Top Chef

On Tuesday, June 24, just before 2 p.m., the Transom stepped into an elevator and all of a sudden found ourselves gazing at dreamy Top Chef contestant Sam Talbot.

Holy smokes! Er, who’s gonna win Top Chef season whatever?

“I don’t know,” said Mr. Talbot, who wore a tight black V-neck T-shirt that revealed bulging biceps, accentuated by a necklace with a giant shark tooth.

Shucks. So, what else is going on?

“I just opened a restaurant in the Hamptons.” Right, right—that seafood joint, the Surf Lodge. Does he surf? “No, I wakeboard,” said Mr.  read more »

Monday

Is the impulse that drives viewers to A&E’s reality series Intervention charity? Or what the newspapers used to call "human interest"? Or is it just Schadenfreude? Either way, the show, which chronicles those confrontations between self-destructive people and their families and friends brokered by "intervention" specialists, certainly doesn't play for laughs. What you’re seeing is usually pretty horrific, and the train wrecks it picks through can actually become pretty touching stories. Methamphetamine and OxyContin addictions are common fare here; and the success stories, which are not guaranteed, are definitely the more edifying programs. So maybe it is charity after all? Tonight we meet Chad who, like most of the show's subjects, had a pretty troubled childhood—he ended up in juvie for felony arson. At age 15, Chad’s father introduced him to cycling, and he went pro and even cycled on the same team as Lance Armstrong. When he got kicked off the team for “personality conflicts,” however, he turned to drugs. He's homeless and spends his days drinking, panhandling and smoking crack. Can an intervention save his life? The show airs at 9 p.m. Of course before reality programs there were nonfictional programs about science and nature and history. The History Channel takes a break from reconstructing Hitler's last hours in the bunker to trot out an hour-long program about the origins of life on earth at 9 p.m. At any rate switch to Bravo at 10 and watch Clueless if you haven't seen it a few too many times already, or fire up the fourth season premiere of Weeds at 10 p.m. on Showtime.  read more »

MONDAY

Finally, they’ve given Julianna Margulies her own show, Canterbury’s Law (Fox, 8 p.m.), in which she plays a bitchy (natch) attorney for the falsely accused. Ms. Margulies has certainly paid her dues, appearing during her 18-year career on E.R., Law and Order, Scrubs, The Sopranos, and a whole host of made-for-TV movies, not to mention Snakes on a Plane. Her career strategy has obviously paid off: make the rounds playing a doctor or a lawyer and eventually, they’ll make a TV show for you. (Except if you’re Fyvush Finkel. Sorry!) It’s not a new idea. Jewish mothers have been on that tip for years.  read more »

Last night, Thomas Keller, the chef and owner of impossible-to-penetrate gastronomical temples like Napa’s French Laundry and New York’s Per Se, said he finds the recent celebrity-chef trend rather capricious.  read more »

Restaurant deals crumbled for Dave Martin and Sam Talbot, but do diners care? Zagat says not really.  read more »