Zoi Antonitsas
Zoi Antonitsas is a self-taught chef from Seattle
who now works in San Francisco,
where she lives with her girlfriend and fellow contestant, Jennifer Biesty. "We
don't fight over who cooks dinner," Antonitsas said. "One of
us will have an idea, and the other person just sits back and enjoys it." But
she also reported that their two-chef household eats a lot of take-out.
AfterEllen.com: How
was it competing against your girlfriend?
Zoi Antonitsas: Well, on one hand,
it was great having someone there that you know and you trust, [someone] to
support you and help you. Obviously not help with the actual challenge, but
help you along emotionally.
It was really a challenge to separate the personal from the challenge,
because it's a little distracting when you're looking at your girlfriend and
you're also trying to beat her. I mean, we talked a lot about it before we went
on the show. But definitely, it was hard. You want the other person to do well,
and at the same time, you want to beat them.
AE: I'm not up on
every single reality show, but this might be a first: a couple who competes,
but not as a team.
ZA: Yeah, I think that we're definitely the first at this. It's pretty
exciting. We're really honored and thrilled that we got to represent in that
way.
AE: When you're at
home, do you two fight over who cooks dinner?
ZA: No. When we're not working or have a day off, we'll try to cook
dinner at home, I would say, once out of the whole week. We end up eating a lot
of take-out food 'cause we cook every day, so we don't always need to cook at
home.
AE: What about a meal
you wouldn't necessarily cook at work, like breakfast?
ZA: Yeah, we cook brunch sometimes,
but we're lucky to live in San
Francisco — it's sunny here a lot of the time of the
year, so for brunch, we'll go sit outside somewhere with our dog and hang out
outside and relax.
AE: Are chefs still
primarily men?
ZA: I feel like the playing field
is definitely evening out. Now you walk into the kitchen and there's a female
chef, or female sous chef, or you see females in the line. When I first started
cooking, you didn't see a whole lot of that. I might be the only woman in the
whole kitchen, and there might be one other woman, but for the most part, it
was mostly men. I think that you're definitely seeing a turn for a woman being in
a chef position. For Jen and I, obviously, that's something we're really proud
about, being on the show; that we get to represent in that way.
AE: What do you think
is the most common mistake people make in the kitchen, besides not hiring more
women chefs?
ZA: Probably not tasting the food. It's simple, but often times you
[get] caught up in what you're doing and you're kind of on autopilot. That's
something that can take a dish from being OK to being great. Does it need a
little acid, does it need a little salt? Does it need more heat? Whatever. That's
probably the biggest mistake, and that's a really easy thing to solve.
AE: Did you know all
three of you chose lamb as your spring dish? How can meat be seasonal?
ZA: It's the time of year when the lambs are of age. The lambs have been
born, basically, at the perfect time, and it sounds kind of hardcore, but
they're ready to be killed and eaten. It's the time of year when they're
essentially harvested.
AE: You're going to
freak out our vegetarian and vegan readers, you know that, right?
ZA: I know, I understand. I have a lot friends who are vegetarians. I'm
very respectful of all foods. I only use naturally raised, organic meats. When looking
at lamb, it's hard to think about an animal being killed, but this is life. We're
humans. We're at the top of the food chain. I feel it's our responsibility [to]
make sure when we eat meat, we're being respectful to the animal and choosing
local, organically raised meat.
AE: How do you hard-boil
an egg? I'm asking because I've seen it a few different ways, and I wonder if
there's a "professional" way.
ZA: There are many different ways to cook an egg. I don't like an egg with
a super-hard yolk. I like it to still be really vibrant and yellow. So, the
method that I use is boiling water. You plunge the eggs in boiling water and
you cook, for nine minutes. As soon as nine minutes is done, you plunge them
into ice water. That result should yield a thoroughly cooked white, and the
yolk will be cooked but will still be bright.
AE: Thanks for finally
putting that to rest for me. Do you get to wear one of those paper chef hats? I
like those.
ZA: [laughs] Yeah, no. I don't
generally wear those hats. It was just lucky that I got to wear one in [a Top Chef] picture. Pretty awesome, huh? I actually went out and bought a
case of them because I thought I looked really hot.
AE: Right on.
ZA: Yeah, yeah. So I'm going to rock it out, it's going to be my new
look. Hair down, and hat.
Go to interviews with Lisa Fernandes and Jennifer Biesty.
