NoVa’s Matthew Petersen to Battle it Out on Top Chef Just Desserts
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, July 21st, 2011
Matthew Petersen (Image: Bravo TV)
His bio reads like a pastry student’s dream: graduate of Johnson & Wales University’s Providence campus; pastry chef at Morimoto and then Daniel Boulud’s Restaurant Daniel and db Bistro Moderne; Executive Pastry Chef of Miami’s Café Boulud; and currently, Executive Pastry Chef at the Mandarin Oriental’s CityZen and Sou’Wester, working alongside James Beard award-winning Chef Eric Ziebold.
And he’s only 32 years old!
Now Arlingtonian Matthew Petersen has chosen to jump from one of the area’s most acclaimed kitchens into the fray of Season 2 of Top Chef Just Desserts.
For those of you who haven’t watched the dessert spin off of Bravo’s highly successful Top Chef, I’ll clue you in. The basic format is the same–quick fires and elimination challenges—the main difference being that this is pastry geek central. And with a lot more back-biting, back-stabbing, and histrionics (two words: Seth Caro), giving the lie to the myth that pastry chefs are more easy going than their savory counterparts. Ha! Not so in the world of Extreme Pastry. This show should be called “Pastry Chefs Behaving Badly.”
Gail Simmons and a barely-recognizable (Who’s) Johnny Iuzzini (pompardourless and sideburnless this season) are back as host and head judge, alongside my favorite French man and judge Hubert Keller.
So what else has changed besides Iuzzini’s hairstyle?
This season’s 14 cheftestants are newly outfitted in pink-accented black chef jackets (no doubt Iuzzini-inspired). This crop of contenders is also considerably younger than the previous season’s. (Season 1 only had three contestants under the age of 35. Season 2, in contrast, only has two contestants over 35.) We also have a guest appearance by Beastie Boys’ Ad-Rock to look forward to (Petersen is particularly psyched from the clip below).
Top Chef Just Dessert’s second season premieres August 24 at 10 p.m. on Bravo. For more information on the show and its contestants, click here.
In the meantime, here’s a preview of what’s to come:
-Johnisha M. Levi
Tags: Ad-Rock, Arlington chefs, Beastie Boys, Bravo TV, CityZen, Daniel Boulud, Eric Ziebold, Gail Simmons, James Beard winner, Johnisha M. Levi, Johnny Iuzzini, Johnson & Wales University, Mandarin Oriental, Matthew Petersen, Morimoto, Northern Virginia, Northern Virginia Magazine, NoVA, Pastry Chefs Behaving Badly, pompadour, pompadoured pastry chefs, Reality TV, Seth Caro, Sou'Wester, Top Chef, Top Chef Just Desserts