The new season of Top Chef starts tonight, with — finally! — not one, but two Seattle chefs on board. Due to the hyper-secrecy of reality TV, Robin Leventhal and Ashley Merriman didn’t know until they arrived in Las Vegas that there would be any other chefs from home. (They already knew each other; Leventhal had offered Merriman a job at Crave “on the spot” when Merriman moved to Seattle, though she ultimately ended up at Tilth and  Branzino.)

I talked with both chefs, separately, by phone this morning in advance of the first show. Merriman, currently driving across country to help mentor Alex Guarneschelli open a New York restaurant (she’ll return to Branzino), will watch from Minneapolis. Leventhal will watch from Seattle with friends and family. “I even got DVR.”

Here’s an peek at what each one had to say about the Top Chef life. I’ll be rooting for both:

Why they tried out for the show: Both had always been told by colleagues that they would be naturals for it, though neither one expected to do it.

Leventhal: “I’ve always reacted, there’s nothing wrong with competition, but that’s not what food is about for me. I definitely have a very intense drive, but food just felt like a thing that comes from the heart and soul, that it shouldn’t be about a competition.” When the tryouts came to Seattle, though, Leventhal had just lost the lease on her restaurant and saw a “now or never” chance. “I had a free space in my life, and I’m all about taking on new changes and new experiences.”

Merriman: “I was pretty hesitant about it. I thought about it a lot, and I talked to my mentors, Alex and Maria Hines. Both of them really encouraged me to try and I did, and one thing led to another… Being on a reality TV program, it wasn’t something I would ever think I would do, and it’s not necessarily my personality or my style to seek it out. It think it’s a pretty invasive thing. It’s an invasive process, and it’s invasive to have 5 million people get a glimpse at your life and who you are as a person — hopefully, (because) also there’s the potential of not appearing to be who you are, on television. I was really hesitant about all of that, and I didn’t necessarily want to leave my restaurant for the six weeks it would take to film it.”

On how it went:

Merriman: “At this point, I’m very, very glad I did it. I met some amazing people. (But) it was really, really stressful… the cooking and the elimination challenges and the quick-fires, they’re incredibly stressful situations, to come up with things in the kind of environment that the program requires you to come up with. It’s also stressful to live in a house with 17 strangers.”

Leventhal: “It’s probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life. I hate to equate it to something as horrible as chemo, but it was as hard as chemo. And I say that only because every day, you have to find the core in your spirit and soul to get up and fight. I think fight is a combative word, but you are in a battle… (it was) very intense, very empowering. I think any time we are challenged to our core like that, it is such an empowering process, that sense of wow, I made it…. 

“If life were easy, it wouldn’t be as meaningful and rewarding.”

On Vegas, where the show was filmed:

Leventhal: “I couldn’t believe they never did it in Vegas before. It seemed like the perfect food city…The meals we had were phenomenal, yet nothing felt like they were trying to make “outer space” food, it was about great flavor and great radiance and putting out a really honest product. Maybe that’s part of their response to the reputation of what Vegas is about — sure, there was this sense of opulence, but it was about putting good food on your plate. 

Merriman: “It couldn’t be more different than Seattle. Everything is glitzy and glamorous and everything is big.. it was really the polar opposite for me. I think all of us in Seattle were hoping it would be in Seattle, and feeling it’s time the show does come to Seattle…(But) in the end, Vegas, it’s a culinary mecca… it was an amazing culinary opportunity, and amazing to see some of the restaurants.”

On how they explained to people why they were abruptly leaving town for six weeks:

Merriman:  ”I had some creative ways for explaining where I was to the people who didn’t have to know. I’m from a place called Center Sandwich, N.H., and there actually is no cell phone reception there. It it in the middle of nowhere. (I said) I had some family business to attend to, in the middle of New Hampshire.”

Leventhal: ”I conveniently had been offered an opportunity to do a guest chef cruise a few months prior to that, and had been talking about that. I told a little white lie, that I was off in New Zealand on a cruise ship, and would have no communications availability…(at the end), I had to reveal, OK, you guys, I told a little white lie. My conscience was killing me.”

On whether anyone knew the truth:

Leventhal: “My brother, two of my cousins, two of my servers, and one dear friend. One of the things they asked us to do was share our favorite meal with our close community, right before I left for the show. I put out my favorite food to eat as a child and still today, cracked crab. Anything I can eat with my fingers I love. So those people were my goodbye dinner.”

Merriman: “The owners of Branzino definitely knew, and obviously my sous chef and chef de cuisine had to be in on the loop, because Chef can’t really take a vacation for six weeks.”

On whether either one expected another Seattle chef to be on the set:

Merriman: “Seattle is a really small town…I kind of suspected she was going to be there, so I wasn’t totally surprised. I think if you asked her, she would be really shocked I was the other Seattleite picked. There were a lot of rumors going around who was going to be in.” 

Leventhal: “I was so surprised. I was actually expecting Jason Stratton to be there, (but) it was a great surprise…She’s such a talented chef, and I was thrilled to be on the same playing field with her. Knowing someone else from Seattle was there, you hold on to that. You don’t have your friends here, but you have a piece of home there with you.” 

On loneliness: 

Leventhal: It was incredibly lonely, and I think that’s part of what made it so hard. You leave your support system behind, and I cherish my friends… You create relationships on the show, but it’s a very different experience and a different relationship. We’re all there to compete, ultimately. You want to be likeable, but I think people are a little on guard.”

On whether one of them really said she wanted diners to feel like they’d been beaten in the face by a stick of butter:

Merriman:  ”I did say that. The interview process is quite a thing!” 

Final thoughts?

Merriman: “It was an exciting opportunity. It was way harder than — it was really, really hard. I’m really excited to be a part of this season because of the level of competition… this year they (found) great people who are really working at the top of their game.”

Tonight, “part of me wants to watch and part of me doesn’t want to watch, but I have to watch. I’m staying with a couple friends in Minneapolis, so we’re going to get a couple bottles of Champagne and have some takeout and watch the show together, my friends and my lady. It’s a real experience to watch yourself on national television.”

Leventhal: “A lot of people I’ve talked to were like, ‘How real was it?’ We were told from the beginning, you are not playing a role, you are not playing a character, we want you to be you. There are no second takes, it’s straight up. When I’m stumbling over my words, I’m stumbling over my words because I’m nervous, and you’re going to see that. I didn’t make perfect food — I can make way better food than what I made on the show — but… I’m proud of the fact that I went out there and I put my soul out there… 

“Any time you’re challenged by something, you really find that inner strength, and you recognize your ability to take something to that next level. We proved to ourselves over and over again what we can do. We never know what we can do until we try it.”

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