Todd Williamson/Bravo
It was around the time the fifth glass in the wine pairing was poured with a sidecar pre-dessert treat of coffee with rum that I turned to Top Chef judge Gail Simmons, sitting to my right, and asked sheepishly, “When you guys are taping, do you drink this much at all your dinners?”
She let out a loud laugh and an emphatic, “No!” just as it was time to raise a glass again, this time to Top Chef Season 23 winner Rhoda Magbitang, who just finished serving us a tasting menu of exquisite Filipino food: lumpia, langoustine lugaw, pork belly adobo, oxtail, and a truly gluttonous amount of local specialties—including a surprise “snack” of pig ear skewers.
We’re at the historic James Beard House in New York City’s Greenwich Village, the culinary cathedral where the legendary “dean of American cookery” once lived—legend is that the alcove in the southeast corner of the dining room is where Beard used to sleep with his large bare feet sticking out the window—and is now the venue for career-milestone meals prepared by the country’s greatest chefs.
