"Top Chef" Alumni in New York Kitchens

Before her ?Top Chef? experience, Nikki Cascone was co-owner and chef at 24 Prince, a homey American bistro specializing in comfort food. After placing eighth in season four, Cascone is back in the kitchen at the Soho staple. Now, though, she uses her more recognizable name to elevate her restaurant's reputation by touring and giving talks with other ?Top Chef? contestants across the country. She also plans to invite several contestants from seasons past to her 2010 wedding.

Before she was cast in season five of ?Top Chef,? Leah Cohen served as sous chef at West Village Italian resto Centro Vinoteca. During the show, she was best known for canoodling not-so-secretly with fellow contestant Hoseah Rosenberg, who ultimately won that season's top prize. (Cohen placed sixth.) Despite having earned more attention for smooching than dicing, Cohen was promoted to executive chef, a position she still holds. Since then, her work at Centro Vinoteca has earned praise, positioning her to disprove the early critics and establish herself as one of the top chefs in the city.

Dale Talde stumbled upon the season four auditions for ?Top Chef? when they were being held across the street from Morimoto, the restaurant where he was working as chef de cuisine. He stopped in on a whim and without a resume, but made it onto the show and eventually placed sixth. Talde gained a reputation for being outspoken (especially when it came to expressing his dislike for fellow contestant Lisa Fernandes), but in the end it was his talent for Asian cooking that made him a memorable Top Cheffer and helped him land a new job as sous-chef at the Chelsea hot spot Buddakan. Though his current title is not necessarily more prestigious than the one he held at Morimoto, the throngs of people who flock to Buddakan on any given night don't seem to care, and neither do we.

Ultimately, chef Lisa Fernandes' strong performance in the kitchen eclipsed the attention that was paid to her sexual preferences (she's a lesbian) and her infamous squabbles with Dale Talde, and she finished as first runner-up in season four. But in food circles, Fernandes is best known for usurping the chef position at New York's Vietnamese eatery Mai House from a fellow season four contestant, Spike Mendelsohn. When Mai House eventually closed, Fernandes quickly secured another job at the midtown branch of the chic, bustling Mexican restaurant Dos Caminos, where she continues to showcase her talent for quality cookery.

The very first "Top Chef" victor, Harold Dieterle used his reality TV show winnings to make his restaurant dreams come true by opening this New American restaurant in the West Village. Prior to joining the first season cast, Dieterle worked as sous-chef at the Harrison Restaurant in New York. No longer handcuffed by a higher-up's creative vision, Dieterle now controls his own kitchen and the food prepared in it. Arguably, slaughtering his "Top Chef" competition and garnering the instant notoriety that comes with winning allowed him to reach new heights within the culinary world faster than he could have alone. Perilla's success is a testament to that.

Sam Talbot, the second runner-up in ?Top Chef? season two, made his mark as both an excellent cook and a heartthrob. For those more interested in food than looks, Talbot cemented his reputation as a post-reality TV chef by helming the kitchen at the swanky Surf Lodge in Montauk, where seafood, specialty cocktails and scenesters abound. Next up, the handsome Talbot is poised to serve as executive chef at the Mondrian Soho, slated to open in early 2010.