Ilan Hall
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| Born | Ilan D. Hall April 6, 1982 |
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| Cooking style | Spanish |
| Education | Culinary Institute of America |
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Current restaurant(s)
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Television show(s)
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Ilan D. Hall (born April 6, 1982) is an American chef, best known as the winner of the second season of the Bravo television network's reality series Top Chef.
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Life and career[edit]
Hall is a native of Great Neck, New York. His parents were both immigrants: his father from Glasgow, Scotland, and his mother from Israel. Both his parents were from Jewish families.[1][2]
As a teenager, Hall worked at Marine Fishery, a seafood store in his hometown of Great Neck[3] and was later trained at Italy's Lorenzo de Medici Apicus Program[4][5] and at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA). He attended the CIA at the same time as his Top Chef runner-up Marcel Vigneron.[6] At the time of his season two Top Chef competition, Ilan was a line cook at Casa Mono, a Spanish restaurant in Manhattan.
He is perhaps best recognized as the winner of the most drama-filled season of Top Chef, which saw him involved in a series of non-cooking related antics intended to intimidate rival chef, Marcel Vigneron. Bravo, the television station producing Top Chef, ranks Ilan's partaking in "The Head Shaving Incident" plotted against Vigneron as "probably the biggest scandal in Top Chef history."[7] Although only one contestant, Cliff Brooks, was sent home for administering physical punishment to Vigneron by forcefully holding him down for the intended shave, contestants Elia and Ilan were demonstrated to be accomplices since both had endorsed the hazing of a fellow competitor on camera. The behavior of most contestants throughout the season has unfortunately tarnished the integrity of the winner, leading many to cite Ilan and Marcel's disdain for one another as the most poignant aspect of season 2, as is demonstrated in the "Top Chef Reunion" episode hosted by season 5 contestant, Fabio Viviani. During this episode, staged several years after season 2, both Ilan and Marcel acknowledged that they had made amends since their departures from the hit cooking show and no longer were interested in being associated with the belligerence, which had plagued the near entirety of their particular season on Top Chef.
As of 2008, Hall lives in Los Angeles, California[8] In August 2009, he opened his first restaurant, The Gorbals in downtown Los Angeles.[9] Less than a week after opening, The Gorbals was shut down by the county health department because of an inadequate water heater.[10] It reopened on October 23, 2009.[11]
It was revealed in 2010 that Ilan and his girlfriend are expecting their first son, Theo, together.
References[edit]
- ^ http://m.npr.org/story/134458738?url=/2011/03/12/134458738/matzo-balls-meet-bacon-at-top-chefs-restaurant
- ^ http://us.shalomlife.com/culture/17864/top-20-under-40-los-angeles-ilan-hall/
- ^ Top Chef Finale Spoiled AGAIN
- ^ Great Neck To Great Chef
- ^ Bio at the Top Chef website
- ^ Patterson, Spencer (2008-06-05). "Now we're cooking". Las Vegas Weekly (Greenspun Media Group). Retrieved 2008-09-03.
- ^ http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/season-9/photos/must-see-moments/top-chefs-biggest-scandals-of-all-time#image-106638
- ^ New York Daily News Interview June 12, 2008
- ^ The Gorbals LA Official website
- ^ "Gorbals Boils Over". Zagat.com. September 3, 2009.
- ^ Arfa, Orit (November 4, 2009). "Bacon-wrapped matzvah balls with Top Chef Ilan Hall". JewishJournal.com.
External links[edit]
- Bio at the Top Chef website
- Bravo’s New Top Chef Tells All Review at the Food & Wine website
- Ilan Hall beats Marcel Vigneron to become 'Top Chef 2' champion Article at Realitytvworld.com
- Great Neck to Great Chef? Article at Newsday.com
Image links[edit]
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