Hot Chef Friday – Culinary Courtship

_MG_5566 Listen….I am a sucker for a hot chef. Like… I am straight up a fan girl. I used to work in Hollywood and was lucky enough to meet some celebs but there wasn’t really any fan girling that I did. But when I meet a celeb chef I turn positively pre-pubesent! And the one that I would seriously love to spend some alone time with is Chef Michael Voltaggio.

This bad ass Chef won season six of the Bravo reality series Top Chef. Arguably the best season of Top Chef yet. He went mano a mano with his equally as talented brother. Taking sibling rivalry to a mother level.

His restaurant is so close that I could hop a flight after work one night to the Burbank airport and take a quick car ride to it. Is that too much to do in hopes of running into him? Like I would literally like to bump into him.

He named his brainchild ‘ink.well’ so I automatically love it…along with those arms of his. I like a tattooed up guy. I’m not going to be ashamed of it.

What can I say? I’m an arms girl.

voltaggio-getty-ao.0.0

Agh! Look at this bad boy!

Not only do his muscular appendages fit the bill but he’s covered in tattoos. Both something that could wrap around me AND that I can play color by numbers to! I love when things are multifunctional. But my ability to multitask pales in comparison to his.

While he was working on opening his first restaurant ‘ink’ in West Hollywood, he also opened a small sandwich standing room only sandwich counter a few doors down from his restaurant. WHA?!! I barely have time to blog and here this amazing hunky chef opens 2 business ventures!! How amazing is that?? Regardless of how you felt about him when he was doing his massive trash talking on Top Chef you have to hand it to this culinary genius, he can back it up yo!

Oh, did I mention that he also has a hot brother?

Don’t worry, I’ll cover you too Mr. Bryan Voltaggio. But I would offer to babysit for you. Your kiddos are freakin’ adorbs and your wife is a hottie! This whole family is genetically and gastronomically blessed.

And yes….I am following them both on twitter. I do love posts on delicious food porn. Love love love… sigh. Excuse me, I’m going to float away on thoughts of Michael’s butternut squash risotto consisting of chicken wings, egg yolk, toasted wild rice, aromatic broth. Yes, I pulled that description from his website. Yes, there is drool on my keyboard. No, I’m not sure if its from his food or from him!

What do I have to do to get an invite for Thanksgiving? Or Sunday Supper? Or Breakfast?? Fuck, I’d even take you just making me a sandwich!

**Yea, its Hot Chef Friday on a Sunday. Do you want to know why? Because I drank too much Rose and forgot to hit ‘post’ like the bad ass that I am. Don’t judge me.**

Its official.

I have my first ginger obsession. Not like the condiment ginger which I will inhale at every sushi place that I go to. But my first ginger obsession via the human kind.

Here’s how it started…. it was a cold and blustery day.

Kidding. It was a normal Tuesday and I was reading everything that I could about The Royal Family. Don’t question, just accept that I have a recent British fetish. I will read anything about them! I pretty much kissed the clerk when I found my local Trader Joe’s carries crumpets I mean, really! How exciting is it to have tea and crumpets?! I’m practically hanging out in Notting Hill for pete’s sake!

Anyhooo…. I was reading about the exploits of the Duchess when I suddenly took a google detour and found myself staring into the broodingly handsome, unshaven in the best possible GQ kind of way, face of Tom Aikens.

Now you know me, while a pretty face is enough to give me pause I also need substance of some sort. I have to have some kind of seasoning in the broth in order for me to want to dip my pasta into it.

Luckily for me (and you, now that I have made you aware of this wonderful man) Tom’s talents extend past simply looking good. He was the youngest British chef to win two Michelin stars at Pied a Terre, in London’s Charlotte Street, in the 90’s. Since he graced the earth with his presence in 1970 this would out him barely in his 20’s when he accomplished this feat!

Swoon!

And his talents go even deeper! My tittering on food is positively childlike compared to his prose on the culinary experience in his restaurant. I wish I could hear him read a phone book in that sexy British accent of his!

On top of it all this hunk is seriously passionate about food! Insert heart emoji here *sigh*

Go here if you are lucky enough to get to London http://www.tomaikens.co.uk/
If you’re not, you can always check him out on youtube. I have to admit that I did watch one or two of the videos just to hear him talk about nosh.

What I wouldn’t give to have breakfast in bed with this fellow! I am a sucker for whiskers but on Tom for some reason they seem that much more manly! Imagine this hunk making you a sandwich. Cause hell yea, I’m a feminist and an equal opportunity sandwich maker!