Chef Graham Elliot Talks MasterChef

Chef Graham Elliot said it plainly: "Cooking at the end of the day should be this romantic, spiritual kind of act. When I see ego come to a head, I have to c…" — and Premier Guide Miami was in the room when it happened.

Chef Graham Elliot is the culinary mastermind behind Chicago's first "bistronomic" restaurant, Graham Elliot, which tempers four-star cuisine with humor and accessibility. In a very short time, the 33-year-old chef accrued accolades including Best New Chef in 2004 from Food & Wine magazine and three James Beard nominations. Graham serves as judge on FOX's MasterChef. In December 2010, Elliot opened Grahamwich, a casual quick-service sandwich shop in Chicago's River North neighborhood. He has also appeared on both seasons of the popular cable competition series Top Chef Masters.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Real-life experience or culinary school?

GRAHAM ELLIOT: Real-life experience, absolutely. I think culinary school is kind of a joke. I went, and I wish that I had taken that money and applied it to going to New York and just living for a few months working for free at places — or going to Europe or Asia or other places and getting that hands-on experience.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: So you are a chef and a musician...

GRAHAM ELLIOT: I used to sing and play guitar in a band. I actually record some of my guitar playing and put it on the playlist at the restaurant — so it's not something where we stop and tell everyone in the dining room "hey, this is the chef," but it's just again, I feel like I only have a couple of things that I'm good at, so I want to highlight that in my restaurant. So we do it that way.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Were you nervous about your mom appearing on this season's show?

GRAHAM ELLIOT: Yes. With me, my mom's always kind of on the crazy end, so it was me just being nervous that she wasn't going to do something to embarrass us. But she was really sweet and ended up being able to police herself, so I was very excited about that.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Were you surprised by the level of talent this season?

GRAHAM ELLIOT: Absolutely. I think we all hope that each year the contestants get better and better, but I think as a whole we are pretty amazed at the level of skill and cooking knowledge. Also the dining knowledge — where it's not just somebody that's cooking in the backwoods, but somebody that has been to restaurants, reads cookbooks, and watches cooking shows. You're getting a different caliber of contestants.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: In what ways have the chefs changed this season compared to last season, now that they have a reference point on what's required?

GRAHAM ELLIOT: You had people coming from all these different regions that had seen what we did on Season 1 and said, "I can do that better, or I know that my cooking is equal if not greater than what they're doing at this level." You see that reflected in the dishes — they're a little more almost restaurant quality, with a lot of focus on flavor and technique.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: What's the criteria for selecting the winner of the Mystery Box Challenge?

GRAHAM ELLIOT: It's the idea — just like Miles Davis going in and playing something off the cuff as opposed to reading sheets of music. You have to be spontaneous and be able to take things that are in season, different flavors and combinations, and put them together to make something awesome.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: What is the worst food crime a contestant can commit that will guarantee them getting voted off?

GRAHAM ELLIOT: We see in coming episodes the mistake of not cooking out flour in dishes. That kind of stuff — putting cornstarch in something to try to thicken it as opposed to just being very natural and organic with it and letting it reduce on its own. You can almost catch people trying to take little shortcuts, and we always find them on that.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Has your patience been tested on the show?

GRAHAM ELLIOT: Yeah, and I think you'll actually see that in a coming episode. I try not to let emotion get in the way, because cooking at the end of the day should be this romantic, spiritual kind of act. But when I see ego come to a head, I have to call people on it. The other thing is when people try to do techniques and represent something that could be really cool — whether it's a cooking style or some kind of modern experimental thing — and they fall on their face but still think they're doing something great, you have to shake them back into reality sometimes.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Are you still in contact with anyone from past seasons?

GRAHAM ELLIOT: Yes. We have at our restaurant many of the contestants come and spend time in our kitchen for a week or two and see what we're all about. As far as Whitney Miller, I think that Joe, Gordon, and I have all kind of stayed in contact with her and support her on her continued path.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Graham, do you really feel that God kills a puppy when someone mangles a fish fillet?

GRAHAM ELLIOT: Absolutely. I stand by that claim.

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