Tonight's the night! Pack your knives and get ready for Top Chef Season 5 at 10 p.m. on Bravo. The show repeats immediately afterwards at 11:15 p.m. So do the math ... the premiere is actually an hour and 15 minutes, just in case you're taping, I wouldn't want you to miss to ending.

So here's what I've been able to find out about tonight's episode. As I stated before, Top Chef will be set in none other than New York City this season, which should make things interesting since NYC has per capita the greatest gathering of "top chefs" in just about the whole world (maybe eclipsed only by Paris, I think).
Tonight, 17 new chef contestants will descend on the Big Apple to test their culinary skills and compete for a chance at $100,000 and other prizes, including a feature in Food & Wine magazine and the honor of being named Top Chef!

Tom, Gail & Padma -- Judges Table awaits
Joining the contestants will be judges Tom Colicchio, chef/owner of the Craft Restaurants, Gail Simmons of Food & Wine magazine, hostess/actress/cookbook author/elfman fave Padma Lakshmi and brand new judge Toby Young, food critic and author of "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People." Young also fills the void for a cranky, wise-cracking Englishman (a la Simon Cowell). But don't look for him on tonight's episode, guest judge will be none other than Jean-George Vongerichten, probably the biggest chef in this city of big chefs! If you haven't heard of him - google it! You'll be amazed. I'm surprised he hasn't been to QVC yet to hawk culinary items like Wolfgang Puck (another chef I'd love to see guest here).

How's this pic Elfman?
Top Chef has always been a step above Fox's Hell's Kitchen, although I would absolutely LOVE to see Gordon Ramsay guest judge on this show. While Hell's Kitchen is all about the drama (and where do they get their "chefs"), Top Chef is more about the talent and the food - ooohh the food!! I've actually learned a thing or to about cooking and especially culinary language while watching this show.
And if you're a fan of Project Runway, you'll love Top Chef. It's essentially the same show, just swap the clothing for well-prepared culinary delights! It's the ultimate cooking show for those of you who enjoy the Food Network!

Season 5 Chefs
OK, back to tonight's episode. Among the 17 contestants are a man from Italy and a guy from Scandanavia, a couple of Long Island/Queens guys, a woman from Georgia and a handsome guy from Miami. Also figure the usual tattooed-guy from Hawaii, an American woman with parents from India, the requisite student from the CIA (Culinary Institute of America, not the other one), another overbearing gay guy and the usual suspects.
Tonight's challenge has thechefs each pick a knife with a region of the city written across it i.e. Little Italy, Little India, Chinatown, Astoria, Brighton Beach, etc. The chefs are taken to those particular areas where they must shop for ingredients and then make an authentic-tasting dish for that area. Since some of the new chefs have never come across the cuisine chosen for them, it'll be interesting to see what they come up with!

Who will be this season's Marcel?
When last heard from, Marcel was journeying to Modor to throw the ring into the fires of Mt. Doom -- I miss Marcel!
Tune in tonight! For more info visit http://www.bravotv.com/Top_Chef/season/5/best_of/index.php

Other than my biker boys on FX (Sons of Anarchy) at 10 p.m., the only other thing interesting me tonight is PBS' premiere episode of its new series Monarchy: The Royal Family at Work. However, tonight's show looks like it's mainly dealing with the Queen's stateside visit from last year, and most of the footage looks like what I've already seen on last spring's 20/20 special. I'll be looking forward to future installments!

About Last Night: Apparently I missed the big fight over on The Biggest Loser: Families edition. Since I haven't been watching, I don't know the contestants names, but there was a big blow up between players, followed by an even bigger upset!
You and I can catch up at http://www.nbc.com/The_Biggest_Loser/


Lisa, Sheree, NeNe, DeShawn & Kim
I did, however, thoroughly enjoy all the controversy over on Bravo's Real Housewives of Atlanta. The girls showed up earlier last night over on Extra, where Sheree, NeNe (who looked like they've made up) and DeShawn were plugging tonight's ep, featuring male models stripping for Sheree's fashion debut. NeNe also took the time to flirt-up Extra host Mario Lopez, and admitted that looking at the show on TV, she wishes she could've said some things differently, "but you can't take it back now."
Anyway, here's a quick run-down: Lisa's pro-football player hubby finished his achilles rehab and signed with the Oakland Raiders. Sheree's samples for her fashion debut were poorly made, leaving her with nothing for the debut, but she had the party anyway. Kim and Sheree boycotted the barbeque Deshawn arranged to get them to make up with NeNe. NeNe held her Big Hat Brunch fund-raiser to kick off her charity for abused women (it was worth watching just for the big hats!). NeNe and her "gay boyfriend" Dwight got pedicures and dissed Sheree's party, with Dwight saying "How can you have a fashion show without fashion? Kharma's a bitch!"
And talking about Kharma, NeNe found out that Curtis (whom she thought was her father from birth) isn't her biological father.
And boy-oh-boy, it looks like the s-t really hits the fan next week.
To catch up or for info visit http://www.bravotv.com/Real_Housewives_Of_Atlanta/season/1/index.php

In other news: While Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman were busy plugging their new big screen epic Australia on Oprah Monday, word was hitting the Internet (www.ropeofsilicon.com) that 20th Century Fox studio execs made director Baz Luhrmann change the ending at the last minute. Of course, that was followed shortly by a statement that Baz Luhrmann has final cut and the movie is just as he wanted it. Right.
You can visit the official movie site at http://www.australiamovie.com/

SPOILER ALERT: If you don't want to know, don't read past the photo!!


It seems they weren't happy with the sad ending Luhrmann had originally filmed, which had Jackman's character dying. They didn't want a Titanic-ending (now I've just ruined Titanic for you too) and insisted Baz change it to a happier one, thus having Jackman survive. And if you couldn't resist reading this, now you don't have to go see it. Tada!