More Top Chef Talk

The Finale

If you don't know who won Top Chef, then you probably aren't a fan. So I won't spoil anything by saying that Richard won. Yeah! That said, I though that both Richard and Mike made some really interesting food. Richard throughout his two seasons showed a range of skills, cooking many different styles of food well. I would have loved to try his fish and meat dishes that he made in the finale. I am a little skeptical of foie gras ice cream, though. Mike seems to have elevated his skill level substantially since the first season. Did he take cooking classes between the taping of the show in September and the finale in January? It was clear from the show that both Mike and Richard did research and preparation for the finale in the Bahamas before they went. It paid off. It didn't seem like Antonia, Tiffany, or Carla prepared in the same way for the finale. So congratulations to Mike and Richard and really the entire cast. They made for a great season.

One thing I really liked about the finale was how they chose their sous chefs. Each of the other competitors had to cook a one-bite dish for Richard and Mike to sample. However, they did not know who made what. Based on their three favorite bites, they picked who would be working with them. It seemed like all six sous chefs did an outstanding job for Richard and Mike. Even Jamie (who was surprisingly picked) got compliments from Mike.

Dislikes
My main dislike for this season were some of the elimination challenges. I felt that some of them were way too insane and didn't showcase the talent that was on the show. I don't mind the quick-fire challenges being a little whacky. However, when you are up for elimination, technicalities and faulty equipment should not send you home. The elimination challenges should be challenging and test the chef's skills at thinking outside the box. I strongly feel that for the challenges toward the second half of the season, the chefs should be given higher quality cooking equipment and should be tested on how well they cook with certain proteins, vegetables, and desserts. In particular, I really hated the challenge where the chefs had to collect items from Target, set up a cooking station, and make a meal all in 3 hours at midnight for a number of Target employees. I don't care how well the chef can pull off a Target shopping trip and put together a half-baked cooking station to cook. I also found the first challenge in the Bahamas at some dive restaurant with deep fryers, microwaves and heat plates to be unacceptable, especially when one of the deep fryers caught on fire. This resulted in the chefs having to start completely over since the sprinkler system ruined their food. I also did not like the tennis-type challenge where everyone did not actually serve their food. Clearly, Jamie should have gone home for her under-cooked chick peas, but since her dish was so bad, the team didn't make her serve her food and so she couldn't be eliminated. Next time, more thought should go into the challenges by the show designers.

Likes
My two favorite challenges were restaurant wars and the one where they had to cook food from relating to their heritage. In these challenges, they were given much more to work with and were able to showcase their talents well. I liked the concept of the pop-up restaurant instead of putting together something more formal in the short amount of time they have.

This season I also really enjoyed watching Carla on the show. I was really rooting for her and happy that she won 3 elimination challenges and 3 trips. However, she really seemed to get tripped up by some of the later challenges and it wasn't meant to be. My wife and I have been to two of her cooking classes in Bethesda. She is very personable and fun and makes really good food. We have added a few of her recipes to some of our favorites that we make from time to time. I also made her African Groundnut Stew that she made on her first elimination challenge win. That recipe can be found here. It was a labor intensive recipe, but very good. We are looking forward to seeing her again on April 19 for another class and hearing her stories about this season. Oh, and congratulations to Carla for winning fan favorite!

Biggest Surprises
Jen went home on the second episode. When I saw the cast, my top four picks were Richard, Angelo, Jen, and Carla. Jen really fell apart on that episode. The other biggest surprise was Dale and how much he had improved. Kudos to him for taking anger management classes.

And now, we can all get ready for Top Chef Masters.