Top Chef: Texas' Wild Austin Nights

If you can't handle the heat, head to the bar. "There's a lot of late-night drinking with the crew in the hotel bar or in other bars – especially when we were in Texas," Top Chef's Gail Simmons spills to People. "Texas was really fun – more fun than I anticipated – especially because I'd never really been there."

How so, Gail? "We would take over the hotel bar and seek out the local really cool music places and great restaurants [and] we would see a lot of live music together in Austin," she explains. "One night, literally half the crew and I ended up at an awesome gay cowboy bar in Austin and learned how to do the two-step." Yee-haw!

But back to the food, the author of the newly released Talking with My Mouth Full: My Life as a Professional Eater is pleased to see Top Chef's fan following continuing to reach new celebrity heights. "So many people outside of the food world now want to be on our show. That's what's been really exciting, because it shows the reach of what we do. It's the people you least expect, the celebrities that aren't in the world, that I think are most fun. Pee-wee Herman was a total trip."

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