‘Top Chef’ taps Vegas’ Stephen Hopcraft

By Sarah Feldberg

Friday, May 14, 2010 | 11:33 a.m.

When Top Chef Season 7 premieres June 16 there’ll be a familiar face among the 17 chefs vying for a payout and culinary stardom. Stephen Hopcraft, the executive chef of Seablue at MGM Grand, will be the sole Vegas representative on the Bravo show’s Washington D.C.-based season, and a good ambassador he should be.

The 40-year-old Cleveland native, who worked under Charlie Trotter before hooking up with Michael Mina, serves Mina’s brand of Mediterranean seafood at Seablue, including dishes like crab-stuffed piquillo peppers, paella cooked in a Moroccan clay pot called a tangine and spiced lamb kebabs. On Top Chef, however, Hopcraft will have to cook outside of the Seablue box.

Season 7 will be packed with oddball challenges, including concession-stand cooking at Nationals stadium and a trip inside CIA headquarters. The show also will feature appearances by D.C. notables such as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, CIA Director Leon Panetta and MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, all of whom apparently had enough time to sit down and taste the chef’testants’ food despite seemingly busy jobs. And there’ll be a new face at the judges’ table this season, that of renowned chef and TC regular Eric Ripert, who’ll be taking the place of astringent British critic Toby Young, all in the name of declaring a new Top Chef.

Hopcraft has his work cut out for him. But with big money on the line — to the tune of $125,000 ¬— if anyone can channel lady luck, it’s a Vegas boy.