What's A Top Chef Casting Call Like?

This Sunday, February 8,  I woke up bright & early and headed downtown to Ducca, a wine bar inside the Westin hotel in San Francisco to see for myself what it was like to apply to be a cast member on Top Chef.  When I walked into the hotel, all I saw were people checking out, with rows suitcases being wheeled out to waiting taxis until at the corner of my eye, I noticed a table with a banner that read TOP CHEF.  Two production assistants sat behind it, signing people up and taking photos of each potential chef-testant. I spied on the proceedings for a bit. I also may or may not have signed up just to get my hands on an application and get my photo taken by the production assistants.

While sitting in the waiting area, I was surrounded by about 10 chefs, all furiously filling out the application (which you can download here). After that, the next step was to participate in a group interview with the producers. Even then, you still have to submit a video of your cooking and plating skills and begin what is sure to be an extensive back and forth of callbacks, more interviews and background checks.

The application, which included a lengthy, very scary contract was very long. Some of the questions asked include:

Who is your least favorite chef and why?
Describe your most embarassing moment.
Create a culinary interpretation of the lyric “Eleven Pipers Piping” from the song “Twelve Days of Christmas”

The application mentions having to be available for April 2009, which means filming on Top Chef 6 is going to start right away (Season 5 ends in just two weeks!). The location hasn’t been announced, but there’s already been buzz that Las Vegas is the next chef city, which would be awesome: Las Vegas is a fascinating food town, with lots of fancy dining (including a branch of Tom Colicchio’s Craft Restaurant) and lots of very, very low end dining (deep fried twinkies!).

[Image: Maria Diaz]