“You make a plan and God laughs,” shrugs Bethenny Frankel, chef, author and one of the stars of Bravo’s The Real Housewives of New York City. She is promoting her new non-diet nutrition book, Naturally Thin, which she admits is never something she set out to do. She elaborates, “It doesn’t matter what your plan is as long as you’re going forward. My dreams are bigger than I could ever imagine, but they’re coming true now.”

As a little girl, Frankel probably never dreamed of being a best-selling author, a national spokesperson, or on a hit reality television show. She admits that none of this was ever something she could have imagined, but she rolled with everything and it has taken her to great heights. “You don’t have to know what you want for the big picture but know what you want for that moment,” Frankel advises. “I’m thirty-eight years old and I’m…still figuring it out.”

As a single woman and entrepreneur, Frankel seems to be the opposite of what a show with the word “housewife” in the title would want. In fact, everyone from her publicist to her friends told her not to go on such a show, but it had the Bravo name behind it and she knew she wanted to build a brand, so Frankel went for it anyway.

Frankel credits a strong work ethic but it is also her ability to “think outside the box” and always put herself first that has made her such a success. “Check yourself before you wreck yourself,” Frankel smiles when discussing the message she hopes young women take away from her book. “You can have fried chicken; you can have a margarita; you can have something when you’re PMSing. Just do not say ‘today I was bad and tomorrow I’ll be good’ because there is no bad and there is no good. Food is not your best friend or your enemy; it is just food. Be able to walk away from it.”

Frankel is wickedly smart and fiercely independent, embodying the fearless “go-getter” attitude that is necessary to succeed in business, let alone the entertainment business. She has never relied on her name or any man to pave (or pay) her way. “I was engaged three times. They were rich…gorgeous and they lived for me. My friends were telling me ‘what the hell is wrong with you; you broke up with them?’…[but] I would not sell out. You can’t do anything that isn’t going to make you happy.”

Frankel is self-sufficient and talented in many ways, but her greatest strength is in knowing that throughout everything, you have to figure out what you want and be true to it. Every woman owes it to herself to listen to (and trust!) her gut instinct and be unfaltering in her pursuits. It is only then that widespread success can be achieved.

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Being the first female winner of Bravo’s hit reality cooking competition Top Chef was a big deal in the press, but for Stephanie Izard it was just another day in the kitchen…just one that happened to be broadcast to millions of homes. “Of course I thought about it,” she speaks of the added pressure. “But for me, being a female in the industry is still just all about being good at what I do and not necessarily being good for a woman…I just try to be the best that I can.”

Though we are far from the days when professional cooking was a man’s world, Izard does admit that she and fellow cheftestant Antonia Lofaso bonded the most during their season because “strong females have to stick together!” Their friendship has carried over since the show ended and Lofaso has even helped Izard choose the name for her new restaurant, The Drunken Goat. “Being a good chef is so much about being open and willing to share with others in your field,” Izard believes.

Growing up watching programs like Yan Can Cook, Izard was blessed enough not to hit much opposition when she told people she wanted to be a chef. “My family was really supportive,” she explains, even though she admits she was doing something completely different from anything anyone of them had done before her. “I did go to college, but not business school. It just wasn’t right for me.” And ultimately, Izard couldn’t go for anybody else’s dreams but her own.

Being a trained chef, not an actor, a reality show was admittedly not somewhere Izard ever thought she’d find herself. In fact, she didn’t even apply for the show; they recruited her. “I owned a restaurant in Chicago [at the time of the casting], and a lot of my friends who were chefs would say ‘you should go on the show; you should go on the show!’ But I was just a little bit nervous about it.” In the end, it came down to the fact that she didn’t feel she could pass up such a great opportunity to expose herself to challenges in her craft, as well as other extremely talented chefs from whom she could learn.

But Izard can teach even more than she has left to learn and right now she is working with culinary schools to help guide up-and-comers. “It’s a big leap for a lifestyle, though,” Izard impresses. Though Top Chef opened a lot of doors for Izard, who now has a foodie blog on Bravo’s website and is producing her own web series, her success did not come overnight.  She worked for many years to get where she is today, so her advice is to “work in a restaurant for a little while and see the crazy personalities and the long hours firsthand. A lot of people think they’ll automatically become the next Mario Batali or whoever, but it takes a lot more hard work than that.”

photo by food in mouth

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If it weren’t for Serena’s Chanel coats and Blair’s prep school couture, I wouldn’t be a Gossip Girl addict.  My sole excitement for the release of Sex and the City: The Movie on DVD was to scope out Carrie Bradshaw’s outrageous collection of designer shoes.  If you’re a crazed fashion addict like me and can quote every catchphrase that Tim Gunn utters on Project Runway, the 3rd Annual Outstanding Art of Television Costume Design Exhibition at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising is the place for you.

Guest curator Mary Rose uses her expertise as president of the Costume Designers Guild to bring together over 40 years of fashion that reflect the mood and era of the television programs from which they come.

A stunning red carpet gown designed by Bob Mackie for actress Angelica Huston opens the exhibition.  With luxurious red velvet, ornate beading, and dramatic bell sleeves, the dress epitomizes Mackie’s glamorously over-the-top aesthetic.  Also on display is his most famous work from Cher’s 1988 Christmas Special and The Carol Burnett Show.  You can feel Cher and Burnett’s energy emanate from the outfits, serving as testimony to Mackie’s ability to personify his clients in his designs.  He shows that something supernatural happens when the right designer is paired with the right show.

Best Dressed of this exhibition goes to Bravo’s Project Runway with its sample of 4th season runner-up Rami Kashou’s final collection. Experiencing his pieces firsthand is awe inspiring.  The incredible pleating, beautiful draping, and intricate construction are all lost on the television screen. Seeing his designs directly allows viewers to fully appreciate his talent.

Although the exhibit has just finished, the next one is sure to impress. FIDM will be showing their diverse graduate students’ work in The Student Textile Design Show, which begins October 7. If it’s Motion Picture Fashion you’re looking for, another exhibition will be at FIDM running January 27 until March 29, 2009.

That Girl Says: Like it!  It’s always fun to get a behind-the-scenes look at your favorite TV shows, and appreciate all the hard work that goes into making your favorite actor look smokin’ hot on screen.

Gallery hours: Tuesday through Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.  Free to the public.
Location: The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising
919 South Grande Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90015
Guest Curator: Mary Rose
Additional information: www.fashionmuseum.org

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Bravo TV’s Top Chef has announced its first female winner in its four seasons, Stephanie Izard. I must admit, I hate writing that sentence – not because I don’t think Stephanie deserves it (on the contrary, I supported her from the beginning), but because I don’t like attributing her win to the entire female sex. Stephanie’s victory is a win for her alone. The emphasis on Stephanie as the first female winner trivializes her achievement.

Top Chef is a reality show competition where chefs are given cooking challenges and, each week, are eliminated based on their culinary creations. The last chef standing becomes the Top Chef. Though many women made it far into the competition in past seasons, no women had ever won before now.

Is this male winning streak relevant? Not if we don’t make it significant. When the competition comes down to a few deserving chefs (both male and female), and a winner is picked based on one dish, their sex should be unimportant.

The problem is that the network and its audience played up the previous “male winning streak” and gave it significance. Before the season aired, I saw a commercial asking viewers to text in their opinion on the likelihood of a female winner. I am not sure which was more upsetting – the commercial itself, or the fact that a majority of viewers bought into the craze. They voted the situation would be unlikely.  (Obviously, they were wrong.)

The lack of a female winner almost became a joke on the network, which is both unfair to Stephanie and to women everywhere. This emphasis only helps to validate the stereotype that men are better chefs than women. It is also an injustice to Stephanie as nasty rumors are spreading about her winning only because the network wanted a female Top Chef. Though I believe this statement is untrue, it is undeniably hard to prove wrong.

As far as winners go, Stephanie is very deserving. She won multiple challenges and seemed to always do well even when not selected as the victor. I also appreciate her approach to the whole “female issue.” When asked on the reunion show if she would rather be known as “the winner” or as “the first female winner,” Stephanie replied, “I’d rather be known as the winner of Season Four. I don’t want people to think that I won because I’m a female. I see myself as a chef before I see myself as a female chef.”

Stephanie’s win is a great accomplishment for her and nothing more. Not every competition needs to be a battle between the sexes. Supporting her because she is a woman is shallow and only serves to foster unhealthy competition. If we want men and women to truly be seen as equals then we need to start with our loyalties and prejudices. We need to support people -like Stephanie- who work hard and perform well, not because of or in spite of their sex, but regardless of it.

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