to do is really, really difficult.