Top Chef

‘Top Chef’ Video Bios: Out With the ‘Faux’-hawks, in with the ‘Faux’-tees

The girl next door.
The girl next door. Photo: Courtesy of Bravo

If cast photos of our new cheftestants aren’t enough (plus the bonus one of our hometown girl, Leah, that we’re offering you here), the 30-second teaser for Top Chef’s new season has also just been released along with minute-long “get-to-know-me!” monologues from each of the cheftestants. Standouts here: Ariane, the self-described Jersey Girl and cheerleader mom looks like she could be a ball-buster; and we can already imagine a Howie/Sara M. dynamic between Danny, the tough-guy former football player who enjoys hitting the gym and “ripping it up,” and Radhika, who likes to crochet. The mystery man is Gene, a self-described underdog and totally tatted up, cholo-looking dishwasher-made-good who’s reppin’ Vegas and Hawaii (dude rocks a gold chain and golden sneakers in his publicity still). The affable big-lugs are Hosea and Richard. The Spike-like stylin’ mofo: Patrick. And the girls we suspect could drink us under the table: Jill, Jamie (note the tats and golden pretzel necklace), and, of course, Leah, who admits she left University of Arizona with a 1.8 GPA. As for the rest of the cast, they seem nice, we guess? Whoa, wait — what’s this? The Finnish guy, Stefan, is giving Marcel a run for the money with the ripped jeans and flip-flops look. But at least he’s clean-shaven. What’s up with all the goatees, anyway? Six out of the nine dude-testants have what Will Self called the “insidious chin garnish.” Is this the new faux-hawk?

Top Chef: Season 5 [Official site]

‘Top Chef’ Video Bios: Out With the ‘Faux’-hawks, in