At last, a reason to spend the summer blogging Bravo's Top Chef. Granted, it ain't no Project Runway, but it sure beats all hell out of Top Design or that haircuttin' show with one of Charlie's Angels. Turns out, the new season, which debuts at 9 p.m. locally on June 13 and is set this season in Miami, will feature among its 15 contestants two big-time, no-effin'-around locals who know their way around a hot-shit kitchen.
And they are: 29-year-old Casey Thompson, the executive chef at Shinsei (you know, the one owned by Lynae "Mrs. Dean" Fearing and Tracy "Mrs. Kent" Rathbun); and 30-year-old Tre Wilcox, who's Chef de Cuisine at Kent Rathbun's Abacus. That sure is a lot of Rathbunning for one nationally televised reality show. --Robert Wilonsky