'Top Chef' takes on Denver, where food scene is reaching new heights
Let's play a game: I'll name a city, and you think of food associated with that place.
Ready? Denver.
What comes to mind? Omelets? Rocky Mountain oysters? How about bison, venison or the meat of other animals that keeps taxidermists paying income taxes?
Maybe you're pondering another kind of edible, given Colorado's embrace of recreational marijuana.
I ran the question by a pro during a recent visit to this outdoorsy city perched on high, rolling plains.
"When people think of Denver food, I think they're always just thinking about mountain food - elk and trout - and that's not necessarily true," said local chef Carrie Baird.
She recently played a different food-related game in her hometown: "Top Chef."
The best cooking competition on television (yeah, I said it) chose Colorado as the lofty setting for its 15th season, which debuts Dec. 7 on Bravo. Baird is one of 15 "cheftestants" duking it out for the title.
The series, hosted by velvet-voiced Padma Lakshmi, filmed earlier this year in Aspen, Telluride, Boulder and Denver, where the
