Openings

‘Top Chef’ Winner Finally Gets in the Game

And it doesn't matter if Tom and Padma don't like it.
And it doesn’t matter if Tom and Padma don’t like it.haha Photo: Melissa Hom

Top Chef is roundly mocked in culinary circles, but that might change with the opening of Perilla, announced by Rob and Robin in this week’s issue. The winner of the show’s first season, Harold Dieterle, has launched a small but serious Pan-Asian restaurant in the West Village, and its menu doesn’t look like the work of a cheesy TV wannabe. Spicy duck meatballs look like a response to the famous Italian version served at A Voce; crispy sautéed skate wing with watermelon pickles, Thai basil, and hibiscus broth reads like a Zak Pelaccio homage. Dieterle has entered the real-world top-chef competition that is New York, and it looks like he’s starting out strong.

Openings: Spirito Ristorante, Perilla, Casellula Cheese & Wine Café, and Sandro’s [NYM]

Perilla Menu

‘Top Chef’ Winner Finally Gets in the Game