Omnivore - Q&A with Top Chef Richard Blais

Besha talks to Blais about his run on this season

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  • Courtesy Bravo TV

Besha Rodell: Hi there, and congratulations. We’re all so excited that you won.

Richard Blais: Thank you. It’s nice to hear a friendly voice.

BR: So, Tongue and Cheek. When does it open?

RB: Ha! I mean it’s a name that I would love to use, but maybe I played that card and I wont be able to use it. I think that the restaurant, whatever it’s called, opens sometime within the next year or two.

BR: Here in Atlanta?

RB: Well that’s a question that depends on whoever else wants to get involved with it and sign a check for it, or help sign a check for it. I’d love it to be in Atlanta, or any big city for that matter.

BR: You said something that really struck me on the show last night - “It’s not about me, it’s about the guest.” I wonder if that’s something that has changed for you in the last couple of years.

RB: Yeah I think for sure. You know my well-documented history in Atlanta, and then going on my first run of Top Chef...I think at a certain point over the last couple of years I realized that some of the things I was doing might have been to show people I could cook or show people that I know technique or that I know how to use a gadget. At the time none of it was ever my intention to get away from food or flavor, but at this point in my career I’m just as happy roasting a chicken as I am dipping horseradish ice cream into liquid nitrogen. It’s been something I have struggled with over the last year in particular and something I very much wanted to express in this run of the show.