Top Chef Exit Intervew: Patrick Chopped, Would Have Liked To Cook Indian Cuisine

By Julie Zied
Fancast.com

On Wednesday night’s fifth season premiere of Top Chef, 21 year-old Patrick Dunlea became the youngest chef to ever pack up his knives after losing a chef-to-chef challenge. In an interview this morning the culinary school student admit that he would have changed his Chinatown-inspired dish by “doing something different to heighten the level of flavors,” and claims he’ll never use those gummy noodles again. The rest of his interview below.

Tom Collichio said using bok choy in your dish was too expected.

Well, the market I went to had a lot of bok choy and cabbage. That’s what I was inspired by.

Is there another neighborhood and it’s associated cuisine you would have rather worked with, instead of Chinatown?

I really love Indian cuisine. It would have been fun to cook a little bit of that, and see all the different ingredients.

What was the process like getting on the show?

Well my [Culinary Institute of America] classmates were joking with me, like ‘yeah right, you think you’ll get on that show?’ I can’t go into too much detail about the casting. My friends were watching as it was coming along. Then when I did get it, I couldn’t tell anyone. I had to come up with excuses and say I was going away for ‘personal reasons.’

Have you spoken to your former classmate and fellow eliminee, Lauren since being on the show?

We sent little text messages back and forth saying ‘you looked great!’ We’re both back to our normal lives. She’s with her husband who was home for a little while on leave, so she was very occupied with him. Then I went back to school. We still keep in touch through email, though.

Did you build any relationships with the other chefs? Or was it too brief?

There were instant kind of connections. Everyone was still jittery and anxious from the quickfire challenge. Everyone’s emotions were up. We all bonded and looked to each other for support. We were all in the same boat. There were obviously some connections as we were obviously sharing such an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience.

It seems like Fabio and Stefan are being set up to be the two polarizing forces of the group. Did you get that vibe when you were around them?

Fabio and Stefan were hysterical together. They just feed off each other. They try to out-do each other every time they’re together. I really had no issues with them. They never tried to talk down or look down to me. They’re just guys being guys, trying to out-do one another.

Is there any ingredient or technique you’ve learned at school that people could do at home?

I think it’s more ingredients. Even if you can make a grilled cheese, make sure to use the best bread, the best cheese and the best butter, and it’ll be the best grilled cheese you’ve ever had. It’s really about the quality of the ingredients. Cooking is a skill that people can learn. It’s a part of everyone’s life. Everyone knows it a little bit. Even if you can only use your microwave, there are still pretty incredible things you can do with it.

At what point when you were growing up did you realize this was something you wanted to take seriously and turn into a career?

Probably when I was at the end of elementary school. I was around 10 or 11. I had always grown up cooking with my mom and grandmother in the kitchen. When I got to that age I started cooking on my own. I’d come home and try and put together for my family for dinner, which usually wound up being a potato, or a couple potato dishes and a vegetable. From there I moved on to bigger and better things.

What kind of things would you make with your mom and grandmother?

I’m from Massachusetts so my grandmother is famous for her baked beans. Growing up you could always just smell them. That’s definitely a dish that brings me back to my childhood. My grandmother was also into going to farms, or stopping at farm stands on the side of the road to pick up stuff on the way home. She really inspired me to get back in touch with the land.

Do you have any secrets for making great baked beans?

She always cooked a whole onion in there to roast with it. It was so great, because by the end one half is roasted on top and the other half is soaking in beans the entire time. It’s like heaven.

Is there any food that you absolutely can’t stand?

That non-dairy processed whipped cream product. I’m terrified of it. Who knows what its made of.

What’s your favorite New York restaurant?

I really love Prune, Gabrielle Hamilton’s restaurant, and Fatty Crab. Gabrielle Hamilton is a really awesome chef. She’s so down to earth, and very forward. She likes to just cook food from her childhood.

Any dishes to recommend?

At Fatty Crab they have coconut keffir lime braised short ribs that are just so incredible. Gabrielle Hamilton, I haven’t tried them yet, but I’m dying to try her sweetbreads. She boasts that they’re the best in the country.

After culinary school, what’s the next step for you?

I want to travel. I’m trying to work on going to Europe. I’m working on getting a fellowship to go to Spain after I graduate. I’d like to get international experience and see the world.