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CT Chef Tyler Anderson Says ‘Top Chef’ Experience ‘A Different Beast’

Chef Tyler Anderson at his West Hartford restaurant Cook and the Bear. He is appearing on the upcoming season of "Top Chef."
Suzie Hunter | smhunter@courant.com
Chef Tyler Anderson at his West Hartford restaurant Cook and the Bear. He is appearing on the upcoming season of “Top Chef.”
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Tyler Anderson has been working in restaurant kitchens since he was 16, but nothing could have possibly prepared him for the grueling process that was “Top Chef.”

“It’s like, if you worked 15-hour days and then, I don’t know, did a triathlon, you could be prepared,” says the chef-owner of Millwright’s in Simsbury and co-owner of Cook & The Bear in West Hartford.

Anderson, 40, is about to add “Cheftestant” to his extensive resume. In October, he was announced as one of 15 competitors on the upcoming season of “Top Chef,” debuting Dec. 7 on Bravo. The new season of the reality cooking show is described as an “epic culinary adventure through the state of Colorado.”

Anderson is the first contestant on the series to represent restaurants in Connecticut. (Angelo Sosa, who finished as the runner-up on season 7, is a native of Durham and was working as a chef in New York City at the time of his appearance.) Anderson says it was important to him that he represent not just the Nutmeg State, but other less-visible food scenes across the country.

“I think that the world is changing as far as food goes and great things don’t always just happen in large markets,” he says. “I think there are a ton of people in the state of Connecticut who are doing really cool things, and the exposure just isn’t there.”

Chef Tyler Anderson at his West Hartford restaurant Cook and the Bear. He is appearing on the upcoming season of “Top Chef.”

A California native, Anderson served as executive chef at the Copper Beech Inn in the Ivoryton section of Essex for several years. Before that, he spent time at The Dining Room at the Ritz Carlton Chicago, Equinox in Manchester, Vt. and The Arrabelle in Vail, Colo.

In July 2012, he opened Millwright’s, now renowned for its thoughtful, locally driven New England cuisine inspired by seasonal ingredients. This summer, Anderson joined forces with Jamie McDonald of Bear’s Smokehouse and partner A.J. Aurrichio to open The Cook and the Bear, a unique barbecue/fine-dining collaboration restaurant in Blue Back Square. The concept was born after the restaurateurs hosted casual pop-up events at Millwright’s Tavern, merging their styles.

Anderson, a four-time nominee as a semifinalist for the James Beard Foundation award in the Best Chef: Northeast category, has appeared on national cooking shows in the past. In 2009, he won an episode of “Chopped,” and competed on “Beat Bobby Flay” in 2014, challenging the Iron Chef to a clam chowder battle.

Where the Food Network shows were one-day tapings, “Top Chef” is a “different beast,” he says. “It’s completely immersive … this is a major commitment and it’s this huge undertaking.”

The Season 15 cheftestants put their lives on hold for several weeks, relocating to Colorado to tape the series. During the process, they live in a house with their fellow competitors without access to cell phones and computers. Anderson, a father of three, admits it was difficult not being able to keep in touch with his family and fiancee.

He also had to come up with a cover story to explain his extended absence from the restaurants. When he left to tape the show this spring, he told some people he was traveling through Texas to visit barbecue spots. He told others he was going to Italy.

“I had a lot of fun with it because I didn’t want to have one true lie; I wanted people to confuse themselves and talk to their friends.”

But because he was radio-silent on social media for about two months, there was speculation.

“People who didn’t know me thought I was in jail or rehab or something,” he says. “It would take people who didn’t know me to say things like that.”

At the time of the taping, Anderson and his business partners were close to opening Cook & The Bear. They decided to delay its official debut until mid-July, once he’d returned home.

“We wouldn’t have opened without one of us being here,” Anderson says. They saw the extra time as a opportunity to put the finishing touches on the highly anticipated Blue Back Square restaurant.

Anderson says the experience was even better than he had expected, and he enjoyed bonding with his fellow cast members. He forged an especially close relationship with Los Angeles-based contestant Bruce Kalman, who joined Anderson and several other chefs for Hartford’s Taste of the Nation fundraiser dinner at Millwright’s Nov. 13 to raise money for the No Kid Hungry campaign.

“At the end of the day I left there with 14 new friends, as cheesy as it sounds,” he says. “I didn’t really think I would like everyone as much as I did, but we all got along really well. The competition — you certainly want to win — but the competition is healthy.”

Chefs battle it out for a $125,000 prize, a feature in Food & Wine magazine, a showcase at the annual Food & Wine Classic in Aspen and the title of Top Chef. Host Padma Lakshmi and head judge Tom Colicchio return to the judges’ table, alongside Gail Simmons and Graham Elliot.

Anderson says he thinks he stayed true to his personality during the process, as chef friends with TV experience encouraged him to be himself on camera.

“Myself outside the restaurants is a little less professional than myself inside the restaurants,” he says. “Here, I have to be boss. I just let it rip and had fun with it. I was myself, so we’ll see how that comes across.”

“Top Chef” debuts on Bravo Dec. 7 at 10 p.m. EST. bravotv.com/top-chef.

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