Baltimore restaurateur Timothy Dean lost his bid for television chef stardom this week when a batch of bland turnips got him ousted from Bravo's "Top Chef."
"I personally think I should have cooked another day, but God bless everyone on the show and Bravo," Dean said in an interview Thursday.
Dean agreed that his roasted turnips were a disappointment but said that the cooking conditions — contestants had to prepare their food on hot plates and grills in a farm field — didn't help.
Earlier in the episode, which aired Wednesday, the chef-owner of Prime Steakhouse in Fells Point also failed to impress the reality TV cooking show judges with a dish that should be a cinch for a Maryland chef: crabs.
Dean said the judges, who favored several Asian-inspired crab dishes over his, seemed not to appreciate the straightforward way Marylanders like their crustaceans. "You know in this region, we don't do a lot with our crabs but put some seasoning on," he said. "I kept it really simple-and-clean flavors. … The Maryland crab is the star. We let it sing."
Dean had hoped an appearance on "Top Chef" would give a boost to a career that in short order took him from dishwasher to Jean-Louis Palladin protege and Washington restaurateur but more recently landed him in bankruptcy court.
His Washington restaurant closed, as did his Baltimore-based Timothy Dean Bistro and T.D. Lounge. A bank won a $1.3 million judgment against Dean and his real estate company in May, and he filed for bankruptcy protection days later. This month, he filed an $8 million lawsuit against the developer of National Harbor in Prince George's County, claiming fraud and breach of contract over an aborted restaurant venture there.
"I just want my money back," said Dean, 40. "The majority is my wife's life insurance money."
Dean's wife, Michelle, died in June 2007 at age 38.
Dean was just the sixth contestant to be eliminated from a field of 17 competing this season in Washington. Nevertheless, he said participating in the reality show was the most fun he'd had since Palladin, the famed French chef who took Dean under his wing two decades ago, sent him to train in France for 18 months.
"It was a great group of people," Dean said of the "Top Chef" contestants. "This is major — this is like being in a Hollywood picture. It was totally awesome."
Dean's short stint on the program has been enough to give Prime Steakhouse a boost, he said. The restaurant opened to generally positive reviews in April.
Business there has "picked up about 30 percent" since the season started airing in June, he said. "Each week is getting better. … We don't do well when it's 100 degrees, [but] when the sun goes down, people come out."
Dean said he is moving forward with a second Prime Steakhouse location, this one at Boulevard at the Capital Centre in Largo. It will occupy a 7,000-square-foot space that previously housed The Sideline, a now-shuttered restaurant owned by former Washington Redskins linebacker LaVar Arrington, said Dean's lawyer, Jimmy A. Bell of Bowie.
Bell said Dean's restaurant is slated to open in 90 days and will not be affected by the bankruptcy proceedings related to Dean's defunct bistro and lounge.
"That's a whole separate entity," Bell said. "He's not doing anything Donald Trump isn't doing. When you start a business, you create separate entities."