Stars, Unknowns Flock to Local Top Chef Casting Call

On Monday, all types of local chefs, reality television hopefuls and Sean Penn lookalikes (Absinthe's Nathan Carter is a ringer for the actor, no?) showed up for the Top Chef casting call at Postrio, and to everyone's delight, 7x7 was there to spy on the situation, see who showed up and ask the TC wannabes some questions. Check out the entire piece for more juice on the hopefuls; in the meantime, some of the more entertaining Q&A follows, and our locals seemed like a happy bunch:

"Why do you belong on Top Chef? Because I'm going to win? Because I'm competitive? Because Elizabeth [Falkner] sent me here?" —William Pilz, Chef de Cuisine, Citizen Cake

"Signature dish? I cook a lot of halibut. Roasted halibut?" —Nick Cobarruvias, Sous Chef, Hotel Nikko

"Why do you belong on Top Chef? I actually don't even want to be on the show but I was told to come here by my boss. I said I'd never sell out, but I'll see what happens." —Johnny Nguyen, bowtie-wearing Executive Chef, First Crush

"Who would you like to be a guest judge? Rachael Ray, just because I hate her."—Jamie Lauren, Executive Chef, Absinthe

The show could certainly use someone with a bowtie, and if we were to put the hopefuls into character molds, Lolo's Ricardo Garcia fits the "guy with the weird hair" profile (besides, by next year, faux-hawks will be old news). And now that San Francisco has been so quickly eliminated from Season Four, we're agreeing with 7x7 and totally hopping on the Jamie Lauren Top Chef Season Five bandwagon, starting...now.
· Calling All Top Chefs [7x7]