Your presence on "Top Chef" has brought an amazing amount of exposure for you and your restaurants. What has that experience been like? And what can the audience expect from the upcoming season?
Tom Colicchio: It's definitely, clearly brought our restaurants to a new customer base outside of those that knew about me or the restaurants before, and you can see how TV has done that for everybody, Emeril, Mario, Bobby Flay. It's just such a wide exposure, and that's probably the only argument I could make for doing it. I wasn't so keen on it from the start, but I knew at the time that I was expanding out of New York City and it would be important to figure out a way to get the name out there. As for the new season, all I can say is it was shot in Chicago. That's really all I can tell you.
Do you feel like the experience portrayed on the show is indicative of just being in the industry, being a chef, or is it too glamorized?
Well, it is entertainment. It is a show. But any person who has been on the show who has lasted a few weeks will tell you it's one of the hardest things they've ever done. Some of the challenges are very much like what you'll find in a kitchen and some aren't meant to be. Not everything on the show has a bearing on real life but it is a competition, everyone has the same limitations, and it really does test one's skills.
You were certainly known before "Top Chef." How do you feel about the label of celebrity chef?
I hate it. I hate that label. You don't say "celebrity actor," or "celebrity rock star." I mean, yes, I had some experience with that before the show. I had been going on the Today Show a couple times a year. But I really don't know what the qualifications are for that title. I got into this business probably 30 years ago because I love food and I love to cook. I tell young chefs -- in fact I said this at a commencement speech I gave well before "Top Chef" -- I said if you are getting into this because you want to be the next Emeril, then apologize to your parents right now for wasting their money because it's not going to happen. It has to be for the love of food. I think a really good question we need to ask is what is a chef, because it doesn't mean you're on TV and it doesn't mean you're a cook. Chef means boss. If you're running a kitchen, you're a chef. If you're a TV cook or you're a cooking instructor on TV, that is completely different. There are a lot of great chefs that want to be guest judges on the show, and they are great chefs, but for one reason or another they're not right for TV. I don't really know why. I don't know why I'm on the show, I just know they picked me because they thought I was telegenic for some reason. I don't know why. So that's why I'm always kind of cynical about it. But that being said, I love what we do on the show, I think we choose the best contestant every year, and there is no pressure from the producers or anyone else to pick a certain someone despite what everybody believes. The day they tell us we have to pick someone for any reason other than our judgement is the day I do my last show. But I think it's fun and entertaining, and I think it does illuminate what happens in a kitchen to people who otherwise wouldn't get to see. I've had a lot of people come up to me and say they never looked at food that way before seeing the show. But I also have people come up to me with other comments. When we opened in L.A. I had a woman come up to me and say "You're really a chef?" Yeah! Or when you send a person off the show, eliminate someone people really like, they say, "Who is this guy? Who is this guy we've never heard of before?" What can you say, you know? Go home and google me. But I get a kick out of it most of the time.
With all you have going on, how much time do you get to visit Vegas and check in on things at Craftsteak at MGM Grand?
Actually I was there for four days last week. But I spend all my time at the restaurant. In the six years I've had a restaurant in Vegas, I've been to maybe 10 restaurants there. This time we spent some time at (Wynn Las Vegas) so I got to try a couple there, Bartolotta and another one.
What did you think of Bartolotta?
I loved it. Paul (Bartolotta) is just a fabulous cook. I've known him for a while, and I love what he's doing there because it's a true Italian experience. He's bringing in all his fish from the Mediterranean. It's amazing.
What is your general impression of the Vegas dining scene and its development?
Well, again, I travel so much and when I do, it's all about spending time in the restaurant so I don't really get out much. But Las Vegas is amazing. I say it's the second best city for eating because I'm still kind of partial to New York since I'm from there. But Vegas is absolutely deserving of that reputation. When I first was going about opening a restaurant at MGM Grand, I told Gamal Aziz (then MGM president) -- and he's about the best person to work with because he came up in food and beverage -- that I can't open a restaurant somewhere unless there's a real community. I want to cook for regulars. And the idea was that you can't have that in Vegas, because of the tourists, it doesn't exist. And he said that's not the case. That's why from day one things have worked there and we've been able to move forward and it's still doing well. You can build that in Vegas. You know, I want the guys who come in for conventions for a week to eat on Monday and then say "I want to come back to Craftsteak" a day later. That's why it's still busy, because we treat it like a real market. And there are so many professionals in that town, going out, checking things out. I wish I could spend more time there. It's all there, and it's real.
