Top Chef Expands its Book Empire

Posted on August 18, 2009

Top Chef has been a tv phenomenon that has spawned a cookbook empire. And Chronicle Books has the exclusive on all the Top Chef titles. Top Chef: The Cookbook sold very well. And now there are new titles on the way. Publishers Weekly reports:

With Chronicle holding onto its post as exclusive publisher of Top Chef books, another book and a trivia game are on the way. In November, the house will publish Top Chef: The Quickfire Cookbook, a $29.95 hardcover written by the creators of the show and featuring a foreword by host Padma Lakshmi. The book draws from the first five seasons and includes 75 recipes culled from Quickfire Challenges, the short, simple contests that make up a portion of each show (e.g., create a flamb� dish in a limited amount of time; make an amuse bouche using $10 of ingredients from a vending machine). Bruder thinks it's going to be big: "We expect The Quickfire Cookbook to equal, if not surpass, the performance of the first book. Quickfire is an incredibly popular segment of the show-it translates well to the home kitchen, and the book itself is spectacular."

We love Top Chef and never miss an episode. But we have to be honest: the quickfire challenges produced some absolutely inedible dishes. Many of the challenges are just for dramatic effect: they bear no relation to anything a real chef would cook -- or eat. We have a feeling that Top Chef: The Quickfire Cookbook will be idealized, much better executed recipes than what was seen on TV. If that's the case (and surely it is), then the cookbook well sell well.

We really don't expect to see a recipe for the Smurf Wonderland created by Hung Huynh (the winner of Season 3). Although it would make us laugh.