Who will be the next Pepper Monkey?

I can't stand it. The second seasoning of Top Chef is but weeks away. This time the kitchen will be set up in LA, not San Fran.
Hold your spatulas... there's more switcheroo. Billy's Joel's missus, Katie Lee, has been dumped as the show's host. In her place is Padma Lakshmi, a veteran Food Network show host/supermodel who also happens to be Salman Rushdie's missus. Great. If Dave Martin thought he was cursed, at least there wasn't a fatwa against the show when he was on it.
(If anything bizarrely fatwaesque occurs, I'd blame the creepy Irish chef bounced on Episode One. Hide the Henckels knife block if that maniac ever comes over to stay!)
top chef