Does area native have right stuff for 'Top Chef'?

Remember this if you ever doubt yourself: Dale Levitsky flipped burgers in college.

And now, the former burger

flipper is one of eight contestants

still standing on the

third season of Bravo's reality

show "Top Chef," which airs

its eighth episode at 9 p.m.

today.

Makes you wonder if -

when he's feverishly chopping,

sauteéing and whipping up

something like, oh, chicken filled

potato dumplings with

broccoli, horseradish and celery

root-he thinks about the

smell of the fry cooker.

Levitsky, 34, is a native of

Arlington Heights who used

to be the head chef at Trio in

Evanston and La Téche in

Andersonville, and put in time

at other top restaurants in

the city. But this past winter,

Levitsky says he'd taken some

time away from cooking and

was just chilling out, watching

a "Top Chef" marathon onTV,

when he saw a commercial

looking for "cheftestants" for

the show's third season. He

decided to apply.

Levitsky says he was impressed

by the quality of the

other chefs in the competition.

"When 15 of us were

thrown together in the same

room ... we all just immediately

clicked," he says.

Although the chefs were

competitive in the kitchen,

"outside of that we were all

just best friends," he says.

On the show, the chefs have

to go through a "quickfire"

challenge, and those who win

are safe from being axed by

the panel of celebrity judges

thatweek.Thenthe chefshave

to compete in the "elimination"

challenge, and one chef

goes home. Whoever wins at

the end of the season will get

$100,000 in seed money to

open a new restaurant.

Levitsky says the challenges

are even more stressful than

they look like onTV.

In the Aug. 1 episode, for

example, Levitsky was teamed up with Casey (the cast is identified by first names only); they had to create a Mediterranean dish that could be made into a frozen dinner for Bertolli. They came in second place with their turkey and pork meatballs with orecchiette pasta and pesto.

"I think our dish was fantastic, but … it's splitting hairs about who wins and who goes," Levitsky says.

He says the hardest challenge for him was the first one, in which they had to create an amuse bouche that showed the judges something about their personality. "I hadn't cooked for a long time," he says.

But he says he picked up his confidence quickly, and looking back, he says the high-adrenaline, high-stakes contest helped him learn to trust his instincts and rediscover his strengths and weaknesses. It also helped him define his flavor personality.

"I definitely have a Midwestern approach, a European approach," he says. "My cooking style is pretty much bang-you-over-the-head-with-flavor."

Levitsky says he grew up in a household of good cooks, but he wasn't that focused on cooking when he was going to Prospect High School. Back then, he was really involved in the Russian Club, and when he went to the University of Iowa, he was more focused on being a varsity diver.

It wasn't until he moved back to Chicago after college and got a job at a restaurant that his love of food heated up.

Now that primary filming of the show is over, Levitsky's back in Chicago preparing to open his own restaurant, which he hopes to launch as a kind of upscale diner this winter.

Levitsky's new-found celebrity should help create a buzz.

"I went out for dinner last night, and I took pictures with people and was signing autographs," he says, amazed.

Levitsky says his mom, who lives in Des Plaines and works in the bakery at a Northwest suburban Dominick's, held a "Top Chef" viewing party with her co-workers earlier in the season to cheer him on.

But Levitsky says it's bizarre to watch himself on TV. "It's a surreal experience to watch TV and relive a memory," he says. "It's like seeing a dream."