Laura Cole's 'Top Chef' season, plus 'Summer House' drama in the Bravo-sphere
I have been making my way through the new season of Top Chef: Carolinas (23) that's currently airing. It felt fitting to go and watch Laura Cole's time on the show – she appeared on season 15, set in Colorado.
I'm from Denali National Park, Alaska.
Laura was the owner and chef of 229 Parks, which closed in 2023 after 18 years. She's the first (and only) Alaska Top Chef to appear on the Bravo show.
What kind of food do you do? Chef Joe Flamm asks Laura.
As far as Alaskan proteins, I have seven reindeer going to slaughter this summer, which is great, Laura responds.
I watch a lot of 'Alaska: The Last Frontier,' Laura seems like she falls in line with an Alaskan lady, Joe says in a subsequent confessional. And I mean that as a compliment.
Top Chef filmed three episodes of season 10 (Seattle) in Juneau, where chef-testants travel by cruise ship and have to create a special with iceberg lettuce (do you get it) and surf and turf. They end up at Tracy's Crab Shack, have to use king crab in a challenge, then make salmon and sourdough.
Oh, and don't worry, we get a helicopter ride onto a glacier, where a dog sled team awaits them at the Alaska Heli-Mush Dogsled Camp. They even make an appearance at the Governor's Mansion. Move over, Sarah Palin, there's another gov that wants the limelight.
In one scene, Laura calls her son back home – leaving for TC has been the longest she's been without her baby. She says in a confessional that a week before coming to the competition, she had cold feet. Her son looked at her and said, Don't be a quitter, mom.
I have been missing you so much and I just needed to hear your voice for a second. I was having an emotional day. This is extremely harder than I thought it was, but I wanted to tell you I love you, love you, love you.
We learn during her time on Top Chef that Laura is Paris-trained in pastry. She shines in the first few cooking challenges.
One of the things that I am confident in is how adaptable I am. I live in such a remote environment. You can have an entire field of cabbages that a moose can come through and eat. Having to get creative is something that I'm very familiar with.
During a team challenge, Laura made a cracker using the rinds of the cheese – which the guest judge said was the coolest technique used of the day.
Everyone has bad days. Unfortunately, Laura's bad day was broadcast on national television. She was eliminated in episode 3 after a Quickfire Challenge where chefs were supposed to deconstruct the Denver omelet.
She recently updated friends and fans on social media. She has been traveling around the world, from Tasmania to Norway, to volunteering with World Central Kitchen in Ukraine.
Lots of family time. Some health issues. I’ve been working on a cookbook, Laura shared in a Facebook update four months ago. Most recently, I rehab some systems for some soup, kitchen and food banks in Detroit, while managing a small restaurant group there. Tumbleweed back on the road again. Heading back to Alaska soon with new adventures on the horizon. I miss 229 incredibly, and have the hope to create something impactful back in Alaska again in the very near future. Stay tuned.
(total watch time: 12 hours, 25 minutes)
👏🏼 SUMMER (HOUSE) 👏🏼 SHOULD 👏🏼 BE 👏🏼 FUN 👏🏼
We have to talk about Summer House season 10. You may have seen headlines (you may have not) about recent drama with the cast. Reddit is collectively losing its mind, the subreddit for SH is on its 10th mega thread about Ciara/West/Kyle/Amanda. The gist of it all is betrayal, in relationships, in friendships.
Between last summer and this week, Amanda and Kyle have announced their separation, and Amanda and West have put out a joint statement about their situationship, leaving Ciara in the crossfire. Trying to explain the group dynamics in writing is confusing, so I made a visual.
The season 10 reunion will be filmed in mid to late April, so I'm sure we will get an update on where everyone stands.
As one Reddit user wrote, Goodnight room, goodnight moon, goodnight weed pen, goodnight summer house bravo megathread ten.
