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While he didn't win last season (so close: Las Vegas-based chef Hung Huynh took home the $100,000), don't feel too bad for Levitski. The 34-year-old chef and his business partners have a new restaurant in the works (Town & Country, 525 W. Monroe St.), plus he's been enjoying the spotlight. We caught up with him to see how his post-"Top Chef" life has been going.
I want to start with some reality show gossip: Are you still dating Jack Mackenroth from "Project Runway"?
Um, I think that's kinds of...well, I've been so busy and he's been so busy...I'd say it's pretty much on the back burner.
Yes, and the fact that it's been in Us weekly and Star is very, very strange.
But kind of fabulous, too?
Yeah. It's just surreal. I'm your average Midwestern guy and so you're a little starstruck and laugh at it at the same time.
How did you two meet anyhow?
We met on Myspace, actually. Someone sent me [a link] “Check this guy out, blah blah blah. He wants to meet you." So on his profile it said he wanted to meet me. So we were messaging back and forth and then talking. I've only been to New York twice and we've hung out both times. He's a fantastic guy.
Any other ways that your life has changed?
I went to the "Project Runway" finale and me Heidi Klum and Victoria Beckham and it's very strange. I met Catherine Keener in the airport and she knew everything about me. I was having a cigarette with Katherine Keener at JFK and I was like you've have got to be kidding me. To have Heidi Klum do a double take and say, “Hey, how are you?” -- that's awesome!
What else have you been up to?
Basically getting my head back together because when you go through the experience of "Top Chef" -- or I'm sure any reality show -- it kind of screws with your head a little bit for sure.
In what ways?
I get to go from being an average person to being recognized everywhere, but you're still the same person and it's very daunting to be anywhere and people you don't know are like, “Hey, Dale, what's going on?” It's extremely flattering, but I'm pretty shy believe it or not.
What's the common thing people say to you?
You should have won.
That's great to hear, isn't it?
I wasn't prepared for the overwhelming support [from] Chicago. Even when I was in New York, the first thing people said to me: "We were rooting for you, you should have won." Just to have random strangers come up to you and say that, that's speaks a lot for what happened on the show and just how, passionately people watch this show.
Last time we talked you were waiting tables at Sola. Are you still?
Yes, I'm still at Sola. I'm also at Relax, [where] I bartend on Tuesday nights. My business partner at Town & Country is one of the partners at Relax, so I'm laying low, hanging out there and having a good time.
How do the customers react when they see you?
There's a couple different ways that people do it. Usually, I can just see it in there eyes. They'll kind of look at you a little differently and be like, “Where else have you worked? I know you from somewhere.” I'll be like, well, "I worked at Trio. I opened Orange. I opened La Tache." They'll be like, “No.” And then I'll be like, "I was on a TV show." And then their reaction will be like, “Then what are you doing this for? Why aren't you in the kitchen?”
Well, that's a good question. What's the answer?
Well, I have two answers – and the first is I didn't win $100,000, so need to pay my rent.
Good answer.
The other is that I'm at a point where I'm not going to cook just to cook. I'm going to cook in my own kitchen, so I'd rather go out to eat and learn about food. Being on the line or working in a kitchen wouldn't be the best use of my time considering I'm opening a restaurant.
Speaking of Town & Country, it seems like the opening date keeps moving. What's the status?
Things are starting to move forward very quickly now. We got all our permits from the city, so we're going to start building in April, and we'll be open by September. It sounds a lot easier than it is. We have a cement box. It's a complete build out. It's not just walking into a space that has the plumbing and the electric – we have to put everything in. So it's a huge project.
What kind of restaurant will it be?
We're calling it an upper scale diner. We'll have two dining rooms and a lounge. One dining room will be sort of a diner side—sandwiches, burgers, road trip food, if you will.
What's road trip food?
Kind of like standard diner fare. I kind of want to have fun with that kind of stuff—real Americana kind of fun. The other dining room will be kind of upper scale, kind of going into new American. So it's going to be low end and high end.
Do you keep in touch with the people from Season 3?
Sara [Nguyen] from my season, she and I moving in together in April. She's moving here to be a sous chef at Town & Country as well as CJ [Jacobson]. We will have three "Top Chef" people from Season Three at Town & Country.
So you and Sara are going to be rooming together?
It will be like a year until she gets on her feet and gets her own place. She and I are extremely close. I think it will be very fun to cook with them again. I kind of feel sorry for our staff. They're going to be sick of us because we have so much fun together.
How are they going to react to you as a boss?
When we all talked about it, all our individual skill sets are great. CJ is so dynamic and such a hard worker, but he doesn't have much restaurant experience; he's more of a personal chef and caterer. So there's a lot for him to do. And Sarah's got a lot more skill that you think. She did her externship at Per Se in New York, so she's got definite skills. She's young, but she's a player.
Let's talk about "Top Chef" Season Four. It was filmed in Chicago, so can we expect any surprised appearances from you?
I guess I can't say. But I will be blogging the whole season on the Bravo web site. I'm pretty excited to see Chicago go "Top Chef" crazy. I have seen some snippets of the first episode and the one thing that I was pretty happy with was the shots of the city itself. I think it's one of the first times in this kind of forum that the rest of the country is going to see how truly beautiful this city is. I was really, really proud to see that.
Did you know the three contestants with Chicago connections from your time from kitchens here?
I've never met Dale [Talde], and Valerie [Bolon] and I have a lot of people we know in common, but I don't know if we've ever officially have met, but I'm really close with Stephanie.
So do you have any sort of insider secrets about her?
Having cooked with Stephanie and having eaten at Scylla and knowing her personality, she's kind of got everything: She'll do very unique flavor combinations that you don't think will work, but ultimately they do. And she's got very, very strong technique. Put those together, she's going to be dangerous.
Did you have any advice for her?
Going into the situation there's really no advice to get except cook as yourself and try to stay calm.
[Chris LaMorte is the metromix dining producer. clamorte@tribune.com]
