JANUARY 15 2009
AMERICANWAY 49
ourcarpaccioandsaid thatsoupwouldhave
been a great way to show a chef’s sensibili-
ties,” Lofaso recalls. “I think it would have
been fine in culinary school, but
Top Chef
is not the right place for it.
[
Wewere
]
then
told that the carpacciowasunderseasoned.”
Lofaso blamed the blandness on confu-
sion over what had been salted and oiled
before the dishwent out. As for the impact
the meal had onMendelsohn — who was
clearly upset with his collaborator— it re-
ceived the
Top Chef
equivalent of no stars
but didnot result inhim getting kicked off
the show. That happened ina later episode,
afterhe servedwatery scallops.
The carpaccio debacle was hardly Lo-
faso’s finest hour, and it didn’t make her
look particularly good. But she waves it
awayaspart of thegame. “Peoplewhodon’t
like theway theycomeoffon the showcom-
plain about the editing making them look
terrible,”Lofaso says,whoholdsnogrudges
and recently flew out toWashington, D.C.,
for openingnight ofMendelsohn’snew res-
taurant. “But the factof thematter is,what-
evermade it onto the show, we said it and
wedid it,whetherwe like it ornot.”
T
he primary part of last season
ended withMendelsohn’s wa-
terlogged flameout, leaving
four contestants remaining:
Lofaso, the intensely focused
molecularchefRichardBlais, soulfulSteph-
anie Izard, and Lisa Fernandes. Fernandes
finished second to last onmany challenges
andcertainlyappeared tobeadarkhorse in
the last legof the show.
Conversely, from the start of the compe-
tition, Lofaso positioned herself as a front-
runner.Thatnotonlywaswhatsheexpected
tobebut, really,wasalsowhatshehad tobe.
“Having leftmydaughterathomemademe
take it all more seriously than I otherwise
might have; I didn’t spend six weeks away
from her so that I could go to play camp,”
Lofaso says. “I took vitamins and keptmy-
self in tip-topfighting shape.”
Thatworkedwell enough for theprelimi-
narychallenges,butby the timeof thefinals
(after the contestants had had six months
off), Lofaso’smindwas elsewhere. She had
beenworking24-7 to get her restaurant off
theground. It hadbeenupand running for
eight weeks when she pulled an all-nighter
and caught an early morning flight from
