Marc Malkin

Bravo Photo: Justin Stephens

Robin Leventhal knows she wasn't exactly the most liked contestant on this season's Top Chef.

"They hated me," Robin says of her fellow cheftestants. "I think they just wanted to hate me."

Yikes.

There's more. Read on to find out what she says about being eliminated last night for a—gulp—simple panna cotta, Eli's Circus Circus disaster and her not-so-pleasant reunion with Mike I.

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Bravo Photo: Justin Stephens

Mike Isabella admits the leek dish he prepared during last night's Top Chef, well, sucked. But he didn't think he'd be the one told to pack his knives and go.

No surprise, but he thought Robin Leventhal should have been sent home.

"In Robin's dish there were beets and zucchini and chickpeas and a Moroccan marinade and goat cheese and mushrooms," Isabella told me earlier today. "It didn't make sense. It wasn't good and it didn't make sense."

That's not all the Washington, D.C.-based chef had to say about his rival. Read on for more…

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Laurine Wickett doesn't think last night's elimination challenge on Top Chef was fair.

Can ya really blame her? She was told to pack her knives not for her cooking, but for her lack of skills running the front of the house at the restaurant.

"I think if the judges knew the circumstances and the whole situation, I'm not sure if I would have been the one to go home that night," Wickett told me this morning. "I think if the playing field was equal and all things were fair, I think Jen was kind of instrumental in bringing the kitchen to a halt that evening."

Meow!           

What else did Wickett have to say? Read on to find what she thinks of Robin, Michael and Padma Lakshmi's need for salt… 

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Bravo Photo, Justin Stephens

Newly eliminated Top Chef contestant Ash Fulk is convinced that Padma Lakshmi doesn't like him...and never really has.

When he was eliminated last night he said he'd like to cook again some day for the judges, but just not Lakshmi.

"Through the whole season, she was not a big fan of mine," Fulk told me this morning. "The whole season, I kept running up against her. Her and I definitely didn't get along. I don't think she liked anything I made the whole time."

But while he and Ms. Lakshmi might not be breaking bread together anytime soon, read on to find out about the bromance that seemed to be brewing between him and tattooed hottie Michael Voltaggio...

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Top Chef contestant Ashley Merriman is not against cooking at straight weddings.

So what was her beef with this season's wedding challenge?

It was all about timing. "My objection was more about the decision to have this challenge at the height of Proposition 8," Merriman tells me.

"It was not about the bachelor and bachelorette. I don't have any problems with them. When somebody comes and wants to propose in my restaurant I'm the first person putting the ring in the chocolate cake."

Fortunately, it wasn't her politics that got her eliminated on last night's show. Read on for the first of my weekly Top Chef exit interviews with the season's 10 remaining cheftestants.

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Padma Lakshmi has a bun in the oven.

And it has nothing to do with her work on Top Chef! The reality TV host is pregnant with her first child.

Her rep said in statement to Us Weekly that doctors are referring to the pregnancy as a "nothing short of a medical miracle" because Lakshmi, 39, suffers from endometriosis.

The condition, in which the uterus's lining grows in other areas of the body outside the uterine cavity, often causes infertility…

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ABC/Ida Mae Astute, Bravo/Kelsey McNeal

Michelle Obama must be taking notes from Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who brought their brood to McDonalds earlier this week. The first mom treated her kids to the Good Stuff Eatery.

I just got word that Malia and Sasha joined their mom and about 15 of her staffers for a lunch at former Top Chef contestant Spike Mendelsohn's year-old restaurant on Capitol Hill.

What was on the menu? Read on to find out.

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Here it is!

Your very first look at Padma Lakshmi's sexy new commercial for Carl's Jr. and Hardee's.

Didn't I tell you it was hot? I mean, the way she digs in, licks and even hikes up her dress a bit.

Fun! Fun! Fun!

So how on earth did the Top Chef host end up hawkin' burgers?

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It's here…well, almost!

I got my hands on Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi's new commercial for Carl's Jr. and Hardee's. Lemme just tell ya, the Western Bacon Cheeseburger never looked so sexy!

And y'all will be able to see it here tonight, exclusively, at 6 p.m. PT.

So if ya wanna see Ms. Padma lickin' her lips—and some Ketchup off her hand—make sure to come back. I promise you will not be disappointed.

There's no slowing down Padma Lakshmi.

In addition to hosting Top Chef, designing her own jewelry line and being an all-around fab lady, she's now sexing up Hardee's Bacon Western Thickburger.

Yummy!

Click on my daily videoblog above to get all the dish on this delicious casting.

Bravo Photo: Michael Lavine

It was Stefan's competition to lose last night during the final challenge on Top Chef.

And that he did.

But don't tell him that. I caught up with the self-assured Finnish chef to talk about why he thinks he's the real Top Chef and why he wants to date host Padma Lakshmi. Plus, find out if Carla blames Casey for losing the competition.

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Bravo Photo: Michael Lavine

Hosea certainly wasn't the favorite to win this season's Top Chef. If Internet and critics' chatter is the true barometer, we should have been congratulating Stefan or Fabio last night.

But it was Hosea who was crowned the winner, beating out runner-ups Stefan and Carla during the final elimination round in New Orleans.

I caught up with Hosea this morning from his home in Boulder, Colo., where he's executive chef at Jax Fish House.

We talked Stefan's big ego, what he hated about being on the Bravo show and, of course, his and Leah's infamous kiss.

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