Top Chef Finalists Host Collaboration Dinners Ahead Of The Season 20 Finale
There are only two episodes left of "Top Chef: World All-Stars" and a few of the contestants are making the most of it. Over the next week, Sara Bradley, Ali Ghzawi, and Amar Santana will be doing a few pop-ups around the U.S., showcasing their recipes and cooking techniques to all those who love the cooking competition, want to taste their recipes, and have dreamed of being a judge on the show. While some of the dishes may be recreations of those that were featured on the show, most of the menu will be totally new.
Buddha Lo and Charbel Hayek have already had a special pop-up at Marky's Caviar Lounge in Hollywood, Florida. The menu consisted of six courses including Hayek's braised onion, which gave him the very first win of the season, as well as Lo's winning coddled egg and strawberries & crème from Restaurant Wars. Even though Lo and Hayek's joint event is over, there are two more Top Chef dinners planned before the season finale on June 8: one at Bradley's Freight House in Kentucky and the other at Broadway by Amar Santana in California.
Celebration of global cuisine at Freight House
On May 31, Bradley's Freight House in Paducah, Kentucky, will host Ghzawi as the two chefs bring their different cooking styles together to create one fabulous meal. This union is part of a bigger plan Bradley has to host chefs from around the globe to celebrate Paducah's 10th anniversary as a UNESCO-designated Creative City. Since the "Top Chef: World All-Stars" finale is right around the corner, it makes sense that Ghzawi is up first.
The two chefs worked together several times during the show to great success. As a matter of fact, they were two members of the winning Restaurant Wars team. "I loved cooking with Ali on the show and I'm excited to host him at Freight House," Bradley says via the Freight House event page. But she's not the only one excited about this match-up.
With a menu including several courses showing off their Middle Eastern and Southern cooking styles, it's no surprise that the event is already sold out with 80 people on the waiting list. It's sure to be a night to remember. But just in case diners find their food memories failing, they'll receive one of Ghzawi's custom spice blends to take home at the end of the night.
Top Chefs All Star Dinner
Ghzawi and Santana have been best friends since the beginning of "Top Chef: World All-Stars" when they paired off for the very first quickfire challenge once they realized they'd both picked feta cheese to cook with. That friendship has endured both on and off the screen and will continue when they cook together for their own one-night-only event.
The Top Chefs All-Star Dinner, or the Papi and Habibi Event, as it's being called, will take place on June 5 at Santana's restaurant, Broadway by Amar Santana, in Laguna Beach, California. This time around, Ghzawi (whom Santana affectionately refers to as Habibi) will accompany Santana (Papi) in his kitchen to create a Middle Eastern menu that Ghzawi says will be "refined and reimagined."
The chef says that the main reason the two of them are getting back together is because they love cooking together and want to share that joy with their fans and customers. "I do believe that we come from totally different schools when it comes to cooking," Ghzawi says, "but at the same time we have these technicalities and different flavors that we put on the plate that makes it outstanding."
The $596 ticket, which includes tax and gratuity, will get diners a six-course menu of hors d'oeuvres, salad, seafood, lamb, and dessert. Each course will come paired with either a cocktail or a glass of wine or champagne.