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It's the closest we've ever come to being a judge on Top Chef, and gave us more than a little insight into how each week on that TV show, skilled chefs can go wrong under the pressure of the clock. It was the first of ten regional semi-finals for the S. Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef Competition, whose finals will be held in Napa Valley in March, and we were one of twelve judges at Kendall College Wednesday night watching six young contestants, mostly from different cooking schools in the midwest, cook and present a dish representing their abilities and personality. The judges were actually in two teams; four of them judged technical aspects (such as sanitation practices) which we certainly wouldn't have been qualified to judge. That left eight of us— four chefs, four media people— to evaluate the dishes for flavor and presentation, and to evaluate the young chefs for a personal vision and ability to present it articulately to us. The four chefs included Chef Jean Joho of Everest, who will go on to judge the finale in Napa, Chef Joncarl Lachman of HB Home Bistro who was actually the first national winner of the competition in 2002, Chef David Posey of Blackbird and Chef Chris Macchia of Coco Pazzo. Our behind the scenes slideshow starts below.