Natalie Portman Turns Up the Heat on 'Top Chef' October 29, 2009

Posted by Patricia at October 29, 2009 4:51 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 6 ) | TrackBack

JFL / CC
Did y'all catch last night's episode of Top Chef? I admit, I do watch from time to time but their dishes are usually pretty, well, flesh-filled, and I can only take so much of that before I start yelling at the screen.

So last night, the always lovely and newly twenty-year vegetarian turned vegan activist Natalie Portman was the guest judge ... you can see where this is going, can't you? (Warning: If you haven't watched it yet, there are a few spoilers ahead.)

The "Quickfire Challenge" was about creating TV dinners that were inspired by iconic TV shows, and were of course, all meat-based. Then they announced that the "Elimination Challenge" would be at judge Tom Colicchio's Vegas steakhouse, Craftsteak ... yay, more dead animals, right? Wrong!

Enter Ms. Portman who quickly told the anxious chefs, "I love food. I love eating. I'm pretty adventurous with flavors and different cuisines and the one thing is, I'm a vegetarian." Yes!

Now I won't give everything away in case some of you haven't watched the episode (you must though, it's a good one!) but let's just say, she taught the chefs a thing or two. And score one for the animals!



P.S. Natalie says that it was an advance copy of Jonathan Safran Foer's new book Eating Animals that made her go vegan. For me it was all about the cruelty to animals that I learned about by watching videos like Meet Your Meat. What made you decide to stop eating animals or to make the switch from vegetarian to vegan?