'Top Chef' enjoys Wheeling flavor in final challenge

When the "Top Chef" wannabes put their skills to the test in the final elimination challenge before the season finale, they did it in a Wheeling restaurant.

Chef Rick Tramonto and Tramonto's Steak and Seafood opened the kitchen last fall to the crew and cheftestants of Bravo's hit reality series "Top Chef" for the episode that airs at 9 p.m. Wednesday.

To celebrate the restaurant's television debut, it will host a viewing party from 7 to 10 p.m. Wednesday at the restaurant, 601 N. Milwaukee Ave., Wheeling. Televisions will be set up through out the restaurant and hors d'oeuvres will be complimentary.

In addition, staff will create special appetizers based on the episode and developing cocktails named after the remaining contestants. Tramonto will be on hand during the show and will sign copies of his cookbooks afterward.

Tramonto said he's been a fan of "Top Chef" since day one and that participating in season four that was filmed around Chicago has been "amazing."

"(Bravo crews) came in at 2 a.m. and by 9 or 10 the restaurant was transformed," said Tramonto. No stranger to the cameras, Tramonto has appeared on the Food Network's "Iron Chef" and cooked alongside the late Julia Child.

"It was like being on a Hollywood set," he said. "They blackened all the windows, they controlled everything."

The episode focuses on Chicago steak houses and Tramonto said the challenge is to take over this steak house and run it for the night. Tramonto and his staff are prohibited from revealing details about the episode, but says he was involved in the "quick fire" challenge as well, a competition among the five cheftestants that wins them special privileges in the elimination challenge.

"Top Chef" started with 16 young chefs. Each week judges have told one to "pack your knives and leave." Wednesday's episode pares down the field to the final four chefs who will battle it out in Puerto Rico (airs June 4). The season four finale airs June 11 with one being crowned "Top Chef."

Tramonto said he didn't take his role lightly.

"They were holding their fate in their hands, I was using my 30 years of culinary experience to judge their final product," Tramonto said. "When you see the episode, it will be very obvious who did real well and who didn't.

"By that time (episode 12) you see who's really humble and has confidence and who's cocky even, and it can come back to burn them."