Top Chef Finale

[solipsistnation]

Well, that was anticlimactic.



Carla Crazy-Eyes, man. She let Casey walk all over her and just gave it away. You could see where she figured that out, too-- basically as soon as she put the souffles in it suddenly clicked. Sous viding the beef was ridiculous. She shoulda slapped that meat on the grill (or in a pan or whatever) and done it how she knew it would be good. Man. We were totally rooting for her. We were thrilled that when the souffle got messed up she didn't serve it. That's killed other chefs in the past.

Stefan gave it away with his bizarre frozen fish thing. Why did that seem like a good idea? He started off really annoying and grew on us throughout the season. I did think that he should have gone home last time around rather than Fabio, who is fantastic all around and probably would have kicked serious butt if he'd been in the final.

And Hosea, well, eh. It's hard to get excited about anything he's done, really. Especially since he's spent the whole season saying "Man, I am so totally a FISH CHEF! That's me, CHEF OF FISH" and fucking up every piece of fish he's even considered cooking. Heck, other contestants' fishy dishes got worse when he looked at them. He just barely pulled off his sashimi thing this time around. Plus it looked like candy. It was like jujyfruits on the plate, except it was fish. Sheesh. (Also, it was a Trio. Trios are typically a bad sign, but, well, it wasn't REALLY a trio in the sense of being 3 separate small dishes-- it was 3 kinds of fish in a little pile. Whatever.)

Anyway, that was an interesting season... Only a couple of really strong personalities, and it doesn't seem like there were as many major talents (which, says Nikki, is why Carla made it so far. she's not BAD, but it took her a while to get going. had it been a bunch of stars to start out, she wouldn't have had that chance). Everyone was solid, but there was no weirdo experimental guy like Marcel and his endless cavalcade of foams. (I do note that the one foam rolled out during the finale looked like foamy fresh spoo on the plate. Disgusting.)

It also seemed like there was less really ridiculous interpersonal stuff. There was no "You're a snake! HISSSSSSSSSS" moment, and when somebody got hurt everyone helped. That was fantastic. The make-out club in the middle there was kind of silly, but still not vicious-- just pathetic. (...and speaking of people who should have gone home LONG before-- Leah the Bland One should have biffed it before Jamie the Cute Lesbian, for sure.)

Well, another year. Where will the future take us?

Comments

[sla.livejournal.com]

The finale was lame, it just seemed like an ordinary episode - nothing special. This whole season seemed really tame compared to other seasons. To me they just did not have the same range of challenges, I know you can't do the same challenge every season but some similarities would have been nice. There was no challenge that I can remember where they had to do something for the general public (ice cream challenge at beach, lunch cart challenge in San Fran, frozen entree in supermarket, etc.), there was no challenge involving kids (cooking with a kid sous chef, healthy meal for diabetic campers, YMCA lunch). All the challenges just seemed to be in-studio for celebrity judges. Eh.

Oh well maybe next time.

[uvasagrias.livejournal.com]

I think my favorite part of this season was the obvious tension between Colicchio and Young. Personally, I think Young was more interested in scathing one-liners and appearing as Britishly-witty as possible rather than just tasting the food. Colicchio was on that, and I saw those looks he gave Young!

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

Yes. I didn't really like Young much. He was really into being snarky (and he's no Anthony Bourdain) without much substance. At least Bourdain is into the food more than the snark.

[uvasagrias.livejournal.com]

And who doesn't love Tony Bourdain?!

[amymarr.livejournal.com]

I don't get the whole "the wrong person won" think. Stefan was a total overconfident prick and gave it away. Carla gave it away by not sticking up for herself and her style. Hosea, sans dessert, brought it home, executing his dishes. I really loved how he put the screws to Stefan with the alligator. And really, who does SOUP as a passed hor d'ouevre? (I totally spelled that wrong, didn't it?)

Of the finalists, I wish Carla had won. But she's no one to blame but herself. I was thrilled to see Jeff get back into the game, and I thought he had done enough to win that last challenge, given all the compliments he received from the judges on his food.

This was the first season I'd watched, and I have to say I was impressed. I watch other similar shows (Next Food Network Star, Hell's Kitchen) and these people were way more competent than the morons who end up on those other shows. :)

[amymarr.livejournal.com]

Also, I loved Toby as a judge. Gail is nice and has a great rack and all, but Toby was brutally honest, and I loved that. Tom, on the other hand, is a dink. I don't know what it is about him, but he totally rubs me the wrong way.

Is Gail pregnant? Because dude, her rack was gigantic in the finale, so my money's on preggo.

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

Well, you did see the episode right before she got married, right? But she's always been pretty hooteriffic.

The thing with Toby Young is that I got the sense that often he wasn't so much honest as snarky for the sake of being snarky. Like, he would find fairly minor things that he could say something clever about and say it.

One of the thing I like about Tom is that he really looks like he wants people to do their best, and is always a little disappointed when they don't-- but disappointed like a father or a teacher rather than a customer. Toby seems gleeful to find things to pick at; Tom seems sad.

[amymarr.livejournal.com]

Tom can be a jackass, too. "Don't embarrass me" - does he really think that the contestants are out to embarrass him? Or that they somehow live for him? I'm sure they're more concerned with embarrassing THEMSELVES on national TV than him. :)

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

I agree that Carla has no-one to blame but herself, and Stefan's fish thing was totally mysterious. And the judges did like the alligator soup, which I think shows that he's a better chef. I dunno-- Hosea spent all his time through the season pointing out that he's a seafood chef and then screwing up seafood. Stefan has been a jerk, yes, but at least he's been a good cook.

I was really sad to see Fabio go home, though. And Jeff (who I keep thinking of as Dr. Chase) was a dull chef all along and stayed dull as he went. It was kind of nice drama to bring him back for a show, but I don't think anyone seriously expected a big comeback...

[amymarr.livejournal.com]

*LOL* Yes, Jeff is a dead ringer for Chase. It cracked me up from the beginning. Check it out: Did you read the article where he says he felt he was used as a sex object by the show? Um, yeah, cuz you're the best looking one on the show, duh! I actually felt a little pang of sadness when they panned to show Jeff's face during the "celebration" after Hosea's win. You could tell he was happy for Hosea, but then he just sort of stood there watching from afar thinking "that could have been me". I wanted to hug him, yes I did. I am looking forward to this week's reunion show, which should be fun.