From the NYT, the real fall out from being on Top Chef. Good or bad?

Fame on the Half Shell

LEAH COHEN, the 27-year-old head chef of Centro Vinoteca, an Italian restaurant on Seventh Avenue South near Barrow Street, was standing in the restaurant’s exposed kitchen, assembling small plates of butternut squash croquettes and pushing them through the window carved in the kitchen’s white brick wall.

Fashionably dressed 20-somethings clustered under the shimmering discs dangling over the bar on this recent Friday night, while a more sedate crowd settled in booths whose full-length windows faced onto the street.

No one approached Ms. Cohen, though she was clearly visible, her chef’s coat still crisp white and her dark hair twisted into a tight bun.

But they were watching her. Chris Stockel, a 22-year-old who lives around the corner from the nearly two-year-old restaurant, had come specifically for Ms. Cohen and her cuisine.

“I was excited to see the food and see what she can do,” Mr. Stockel said. But he added, “I don’t know what she saw in Hosea.”

Ms. Cohen hears that a lot. Nearly three months ago, she was among the last contestants eliminated on Season 5 of the hugely popular Bravo reality show “Top Chef.” But what most viewers remember is a moment that occurred midway during the season when she shared a clandestine kiss with the eventual winner, Hosea Rosenberg, even though both were involved with other people.

Even now, the restaurant attracts patrons who point giggling toward the kitchen, and blogs critique Ms. Cohen’s character as much as her cooking skills. The attention is something she is getting used to.

“I think it’s something that you have to deal with, putting yourself out there, going on a reality show,” said Ms. Cohen, who is one of at least a dozen former “Top Chef” contestants navigating post-show fame in New York. Although casting has been completed for Season 6, echoes from previous seasons continue to reverberate in this restaurant-obsessed city.

At least one contestant has successfully opened his own restaurant. Another is struggling to find investors. A third is trying to extend her brand into cookbooks, a line of chef’s clothing and a new restaurant inspired by her signature cuisine on the show.

And Ms. Cohen, formerly sous-chef at Centro Vinoteca, is seeking to put gossip behind her and to focus on her new job as the restaurant’s top chef, a job that started immediately after her return from the show.

“Having to think on the fly and in a really stressful environment just gave me the confidence and the ability to come back and take over the restaurant,” Ms. Cohen said. And to greet well-wishers who approach Centro Vinoteca’s open kitchen with the inevitable words, “We love you, your food’s great, how’s Hosea?”

‘That Was Television, This Is Reality’

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