Anita Lo is the only chef representing New York in tomorrow’s finale of Top Chef Masters. And really, who better than Lo—student of David Bouley, Guy Savoy and David Waltuck, culinary mastermind of Rickshaw Dumpling Bar, and owner of the iconic and recently incinerated Annisa—to carry the crown home for the Big Apple? The chef took a break from rebuilding her baby from scratch to talk to the Feed about her experiences on Masters and the fate of Annisa.

Would you say this was your first major TV experience?
Well, it depends on how you define major. I mean, I’ve never been on a show with consecutive episodes, but I did Iron Chef [Lo beat Batali], I’ve done Martha Stewart, stuff like that.

How did this experience differ from the others?
With Top Chef Masters it seems like everyone really gets along. That was the best part, you know, you get to spend several days with these guys who you didn’t know much at all before…it was pretty intense. Everything else that I’ve ever done was really no more than a half a day of filming.

On last week’s episode—congratulations for totally taking that—you mentioned that you get more nervous cooking for other chefs than for the critics. Whom have you cooked for that’s made you the most nervous?
Well, I think I get fairly nervous cooking for other chefs, because they know what goes into it. But who’s made me nervous? I mean, I think just anyone will make me nervous, but it was sort of a big deal for me to cook for Julia Child back in the day…there’s a lot of people…Alice Waters.

Being from New York, you’re obviously familiar with Gael Greene. Do you think New York critics are tougher than most?
Maybe, just because there are so many more restaurants to cycle through.

Last week, the chefs all had to prepare others’ signature dishes. You did Bouley/Robuchon-inspired scallops with sea urchin, potato puree and bacon—what, no foie gras soup dumplings?
Ha, there’s too much prep. I guess I could’ve brought those ingredients, but we needed dishes that could be cooked in two hours…a lot of the dishes we do at Annisa are not easily prepared in two hours.

Two of your restaurants have burned down. It’s been a rough year. Any word on the fate of Annisa?
Well, we’re really doing a complete reconstruction from top to bottom. We’re hoping for fall…I’m going to be very optimistic, and say…late September.—Zachary Feldman