Las Vegas Weekly

June 2, 2009 · 9:24 AM

Photo Gallery: All-star cooks wrap up Las Vegas filming of Top Chef

By Robin Leach

Top Chef's Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons.

Photo: PR Plus

Bravo’s hit series Top Chef has just completed filming Season 6 here in Las Vegas, and the kitchen kings and queens celebrated with an official wrap party at Blush in the Wynn.

Among the celebrity chefs partying were Top Chef judges Tom Colicchio from Craftsteak at MGM Grand, Padma Lakshmi and Gail Simmons. The chefs included Thomas Keller, Laura Cunningham and Timothy Hollingsworth, who have the top-rated French Laundry in Napa Valley, Calif., with a brasserie outpost in The Venetian; RM Seafood honcho Rick Moonen from Mandalay Bay; Jerome Bocuse, son of French icon Paul Bocuse; Guy Savoy’s son Franck Savoy from Caesars Palace; and Wynn chefs Daniel Boulud, Paul Bartolotta, Alex Stratta and Rene Lenger.

James Benson, Wynn’s executive catering chef, prepared classic beef sliders and cheesecake pops for Lee Anne Wong, a former contestant turned culinary producer for Top Chef, and the other menu masters.

After an intense five-week-plus film schedule, the judges and participating chefs were ready to dance and hang out. Watching the chef charge were Nicky Hilton and boyfriend David Katzenberg, who were having drinks there with friends.

Season 6’s filming, shrouded in secrecy, was originally scheduled for the showcase demo kitchen at M Resort, but Norm Clarke reports that the producers had to re-create it in an industrial park to enable TV cameras to move between the ovens more easily for shots!

Don’t forget that this Thursday, some 30 Las Vegas chefs are holding their annual Share of Strength: Taste of the Nation fundraiser at the Hard Rock Hotel to combat childhood hunger.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

Share This