Let me be the first to lead the cheer: Team Rainbow! Team Rainbow! Team Rainbow! Oh, sorry, I've gotten ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning.

Welcome to your Top Chef: New York mini-cap. The fifth season takes a bite out of the Big Apple with 17 cheftestants vying for the title. We begin with three queer contestants who have lovingly named themselves “Team Rainbow.” No, seriously, I couldn't have made that up if I tried.

Team Rainbow: Richard, Jamie and Patrick

The cheftestants arrive in New York and before they've even put their luggage down, host Padma Lakshmi and head judge Tom Colicchio have them peeling apples. Proving that the first cut is the deepest, the Quickfire Challenge is also an Elimination Challenge. The first nine to peel the apples are safe, the next six to successfully brunoise them are safe, and finally, the last two remaining chefs must prepare a dish with them to decide who must pack his/her knives and go.

Finnish chef Stefan is the first to peel his apples and wins immunity. Team Rainbow members Richard from Long Island and Jamie from San Francisco are safe in the peeling round. But poor cutie Patrick, a 21-year-old culinary student, is not so lucky. He makes the bottom two, but his apple slaw saves him from elimination. … continue reading

Recently the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced that it has approved a new Emmy Award category for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program. The competitive shoe will be on the other foot when the hosts battle it out with each other at the 2008 Emmy Awards. The category is open to hosts only so "reactive participants or judges" are not eligible to receive the award (sorry, Paula Abdul.)

Hosting is no easy task: each week these women help us wade through the competitive waters of posing, food plating, dating and hem lines. Let’s hope that some of these ladies have a chance at Emmy gold when they go up against some of the already assumed male nominees (I’m talking to you, Seacrest.)

Padma Lakshmi

Cookbook author, model, recent Hot 100 listmaker, and an ambassador for the United Nations Development Fund for Women: what is not to love about Padma Lakshmi? The TV host of Bravo’s Top Chef has the dutiful tasks of explaining elimination challenges and sitting at judges table critiquing the creations of talented chefs each week. A typical day for Padma may include discerning which tastes better: braised and grilled beef short ribs with mushrooms or a truffle and cognac cream macaroni and cheese? Talk about Sophie’s choice.

Padma balances respectability and likeability among the contestants despite having to be the one to deliver her signature send off to the ousted chefs each week: “Please pack your knives and go.” See, she even says “please.” What other host on reality TV has that kind etiquette? … continue reading

Suddenly, all those "Kiss the cook" aprons seem a little less cheesy and somewhat more wearable: Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi knows her way around the kitchen and that's something we certainly find hot.

It doesn't hurt that the Indian-American beauty is a former model who has appeared on covers of magazines like Newsweek, Cosmo and Harper's Bazaar.

It's almost enough to forget that she was in the awful Mariah Carey movie, Glitter. (But with cookbooks called Easy Exotic and Tangy, Tart, Hot and Sweet, who's thinking about Mariah?) … continue reading

I just took a look at the current issue of TV Guide (yes, the actual paper version; it's awesome) and felt like I was reading a bunch of AfterEllen.com headlines in the listings for tonight. Lovely ladies everywhere!

First, don't forget: Top Chef starts tonight (Bravo, 10/9c), with three — count 'em, THREE — lesbian contestants. Read Dara Nai's interview with those three here, and read blog posts about Padma Lakshmi here. And check back next week for Dorothy Snarker's recap!

Before that, tonight's episode of America's Next Top Model (The CW, 8/7c) features former winner Jaslene and a visit to the meat-packing district. Check out TV Guide's interview with Paulina Porizkova here.

On Law & Order (NBC, 10/9c), Lara Flynn Boyle guest stars as a reporter who gets entangled in a murder investigation. She'll always be Donna from Twin Peaks to me.

Two AfterEllen.com faves are on the talk shows tonight: Charlize Theron is on Letterman, and Sheryl Crow sings from Detours on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Finally, it may not be obviously lesbianish, but I'm expecting occasionally great things from Lewis Black's Root of All Evil (Comedy Central, 10:30/9:30c). Black and various guest comedians will compare "things from life," asking which is more evil — e.g., . Kim Jong Il or Tila Tequila? Yes, that's one of the examples Black gives. And one of his examples of not-at-all-evil is Mary-Louise Parker. For a show that's essentially 30 minutes of ranting, that sounds pretty promising.

Food. Competition. Food. Hot women. Food. Really, what’s not to love? I can’t wait for Bravo’s Top Chef finale tonight, and I don’t mind telling you that I am all in with team Casey.

Not that I have anything against Dale and his mini-hawk cuteness. Sadly, I cannot say the same for Hung. That dude needs to get taken down a rung, or 12. If he wins, they’ll have to change the title to Insufferable Chef instead. … continue reading

After the heads up in Best. Lesbian. Week. Ever. I was all set to cheer on my primary rooting interest, Sandee Birdsong, on Bravo's competitive reality TV show Top Chef. I was prepared to “take one for the team,” so to speak, and do something I have relatively little interest in doing, and that's watching someone cook. Generally speaking, watching someone cook is almost equivalent, not quite but almost, to watching someone iron shirts or wash and fold clothes. It all seems very labor-intensive, and labor is tough for me, especially if I think someone is going to ask me to help them. But this being TV, I knew I was safe from that possibility. So I got over my fears and was excited to cheer Sandee on to victory! But Sandee was unfairly, unjustly, un-everythingly sent home in the second week! (I don't care if it wasn't BBQ. None of those people BBQed, they grilled!)

So why am I still watching this show?

Her name is Padma Lakshmi.

… continue reading