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    Foodie News

    The Next Iron Chef? Ballerina linebacker Bryan Caswell can't reel in a fishvictory

    Sarah Rufca
    Oct 17, 2010 | 11:31 pm
    • Caswell came out on top in the fishing boat but not at the judging table.
    • But Caswell is still impressive enough to be a prime contender to win it all.

    "I'm a fish guy. I do this every day. If I can't win a fishing challenge, maybe I deserve to go home."

    So says Reef's Bryan Caswell on the third episode of The Next Iron Chef.

    Obviously Caswell has never heard of the reality TV gods, who enact harsh vengeance on any competitor who dare lay down such a boast.

    But while the fishing expedition loomed large from the previews, the episode opens with a more land-friendly challenge of pickles. Jars and jars of pickles, as far as the eye can see, or at least enough to cover the display table.

    Caswell puts forward a "Barcelona Red Hot," which looked like a spicy pickled tomato stuffed with an andouille and pork belly rillette.

    Caswell's dish earns three nods from his fellow competitors for best dish, but he's beaten by New York chef Marc Forgione's duck liver crostini in a rematch of last week's chairman's challenge top two. And it's refreshing to see both men vote for each other and not their own dish. Classy guys.

    Soon it is onto the boat, where the chefs have to catch their own two-course dinner ingredients — the episode's theme is "resourcefulness." Apparently the ocean is full of scorpion fish (who knew!), because they made up 90 percent of the catches. Caswell showed off his skills, pulling in five scorpion fish and two sand dabs to have the most fish.

    Cooking is enlivened by a mixing bowl fire courtesy of chef Celina Tio and Marco Canora's missing artichokes. Though they are eventually found in the trash, his immediate jump to "sabotage!" smacks of feeling just a bit too important.

    Caswell serves a warm seafood salad with scorpion fish and chile shrimp as his first course, and a sand dab carpaccio with grapefruit, using the sand dab roe he found in a sac inside the fish.

    His dishes render judge Michael Symon nearly speechless as he praises it as "slick," while Simon Majumdar makes the fantastic observation that Caswell "looks like a linebacker and cooks like a ballerina."

    But when it comes to selecting a top two, Caswell misses the cut, with honors going to winner Canora, who turns his three pitiful scorpion fish into his old world/new world versions of cacciucco (an Italian fish stew) and to chef Duskie Estes, who comes out near the top with her bacon-wrapped sardine and seared scorpion fish despite losing the intro challenge almost unanimously.

    The two obvious low scorers are Maneet Chauhan and Mary Dumont, who has yet to serve a dish that impressed and says goodbye. With so many chefs now firing on all cylinders, it's obvious that any mistake can send you home.

    We have to wonder if Caswell's fish splendor took away from his resourcefulness score, since the chef who caught the least fish earned the brass ring. Is using less fish to make good food more resourceful than, I don't know, catching more fish?

    It's arguable, but since the judges liked what Caswell put in front of them (and the reality TV gods gave him a reprieve) than we'll take it and be happy.

    Next week is all about ... condiments? Interesting.

    Until then Houston foodies can vote for Caswell (or whoever else they want) in the online fan vote.

    unspecified
    news/restaurants-bars

    he finished the job

    Houston chef Tristen Epps dishes on his Top Chef victory — and what's next

    Eric Sandler
    Jun 13, 2025 | 9:05 am
    Top Chef Tristen Epps
    Photo by David Moir/Bravo
    Kristen Kish, Tristen Epps, Gail Simmons, and Tom Colicchio.

    Houston has played a leading role in America’s culinary scene, but the city has never been home to a Top Chef winner — until last night. In the final episode of season 22, chef Tristen Epps earned the title and a $250,000 cash prize.

    Epps secured his victory by remaining true to the Afro-Caribbean cuisine that helped him secured an impressive four Elimination Challenge wins and $35,000 in additional prize money from two Quickfire wins and as a member of the team that won the show’s signature Restaurant Wars challenge. His four-course menu took a panel of celebrity judges on a journey that also referenced the finale location of Milan, Italy.

    In particular, Epps wowed the panel with his second course — Chicken “Durango” with injera shrimp toast and shellfish jus — that referenced both the Ethiopian chicken stew doro wat and the Italian dish pollo durango, a sly nod to the history of imperialism between the two countries. He finished his savory offerings with Oxtail Milanese Crepinette with Carolina Gold rice grits, curry butter, and bone marrow gremolata, which earned praised from the panel.

    “Historically, we’ve been underserved oxtail,” Top Chef alum and James Beard Award winner Gregory Gourdet said during the episode. “Tristen took the time to pull it, create that beautiful, huge, maybe too big, portion of oxtail. And cover it with that gremolata. He did not forget the bone marrow. That’s very, very smart.”

    Throughout Top Chef’s run, Epps has been holding a series of pop-ups devoted to everything from hot dogs to steakhouses. Now, he can turn his attention to Buboy, a tasting menu concept that will celebrate the Afro-Caribbean cuisine he championed throughout his time on the show.

    CultureMap caught up with Epps on Friday morning for a brief chat about his victory and what’s next.

    CultureMap: What do you remember from the day you cooked that final dinner?
    Tristen Epps: It was an extreme amount of focus. A lot of writing in my notebook. I didn’t want to laugh. I didn’t want to cry or do anything except finish the job, regardless of whatever the outcome would have been. I remember wanting to call my mom. I really wanted to talk things out so I could calm myself down and stay within my focus. Once I got into cooking, I felt so much at ease. It’s my happy place. It’s my serenity.

    CM: How did you feel when you saw Gregory Gourdet on the panel? Did you feel like you had an advocate in the room?
    TE: I’ve cooked with gregory before, a long time ago. It was really fun. I loved what he was doing.

    I felt like I had kind of an advocate. I was worried my food wold be too spicy or too overpowering [for the European chefs]. Seeing Gregory was really good, especially with what I was doing.

    CM: Other chefs, including Gregory Gourdet and Houston chef Dawn Burrell, have done well on the show with Afro-Caribbean cuisine but they didn’t win. How important was it to you to finish the job and use those flavors to win the title?
    TE: To me that was super important. There’s adventurous people who make phenomenal food. They’ll go once because it’s interesting, bu they’re usually skeptical. When you don’t nail it, they say, that’s why I go to the regular places that are familiar.

    Finishing the job was really important to me. People have come up short on this. I wanted to get this right for everyone who’s made that step forward and created the ladder.

    CM: What have your last 12 hours been like since the episode aired? Have any celebrities reached out to you?
    TE: A lot of calls, a lot of good luck. A lot of everything. It’s been amazing.

    A lot of past Top Chef winners reached out to me, giving me a lot of support and telling me what they did after they won.

    [ESPN football commentator] Mina Kimes did, which was really cool.

    CM: What are your plans for the prize money?
    TE: It’s going to go to Buboy. Now that the cat’s out of the bag, it can go a little faster.

    CM: You’ve been holding a series of pop-ups that range from tasting menus to hot dogs? What’s next?
    TE: Part of getting the restaurant open has been introducing myself to all of Houston. These pop-ups represent my interests and my fun. They’re the things that Buboy is going to represent. It can be fun, it can be a conversation, it can be educational, it can push the limits of cuisines we know. It’s an expression of culture in whatever way I see fit that day.

    The hot dog concept will probably be a separate venture, but who’s to say there’s not a hot dog at the end of that meal?

    Top Chef Tristen Epps
      

    Photo by David Moir/Bravo

    Kristen Kish, Tristen Epps, Gail Simmons, and Tom Colicchio.

    chefsinterviewq&atop cheftristen epps
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