How does a newly anointed Top Chef spend his $100,000 prize money? Harold Dieterle reveals a few of his ideas for the windfall.
EBONY-HANDLED, MIRROR-FINISHED, HONYAKI YANAGI KNIFE: $1,150 Dieterle calls Japan's Ittosai-Kotetsu "the greatest knife-making company in the world."
SMUGGLING AN ASIAN KAFFIR LIME TREE INTO NYC: $750 "I'm obsessed with the leaves and fruit," he admits.
RED BURGUNDY (TO STOCK HIS CELLAR): $10,000 "I'm a piggie for those Pinots," Dieterle says.
STAINLESS STEEL ROLEX SUBMARINER: $4,500 "Chefs are always against the clock," he says.
JOHN BOOS BUTCHER BLOCK: $1,100 It's 348 pounds of 16-inch-thick, oil-finished hard rock maple. "Heavy stuff," says Dieterle.
TABLETOPS: $30,000 Dieterle wants to hire a craftsman to make 22 of them, from 200-year-old oak trees, enough to fill his ideal restaurant. "The more rings the better," he says.
FOR THE BEASTIE BOYS TO PLAY HIS RESTAURANT'S OPENING NIGHT: $15,000 They usually charge $1 million, but as fellow New Yorkers, Dieterle hopes they'll cut him a deal.
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