Another one of our favorite New York chefs has been eliminated from Bravo TV’s Top Chef Texas. Grayson Schmitz was sent home from the cooking competition, when Pee Wee Herman was the guest judge and her stuffed chicken was considered all wrong. She was a bit bummed about having him critique her food in the first place, since she didn’t really consider him to be much of a food expert.
From chatting with her, I learned she does a mean "Ha Ha" Pee Wee impression, she is not afraid to be herself and is confident in who she is and where she is from, even if in Wisconsin the portions might be a bit bigger. It was great to find out more about where she eats in New York City, her side of the story about the “like a meatball” conversation with Tom, her thoughts on the infamous frog song, and much more.
By Michelle Levine, Contributing Writer
By Michelle Levine, Contributing Writer
What are your favorite New York City restaurants and where do you like to go on your day off?
“I absolutely love ABC Kitchen. It’s delicious and really fresh” she said. “On a chill day, where I hang out after work, at like 1:00 in the morning is ...I have kind of like a Cheers Wine bar in the neighborhood. It’s called Cava; it’s on 80th between Amsterdam and Columbus and it’s amazing. I know the owner. I have been living in this neighborhood for a few years now” she explained. “I met the owner and made friends with [him] right away; his name is Carlos. And basically for this neighborhood a lot of people in my industry wind up going there after work. So, John Fraser [chef at Dovetail] funny enough actually lives below me so I see him at Cava often since he is a neighborhood guy and a Chefee. So that definitely is one of my favorite places to go late night. Eating- wise, Tertulia. I was just there last night and it was just as delicious as I remember the first time."
How was bartending for Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live?
“Considering I am not a bartender, it was alright (laughs). It was fun talking to Andy [Cohen] and Tom [Colicchio] because we never really get to talk. It actually cleared my head a little bit about the meatball incident since Tom thought it was funny. And I was like THANK GOD! Because I would never disrespect that man and he is amazing and he does really great things for us and he is almost like a mentor now. I just really didn’t want him to be rubbed the wrong way from that whole exchange in the episode” she said. “Also, It was great to see Carla [Hall] because I know she is based in DC but she also has an apartment on the Upper West Side as well, so I see her every once in a while because we live in the same neighborhood, so it was good to see her again.”
I was curious about the meatball conversation too and if people had given you slack for it? They kept showing that clip over and over.
“Yeah, I mean people really seemed to enjoy that one. I can’t even tell you how many tweets I got that just said “like a meatball?” I am like OMG really?! And until now people still say meatball stuff (laughs). So I think it was fun for people to watch one of the contestants stand up to Tom because he is more or less the scarier judge….you would not want to f**k with Tom. I never really went up against him before because when he is telling you all of his critiques [you remember] the guy has a billion years of experience. He is usually right. But in this incident when he is ripping down my chicken salad I am just thinking in my head.. but really, she made a meatball, so leave me alone. [Also] I kind of think he maybe understood what I was saying because he did kind of shut up. It was a fun interaction. He is the man."
The other funny saying from you this season was “sex in the mouth.”
“That is going on zero hours of sleep. So I don’t know what possessed me to say that. Pretty much anything that comes across my mind I say. I don’t usually hold back, so, um yea. That just came out."
So, do you have any other hidden talents? I was laughing when you did the frog song. How do you know the frog song and do you sing it a lot?
“Yeah, I do the frog song every single day! NO. That is a total joke! I do not. I learned that when I was really little. I used to go to Girl Scout Camp every summer. Camp Evelyn where I grew up… and that was one of our camp fire songs and everyone knew it and we all sang it together. You wouldn’t believe the response I got from the song. It is insane. They all want to learn it and stuff and I had a few counselors that I had when I was little at camp contact me and saying “I think I was your counselor. Did you go to Camp Evelyn?” which was hilarious” she explained. "Also, just a lot of people liked it I guess because they like to feel a connection with the chef they are routing for and I think that I was always very real and down to earth and when you do something like the frog song on national television, people either love it or hate it. People either love it because it’s funny and you had the balls to do something like that or they think you are [ridiculous] and luckily for me, more people thought it was really fun and showed a good side of my personality.”
I also wanted to find out more about your experience in culinary school in New York. What was the most valuable thing you took away from it?
“I mean that was so long ago. I suppose the most valuable thing was just the straight up skill-set that we built there. A lot of chefs say “I didn’t need to go to culinary school; it was just a waste of money.” But for me, that is absolutely not true. I needed culinary school; I needed to have that baseline and it definitely gave me the platform for what I needed for the rest of my career, and I took so much out of it. I learned so much at the CIA.”
Do you keep in touch with Ty-Lor and support each other in NYC?
“Oh yeah, totally. We definitely support each other. Actually when we got back from taping this summer in Texas, we were both in between jobs at the moment, so I was doing recipe development at Olivier Cheng (a high end catering company in the city) and Ty was like “oh I really need some work” so I actually brought him in and he works with them now as well and it is kind of like our freelance outlet when we are not doing other stuff. So yeah, we definitely support each other and I am definitely going to try to make it to his pop-up."
Great, so what do you have in the works and how would New Yorkers get in touch with you? Are you focusing on catering or do you have a restaurant in the works? What are your plans?
“Well, basically I have been doing a lot of different events where people will call me to do wine dinners and stuff. I have been working with my sister a lot, which is kind of insane because we didn’t really get along much in our lives before and all of a sudden this whole experience has brought us together; we are like an oiled team, it is kind of amazing. She does the front of the house and all the event planning and I obviously do the back of the house and we meet in the middle and we are kind of hilarious while we do it. Very entertaining for people. I kind of want that to go somewhere because I think we are a great team and so far the dinners that we have done have been super successful. I think I am doing a wine dinner at the restaurant I used to be Chef de Cuisine, Villa Pacri."
Do you have any Valentine’s Day plans?
“Um, no. I am completely single. I will probably be cooking in a kitchen somewhere. I know it is kind of sad, right? You can say it.”
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