<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"  Top Chef heads back to TV screens tonight (10 p.m. EST on Bravo). In honor of the 11th season, judges Tom Colicchio, Padma Lakshmi, and Gail Simmons were out and about on the streets of New York City with their very own Top Chef-themed food truck. They featured Domilise&amp;#039;s New Orleans-style fare (the current season was shot in New Orleans), and Delish had a chance to chat with each of the food celebs about the show, food trends, holiday tips, and more.  TOM COLICCHIO  Do you notice any food trends that happen within seasons of Top Chef? &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;re always seeing trends. You know a lot of the chefs that come on are younger [and] clearly follow trends, so we usually see patterns of things during the course of the season. But it&amp;#039;s interesting because you can usually see when someone has a command of that or if they&amp;#039;re just dabbling. If they&amp;#039;re dabbling it usually shows right away they don&amp;#039;t go very far with it... My recommendation when you come on the show is don&amp;#039;t go too far outside your comfort zone. You know it&amp;#039;s ok to be creative, but don&amp;#039;t all of a sudden try to \u2014 a lot of the chefs see someone doing something and think &amp;#039;I have to do that too.&amp;#039; And I think that&amp;#039;s a mistake.&amp;quot;  What do you think about all the crazy food hybrids, like the cronut and the ramen burger? Have you tried either of them? &amp;quot;No I haven&amp;#039;t. If people like it that&amp;#039;s fine, that&amp;#039;s up to the individual. I don&amp;#039;t really think much of it at all. I think they&amp;#039;re doing really well for the people who created them, so yeah, it&amp;#039;s great. Listen, if that many people will line up for something you have to imagine it&amp;#039;s good.&amp;quot; What do you predict is the next big food trend?  &amp;quot;The next big food trend... You know I know don&amp;#039;t know. I&amp;#039;m not one to sort of follow trends or look at trends or predict them. I&amp;#039;m not ducking the question, I really don&amp;#039;t know. You know I still think that people are looking at stuff that&amp;#039;s very natural. I think people are really paying attention to how their food is grown, what&amp;#039;s in their food. I think people are going to get very interested in whether GMOs are labeled. I think people are getting very interested in whether foods are raised with antibiotics or not. I think those are trends that people are really going to start to focus on. I still think people are always going to return to the quality versus quantity.&amp;quot; Have you eaten at any former Cheftestants restaurants?  &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m sure I have. I&amp;#039;m trying to think, have I recently? Last year I was at Michael Voltaggio&amp;#039;s restaurant in Los Angeles, Ink. It&amp;#039;s very good. Menton I hear in Boston is really good \u2014 they just opened with Kristen&amp;#039;s menu and I hear she&amp;#039;s knocking it out of the park. And anytime you can get anything that Paul Qui cooks, just go eat it!&amp;quot; Do you have a favorite season of Top Chef over the years?  &amp;quot;I think the Vegas season was my favorite and that&amp;#039;s partially because the competition was so good. Typically we&amp;#039;ll go into a season and the chefs are all really, you know, accomplished and good, but usually it&amp;#039;s a toss up between maybe three. That season any one of them could have made it to the finale.&amp;quot; With the Cheftestants that come on, do you notice standouts right away? &amp;quot;You know sometimes you do, like there&amp;#039;s a few people where you look at their first dish you and you go, I get it, this person really gets it, and some people just stumble and it&amp;#039;s usually around technique. It&amp;#039;s not about composition, it&amp;#039;s not about even the challenge, it&amp;#039;s really about technique. When you see someone who really knows how to roast something or knows how to make a vinaigrette, right away you understand that they can get it. But then it&amp;#039;s always surprising because some people maybe just had an off day or maybe they&amp;#039;re just kind of hitting a stride, some people are nervous about the challenges and they try to over-think it and once they sort of settle in they come on strong.&amp;quot; Do you ever get into disagreements with the producers?  &amp;quot;The producers, no, because they don&amp;#039;t taste the food. So they have really no basis for comparison.&amp;quot; We also asked chef Colicchio about the infamous credit at the end of each episode that says elimination decisions are made in consultation with the show&amp;#039;s producers. He explained that the blurb is mostly there for &amp;quot;legal reasons.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;They consult with us, meaning that when we make a decision off camera they&amp;#039;ll sit there and say, if we&amp;#039;re having a difficult decision, they&amp;#039;ll say well they brought this up what do you think of that. So they consult on it meaning they&amp;#039;ll help us make a decision, but they&amp;#039;ll never say this one has to go, this one has to stay. Also they need to know what&amp;#039;s happening because they need to set cameras and they have to follow a certain storyline. They don&amp;#039;t want to go there and all of a sudden we say one and they&amp;#039;re like, &amp;#039;we didn&amp;#039;t cover that.&amp;#039; And they also want to make sure that the decision we&amp;#039;re making is consistent with what the viewing audience is seeing. But they never in 11 seasons have ever once said &amp;#039;you have to do this.&amp;#039; It&amp;#039;s never happened.&amp;quot; Do you have any time-saving tips for the holidays? &amp;quot;In restaurants we prep and then we cook. We don&amp;#039;t chop and cook at the same time. And so my suggestion is look at the recipes you are going to do, see how much you can do in advance, prep everything that you can. Literally the day you&amp;#039;re cooking you should never have to pick up a knife. Unless it&amp;#039;s to carve the turkey. All of that should be done.&amp;quot; PADMA LAKSHMI What was the best part about shooting in New Orleans? &amp;quot;Everything! The music, the food, the people really because the people were so nice and so friendly and open. My daughter had a great time, we loved being there. I would love to go back on my own time.&amp;quot; GAIL SIMMONS What was your favorite city overall you&amp;#039;ve shot in? &amp;quot;New Orleans. We&amp;#039;ve gone to amazing cities, but New Orleans definitely reinvigorated me. The most fun, the best food, the most interesting culture, the people were so incredible to us, the history of that city, and the history of the food in that city was just amazing.&amp;quot; Do you have a favorite season overall? &amp;quot;New Orleans was pretty amazing. I would say besides that season 6, which we shot in Las Vegas, was amazing. I mean Vegas itself was obviously very fun, but the chefs on that season were really exceptional. And our all-star season in New York was pretty great too.&amp;quot; Do you notice the food changing from season to season based on trends in the restaurant scene? &amp;quot;Absolutely. On trends, based on influences. Obviously the city plays a role in that. As the season progresses the chefs start taking so much incorporation from the city we&amp;#039;re in so that&amp;#039;s really amazing to see. [They try] to experiment with the ingredients from that city. No matter where we are \u2014 Texas, Seattle, New Orleans, Chicago. And the more seasons we do the better the quality of the talent gets.&amp;quot; Have you eaten at any of the Cheftestants former restaurants? &amp;quot;Many of them! Whenever I&amp;#039;m in a city where there&amp;#039;s a former contestants restaurant, I try to eat there.&amp;quot; Do you have a favorite? &amp;quot;I mean I&amp;#039;m so proud of all of them. I love Ilan Hall&amp;#039;s restaurant, The Gorbals, in LA, I love Brooke Williamson&amp;#039;s restaurant in LA, I love Stephanie Izard&amp;#039;s Girl and the Goat, and Little Goat in Chicago. Paul Qui, his restaurant is so incredible in Austin. They are doing so well, all of them. Spike&amp;#039;s restaurants in D.C., Mike Isabella&amp;#039;s restaurants, I mean, Kevin Sbraga in Philadelphia. They all are doing so much great food.&amp;quot; Do you have any time-saving holiday tips? &amp;quot;Do as much as you can in advance. Cook soups and stews. You make them the day before \u2014 they taste better and better if you let them sit a day or two. And then you don&amp;#039;t have to worry about being in the kitchen when your guests arrive.&amp;quot; Find more great food content on Delish:   Search for the perfect recipe from our homepage Find out the latest food news Get a recipe book to save your favorite dishes Sign up for our free newsletters Check us out on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.delish.com/restaurants/news/a37764/top-chef-judges-interview/>