The Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, as most of you know, host some amazing speakers. Nothing new, right? But tomorrow night's gathering is, as they say, not to be missed. Tomorrow night, you see, some of San Francisco's top chefs (and Top Chefs) tell all. And then some. Zoi Antonitsas (chef/restaurant consultant, Zazu), Jennifer Biesty (chef/restaurant consultant, formerly of COCO500), and Ryan Scott (executive chef/partner at Mission Beach Cafe) sit down to gossip about......

First off: Lisa lost "Top Chef." Stephanie won. All is right with the reality TV world. The reunion show is this Wednesday, and we can't wait to see what the other chefs have to say about Lisa making it to the final three. And we'll see if Lisa continues to badmouth the stupid, poor bloggers who can't even afford to eat in her restaurants. Which leaves us with "The Bacherlorette" and local bachelor and chef......

First, let's once again acknowledge the enduring presence of Lisa on "Top Chef." No, she's not a local, but we like to think she is at least partially responsible for the elimination of our four locals from the competition, so she's worth mentioning. Part one of the finale last week demonstrated what is inherently wrong with "Top Chef"'s judging scheme. It's not cumulative; any chef can go home based on the dish being judged during......

Let's start with a little bit of "Top Chef" coverage. Lisa was in the bottom two again last week. AND SHE WASN'T ELIMINATED. AGAIN. Which means she's made it to the final four. It also means someone on the "Top Chef" staff has a bitch face fetish. In actual locals news, Robert Fair, the local chef vying for the affections of "The Bachelorette" went on a group date that brought seven men to Dodgers......

As you may have noticed, "Your Locals..." has taken a break for a few weeks, a result of our locals being picked off of "Top Chef" one by one, as well as a growing sense of disgust with this season in general. Our disgust wasn't tempered with last week's episode, when Dale was kicked off, and Lisa--LISA!--was kept on, AGAIN. (The week before, Lisa, Miss "I HATE POLISH SAUSAGE!" called out Andrew for not following......

Man. For the second week in a row, "Top Chef" has really pissed us off. Not for the obvious reasons of losing our locals, but because it seems like the judges are making some really boneheaded decisions, and it's just annoying to watch. Anyway, last week we lost Ryan, leaving Jennifer the last local standing. But for how long?? At Chez Chef, Twitchy McTwit was pleased "pretty boy" Ryan had left, while admitting the place......

Quick! There are "Top Chef" try-outs going on from 10am to 2pm at Postrio today. Get down there! We want more locals next season! As for this season, well, last week saw the elimination of Zoi, which did not please her girlfriend Jen one bit. She's out for blood! The next morning Spike knew others thought he should have gone home, and not just because of his stupid hats. Meanwhile, Lisa and Dale tried to......

Previously on "Top Chef" our remaining trio of local chefs remained in the running to become America's Next Top Chef, but how long will that last? Zoi was still pissed about getting placed in the bottom at the last challenge, and Jen thought it was bogus as well. Of course. But to their credit, so far their status as a couple hasn't really resulted in any behavior that should piss off either their fellow chefs......

To the disappointment of probably no one, there will be no recapping of "The Bachelor" this week because our boyfriend TiVo decided it couldn't stand to even have the show on its hard drive any longer and deleted it before we had a chance to watch it. But apparently local girl Amy did not get a rose. That's that. Which leaves us with "Top Chef," where three locals remain after last week's knifing of......

Previously on "The Bachelor," Tiffany from San Francisco was denied a rose, but Amy from Stockton stuck around because she knows what time it is, she has love for Matt Grant, and she wants to continue to rock his world. Date Box! Hollie read the note, and eight girls, including herself, would be putting on some kind of runway show. Oh, "The Bachelor." We have seen "Project Runway;" "Project Runway" is our friend on MySpace;......

Here's part two of today's reality TV locals coverage. You can read part one here! Previously on "Top Chef," our four local chefs remained, despite questionable interpretations of classic entrees. In the Top Chef Chateau, Jen and Zoi tried each others shoes on while interviewing that they were "keeping their distance," trying not to behave like a couple, and more like people working together. Hmmm. The chefs then met up with Padma at a farmer's......

Here's part two of our Reality TV locals round-up. You can read part one here. Yay! Another season of "Top Chef," and it has an overwhelming four locals chefs competing this season. Let's meet them, shall we? First up is Ryan Scott, who was once the chef at Cafe Myth, although apparently, he recently quit the restaurant and started waiting tables at Pier 23. Curious. In his introduction, he started talking about how his dad......

LAist began the month with a new food series exploring the popular and unknown late night eats around town. If a Top Chef winner opened up a late night spot in Los Angeles, denizens would flock it, yet the LA Times and other media might be wary. Turning to sports, the Dodger season was quite memorable in the way that it imploded and the LA County Sheriff's Department made some games of their own such......

The next season of Top Chef is looking for a few good contestants, right here in San Francisco. Applicants that aren't able to attend can submit video profiles instead, but Sunday brings you a chance for a little face time with producers. Either way, there's paperwork to fill out....

Last week's winner, the Bay Guardian. More problems with the construction at Hunters' Point (this time: asbestos). Chris Daly is on it. A construction worker falls off the Golden Gate Bridge and his employer avoids liability because they used the wrong legal name on the OSHA citations it received. Send all legal paperwork to FSist, everyone! More taxi permit shadiness. Man vs. Wild -- who cares if he stayed in a hotel, he drank water......

So, last night on Bravo, four of the cheftestants from Top Chef season one went head-to-head against four cheftestants from season two. Eight chefs. Four courses. Head to head. Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons, and often-guest (and apparent season 3 regular?) Ted Allen were there to judge. At stake? $20k to charity of the winning team's choice. All this one was missing was a cue card-reading contest between Katy Lee and Padma. And all we really want to say is "we told you so."...

For those who can't wait until next Wednesday's "Top Chef" season three premiere, Bravo is offering you a tasty appetizer (or would it be considered an amuse bouche?) tonight at 10 p.m. with a season one versus season two cook-off called "4 Star All Stars". Season one winner Harold is back, as are Tiffani (!), Dave ("I'm not your bitch, bitch!"), and Stephen the sommelier. Season two's team includes winner Ilan, Sam (the guy......

Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic is a culinary school graduate that writes about food and television. What's not to love? She's best known for her scathing, funny, and exhaustive coverage of several shows over at Television Without Pity, where she uses the nom du plum of Keckler--we'll be the first to admit (as we have before): her coverage of Top Chef is second to none. She's also a regular at where we first met her), and has her very own food-centric bloggie, The Grub Report. Check out our recent discussion for details on an a cup of salsa's epic journey, a bit on being a cheese archivist, the ressurection of our favorite word from Top Chef Season Two ("craveable"), and some insight into the challenges in writing loads and loads about television at the very popular TWOP. ...

--The tap dancer at Powell and Market's hanging up his shoes. --Jerry Yang golfs with a 10 handicap. We have absolutely no idea what that means. Come back soon, SFist Jon! --Gay penguins in love. Awwwww. --Gavin Newsom's going to Japan for a week or so. SFist Jim notes that Gavin's cousin and indie rock star Joanna Newsom is going to be there at the exact same time. Family reunion, or mixup at the......

Hey, folks, welcome to our weekly opinions on the past week's Top Chef, which we hope will spur you to watch tonight's episo-- What? Last week was it? No after-season wrap-up where they contestants yell at each other, like they did for season one? What a drag. Congrats to Ilan....

Between fake terrorist alerts and scandals big and small, this just might be the Best Best of the -ists ever. We're exhausted just thinking about it. First up, SFist, who saw their little 'ole site be the center of what was a nice little scandal (even getting their editor on TV) only to find their scandal dwarfed by the even bigger scandal caused by their Mayor boffing one of his aides' wife. We're not just tooting our horn when we say we think SFist summed up the whole thing better than anyone: Holy Crap!!!!! ...

You know what's really interesting about Top Chef? Even though it's come off the rails several times in this second season, it's still been quite compelling. However, the wind has been taken out of our sails due to some of the outside factors. Look, you can get straight-up recaps at many fine places--particularly here at TWOP (Hi Steph! We love you even though you don't return our emails!). We'll be extremely brief in our recap, to leave more room for our assessment: ...

This season of Top Chef on Bravo has been marred by stupid controversy. The whole Otto/Marisa/stolen lychee thing. The "did someone cheat? Let's eliminate nobody" challenge results. Mia's going postal a few weeks ago. And now Cliff's attempted prank on Marcel gets him booted from the show. Shenanigans. ...

We feel it's time to remind folks of our motivation in writing these short reviews of Top Chef, a fine cooking-based reality show on Bravo. First and foremost, we (usually) like it and want to help keep it on the air. We figure that sharing what happened last week on the day a new episode is about to air may prompt viewers to tune in. We needed to remind ourselves why, because we found last week's episode pretty disappointing. Contestants we enjoy watching keep getting knocked off and guys we thought were cool are progressively turning into total dicks....

Mikey, Mikey, Mikey -- we've been poking fun at this guy, mostly because we like him. He's a goof. Reminds us of some of our college buddies. Forgets his eggs in a breakfast challenge. Is overly thrilled at his sloppy, greezy steak sandwhich in the firehouse challenge. Enjoys throwing out somewhat tired concepts like a twice-baked potato (during the "Thanksgiving innovation" challenge, no less) and surf & turf appetizers. And who can forget the snicker/cheeto lollipop? ...

Hey, folks! Been a while! But since we only post our thoughts on Bravo's Top Chef on the day a new one's coming out, this review is anything but fresh. Hopefully it'll help you recall what's going on on the show and help to re-establish the narrative. So, no reason to bury the lead here: Mia went home. Mia--the spunky, outspoken firecracker who made a bunch of good-looking comfort food with ridiculous names ("Mamma Mia's this, Mamma Mia's that"), really sort of went nutso in this episode. ...

Ha ha -- so, there was a week hiatus of Bravo's Top Chef -- a perfect chance for your correspondent to get ahead of the game and start writing these reviews shortly after the episode. Alas, we didn't take that chance. So, here's the deal as always: we're talking about last week's episode to psych you up for tonight's. And, wow, last week's ep. was pretty fun! First comment: how is it we've avoided talking about Padma's strange outfits heretofore? Cuz, dude, she's really smokin', obviously, but I think the ladies from Gofugyourself are missing out on a potential Fort Knox of comedy if they aren't taking advatage already....

Last week's winner, the SF Weekly. First, Dianne Feinstein came for the animal rights activists, and we said nothing. What are some of the election day losers doing now? Well, Krissy Keefer has been offered $100,000 to run against Gavin Newsom. Cover article: Chron blogs editor (and SFist editor emerita) Eve Batey must save the Chronicle!! (In a travesty of justice, Eve is not mentioned in the piece. Boooo!). It's actually a pretty decent article......

Oy, gee. We're sick today. We feel like grade-A crapola, and it may color our review of the last episode of Top Chef just a tad. Not to mention that we're about 10 lbs. heavier than when we watched this episode last Wednesday on Bravo, which is making us even more pissy. This episode was a 'very special Thanksgiving' episode. And it was pretty special--Tony Bourdain, the well-known chef and world-traveler, was the guest judge, and yes, we love his bad-boy image, his wry personality, and he writes a hell of a good fictional book along with his spectacular non-fiction. Sorry if we're judging this man on his image, folks, along with his writing and cooking pedigree. Oh, P.S. -- he's had some swell adventures recently with our own Mary Ladd/Jalepeno Girl, which you should check out here and here....

Kick those schlumpy tryptophan and Monday induced sighs and blahs to the curb and check out Bacon Press’s Food Porn. We can’t much bear thoughts and photos of turkey, but the tantalizing pics of vibrant veggies and wholesome soup are pleasing. Barely a trace of heartburn there, family and friends-who-are-like-family (we’re trying to be a bright and happy holiday trooper here). Such healthful dishes may soothe and perhaps allow us to ease into our ill barely fitting Levi’s sooner rather than later. After zipping up, we’d never call the authorities from learning about food related theft in another newish Bacon Press Post so appropriately named: Steal this Brie. ...