Fort Greene-Clinton Hill Chef Will Appear on New Season of Bravo TV Show

FORT GREENE, BROOKLYN — The chef behind Fort Greene's newest homemade pasta restaurant, LaRina Pastificio & Vino, announced this week that she'll be competing on Bravo's "Top Chef" cooking show. Silvia Barban, who co-owns LaRina and works as executive chef at Aita in Clinton Hill, will appear on the show's new season beginning Dec. 1. She'll be competing for a grand prize of $125,000, according to Brooklyn Daily.

Filming has already ended. Unfortunately, Barban couldn't reveal to Brooklyn Daily how far she got on the show's 14th season — but she did say she was a huge fan of the contest, and that appearing on it was a "dream come true."

"Just being on the show for me is a big achievement," she told the local paper.

The northern Italy-born chef moved to NYC in 2012 to share her incredible skills with the Big Apple. She was only recently able to tell her coworkers at LaRina about her Top Chef appearance, she said, due to a gag order from the show.

But now that the news is out, Barban told Brooklyn Daily, diners at the restaurant are excited to be eating TV-famous meals.

In a somewhat tragic twist, Barban said she ended up on the show at a friend's expense. She was a reference for her friend who had applied to be on it, she said, but when a representative from the show called her, he encouraged Barbon herself to apply. She made it into the show, and her friend didn't.

Barban will be taking Dec. 1 off to watch the premiere with her friends while they cook her a meal, she told Brooklyn Daily.

Taste the Top Chef competitor's food for yourself at 387 Myrtle Ave. near Vanderbilt Avenue in Fort Greene. You truly haven't lived until you've tried her smoked, house-made spaghetti.

>>> Read the whole piece at Brooklyn Daily

Lead photo courtesy of LaRina