Top Chef Michael Voltaggio Named 'Food & Wine' Best New Chef!
The Top Chef Season 6 winner is honored with nine other of the country's best chefs.
We're positively kvelling this morning! Top Chef: Las Vegas winner Michael Voltaggio was named a 2013 Food & Wine Best New Chef, as announced by the magazine.
Since winning Top Chef, Michael opened ink. on Melrose in Los Angeles (some might call him a "Duke of Melrose" in his own right), and ink.sack. If you've never been, it's a must-visit for any L.A. trip and its shareable small dishes are great for a group. (It doesn't hurt that the cocktails are delicious too.)
But I digress...
Michael reveals to Food & Wine about how he got started in the business, giving thanks to older brother, and Season 6 finalist, Bryan Voltaggio: “My first job was bussing tables at the local Holiday Inn where my brother was a sous-chef. I spent some time chopping vegetables, and one day my brother told me to come in the next day in a chef uniform. When I came in the executive chef started yelling at me, ‘What is this, Halloween?’ But in the end I got to cook.”
Awww.
This is a big year for Top Chefs in the Food & Wine competition. Four of Michael's contemporaries were nominated for People's Best New Chef, with Season 4's Dale Talde winning in the New York region.
Leave your congratulatory messages for Michael in the Comments section below!
