Imperial No. Nine is the subject of this week’s restaurant review.
You ever look at the Fail blog? Imperial No. Nine is not quite a candidate for inclusion there, but it would almost be more interesting if it were. (There is something terrific about epic restaurant missteps.) Instead the restaurant is a simply fair effort from Sam Talbot, a man recently profiled in The Times under the elliptical headline “A Chef is Cooking.”
Sam who? Here is Julia Chaplin, who wrote that article, introducing him:
“Depending on your interest in young, attractive chefs from reality TV shows, Mr. Talbot, 33, is either a nobody, or the breakout star from the Bravo show ‘Top Chef,’ Season 2. He is a perennial favorite on the sexy-chef lists in food magazines and blogs. His dating life, chronicled in gossip columns, reportedly included a string of models and camera-courting types like Kelly Killoren Bensimon (Mr. Talbot says they are just friends). And whenever his name appears in print, the words ‘hot,’ ‘hottie’ or ‘hottest’ are usually not far behind.
‘That’s me. It is what it is,’ said Mr. Talbot, who is 6-foot-5 and has dark, rugged good looks. ‘Everyone talks about who I’m dating or not dating or married or not married. The stigma doesn’t hurt me in any way. Does it help me? I don’t know.’ ”
We don’t know either! But the question leads to a special beach-reading edition of the “Reviewing” canon, just in time for summer: Who is your hottest chef in the world? Post your candidates and links in the comments below.
I’ll start. How about this guy?