Fast & Furious with Top Chef's Ted Allen

Photo: Bravo/F. Scott Schafer

This week at a lavish, French-food benefit dinner for Gay Men's Health Crisis, we asked some pressing questions of the evening's host, former Queer Eye food-and-wine guy Ted Allen, now a judge on Bravo's Top Chef.

Out.com: You and your longtime boyfriend, interior designer Barry Rice, live in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. For the Brooklynites in the house, what are your foodie pics out there?
Ted Allen: In our neighborhood, I love A Bistro. Their Senegalese fried chicken is amazing. And I also love Luigi's Pizza.

Do you and Barry have any major food disagreements?
He doesn't like olives! Can you believe that?

Any advice for someone who knows absolutely nothing about wine?
Ask for a light red. It goes with a broad range of things.

Do you think the subtext of everything that Padma Lakshmi says is "I'm so hot"?
I've seen her naked backstage when she was changing. Padma is hot.

Speaking of other TV foodies: Anthony Bourdain: a sexy man?
Oh, very sexy man. Did you know he quit smoking? He was the last enthusiastic on-camera smoker. He got a prescription for Chantix when he had a daughter, and a few months ago, when I met him for the first time, he was off the things.

Does that diminish his decadent, continental vibe?
He's still decadent, he's just no longer carcinogenic.

What should Barack Obama be eating right now on the campaign trail?
Barack is a fairly slender man, so if he's in central Illinois and someone offers to serve him a Haystack, which I believe is a hamburger covered with French fries covered with cheese sauce, he could probably down a couple of those and be fine.

And what about Hillary Clinton? There's been some buzz recently about how she really loves hot peppers.
Hillary is 60 years old. The older you get -- a lot of people have tummy problems. We don't need Hillary having to run to the can every twenty minutes. That is such a gross image. My apologies. But I'd go easy on the Scotch bonnets if I were her. 

Top Chef premieres tonight on Bravo.

-- TIM MURPHY

Comments

[eddoc]

Actually, Ted, in Central Illinois (at least in Springfield) what you describe as a haystack is known as a Horseshoe. It can have any vasriety of meats underneath, but always the fries and cheese sauce. If you're ever in Central Illinois I'll treat you to one.