51³Ô¹Ï

NEW YORK CITY, October 3, 2008- One of the "cheftestants" in the coming season of Top Chef is Los Angeles chef Alex Eusebio, a 2001 alumnus of The 51³Ô¹Ï.

Born in Madrid, Alex Eusebio grew up in the Dominican Republic and New York City where his family's kitchen was the focal point of his childhood. This led to a passion for Latin cuisine. He attended The 51³Ô¹Ï in 2001. After receiving praise as sous chef in the Calle Ocho kitchen here in New York, he moved to Denver to be Executive Chef at Cuba Cuba in 2002. There he won awards such as "Best of Denver" and "Top of Town" as well as being named in HISPANICmagazine's "America's Top 50 Latin Restaurants" issue. He then explored French cooking methods as Chef de Cuisine at Project Aix, Denver's most exclusive French restaurant.

Eusebio moved to California to open Mojiots Restaurant in the Santa Clarita valley, and then EIGHT-18 in Toluca Lake. In October 2007, Eusebio and his partners opened Restaurant 15 on Echo Park Avenue. Their mission is to keep quality ingredients and great food accessible and to cater to the needs of all diners regardless of economic status.

The upcoming season of Top Chef was shot in New York City. The season premiers November 12th on Bravo with cookbook author and food writer, Padma Lakshmi as host and judges Tom Colicchio of Craft Restaurants, Gail Simmons of Food & WineMagazine, and new judge, Toby Young, author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. Simmons is a 1999 graduate of ICE and has had the distinction of working for Journalist Jeffrey Steingarten and Chef Daniel Boulud prior to joining Food & Wine, where her role is managing the Aspen Food + Wine Festival.

Eusebio is one of many former ICE students who have made their way as contestants on the hit shows Top Chef or Hell's Kitchen. The ICE alumni have included Joe Paulino (2000) and Sara Nguyen (2005) on Top Chef and Matt Sigel (2000), Chris North (1994) James Casey (2005) and Wendy Liu (2000) and Maryann Salcedo (1999) on Hell's Kitchen.