The Finale -or - I really hope Richard wins.

Top Chef.  Here we go.  Blogging as I watch this week's finale episode of Top Chef.  It is only Mike I. and Richard B. left to fight it out for the title of Top Chef All Stars.  And the challenge is: the cheftestants must create for the judges the restaurant of their dreams.  Blais - though he denies it - is the clear favorite to win.  I really don't think that Mike can win, or that he deserves to do so.  BUT, he's proven me wrong thus far, so what do I know?

By way of a blind taste test, each chef chooses 3 sous chefs to work with them on their challenges.  Because this is a blind taste test, Richard and Mike can only guess at what chef made each dish and personal issues are possible if they choose a dish made by someone they don't get along with.  Richard picks first and gets Spike, Angelo, and Antonia.   Mike chooses Tiffany, Jamie, and Carla.  Wow.  Advantage in a real way now to Richard. 

So the teams set out to set up their restaurants.  Mike seems pretty in control - extremely cocky as usual.  Blais points out very correctly that this is both Mike's biggest asset and his biggest downfall.  In the other kitchen, Blais has lots of protein going on - including bone marrow!  This is always an audience-pleaser.   However, he often over thinks things.  Can his sous chefs pull off everything he wants to do?  I'm not sure. 

Blais has really put a lot of pressure on himself.  He is worried he will be "always the bridesmaid, never the bride."  I wonder how this will affect his cooking.  To start off, they really like his amuse and first two courses.  The fourth is a beef dish which looks beautiful, but they are not seeing his personality - I dunno, if he cooks well, what does it really matter? They seem to like the rest of his food, but didn't like the dessert (which had...fois gras?!).  At least he's being smart...before the second judges come in, he's going to tweak his dishes based on the response and tasting after the dishes come back.  Very smart.

Mike's restaurant is celebrated by the first set of judges except for 2 things.  The wait between the 1st and 2nd courses and the 4th course.  After the first judges eat, I think it's pretty even probably, with Mike maybe a bit in the lead. 

The second set of judges on each side start off really liking the food.  I think the judges that went Richard to Mike seem to like Mike's food better.  And the ones that went the other way - I think they like Richard.  This is going to come down to the end. 

Judges Table.  They loved Mike.  Thought his food was very clean, even effeminate - but in a good way.  As for Richard, they thought everything was awesome.  They thought his beef was a bit uninspired but very perfectly done.  Man, I really hope at this point that Richard wins.  I cannot stand Mike as a person.  Maybe they edit him poorly, but I really think it would be hard to be THAT misrepresented. 

Ok, so coming in to the end of the episode now and they have made their decision.  Before they say it, I really think it might be Mike, which scares me.  I'd be pretty upset with Top Chef if that is the decision.  But I guess we'll see...

And the new Top Chef is...:

RICHARD BLAIS!

Well done Top Chef.  I agree whole heartedly.  He stood up and took what is his, and I cannot be happier for the man. 

Until the next episode...
Chris

Hootie Hoo is back! (but not really)

Top Chef.  We're now down to 3 competitors: Mike, Richard and Antonia.  Coming into this week, I expected this to be the finale, as they usually have 3 cheftestants competing against each other for the title; but, apparently, they will eliminate one more chef before the episode is over and leave only 2 for the final show.  Going into the episode, I am really hoping that Mike's over-confidence comes back to bite him now that he's one two elimination challenges in a row - but at this point it's really anyone's game and Mike is cooking as well as anyone else.

The Quickfire challenge (QF) was an interesting concept: each chef got to choose from some of the more difficult past QFs and give one to a competitor.

Richard was stuck with using hot dogs, Mike with only one pot to cook in, and Antonia with only canned goods. Obviously Antonia and Richard had the short end of the stick here, having to use processed foods while Mike has free reign over any ingredients - not sure what Blais was thinking there. Then the second twist came. Each chef got to choose one extra thing to hinder a contestant. Because of this, Antonia ends up with Carla (hootie hoo) tied to her side, Blais with one hand, and Mike can use no utensils. I have to say, Blais's currywurst did not look appetizing - I would not have wanted to eat that.  Especially living in a country that serves currywurst everywhere, I'd say most street vendors' food looks better than that did.  Mike ends up with the win (again?) and I think at this point, both Blais and Antonia were just shaking their heads in shock. As far as I can tell, Mike gets lucky again (he seemed to be saying his dish was undercooked) -  would I ever go and eat at a restaurant of his? No. Not at all. Shouldn't that be a component in who wins Top Chef?

So we move on to the Elimination Challenge (EC), Mike still holding a bit of an advantage over the other two chefs. The EC is all about making someone's last meal...but not just anyone...three amazing chefs. The first is Michelle Bernstein who Mike chooses for himself. She gives him probably the easiest of the 3 meals: fried chicken, bisquits, etc. All things she couldn't have as a child. Blais gets Wolfgang Puck and he gives him a traditional Austrian meal: Goulash, Spaezel, Apfel Strudel, etc. Finally, Antonia gets Iron Chef Morimoto who requests a traditional Japanese meal of sashimi, sticky rice, and miso soup.

Just looking at the 3 meals and the chefs' backgrounds, I think it's pretty clear that Antonia is at a huge disadvantage. As an American-Italian chef, really how familiar can she be with Japanese cooking? Especially when it comes to something as subtle as sashimi.   I can say, as a huge sashimi fan, that less is certainly more, and so much of the dish comes down to the freshness of the fish and the consistency of the technique used by the chef.

As the diners are eating the meal, it seems pretty clear to me that they like Richard's the best and Antonia's the worst, while having some mixed feelings about Mike. So, I am sitting here assuming that Richard and Mike will move on to the finale, and Antonia will pack her knives and go. They announce that Richard will make the finale (hooray, and duh - cause he's awesome. his hair alone is better than the other two chefs combined) and I prepare for Antonia to leave.

BUT, then I look down at the bottom of my screen and notice I still have 10 minutes of show left. What? 10 minutes of Antonia crying and packing up? That doesn't make sense. And then out it comes...a Top Chef surprise envelope. Both Mike and Antonia have 45 minutes to go BACK into the kitchen and make 1 bite to give to each of the judges. Their fate will be sealed by this and nothing else.

Well cool - this is obviously great for Antonia. She was a dead man walkin' and this gives her a very real second life. But it kind of takes all meaning out of the actual ELIMINATION challenge. Sure, Blais moved on, but why even have the other two compete if you're not going to factor that in?  And why call it the elimination challenge if no one is eliminated from it?

Anyway, Mike starts to make beef and Antonia grabs some grouper.  At first glace, I think beef is a better choice over all. If you get just one bite and can make a piece of beef melt in someone's mouth, that's gotta be a winner. Of course, as that is what Mike is preparing, I somewhat hate myself for thinking that (haha),  The final bites are as follows: "Seared grouper in coconut lobster broth with a yam, apples and dill pollen relish" (Antonia) and "Tempura lobster over beef tartare with carmelized olives and chimicrri sauce" (Mike). That all sounds delicious, but what do the judges think? They seem to like Antonia's dish and do not seem so warm to Mike's at first, could this be a huge upset? I loved Motimoro's way of describing how the dishes were different by calling them "Bang and very subtle." But at the end, the judges vote and see who prefers which dish ending up 3-3 with only Wolfgang Puck left to vote (it's amazing that that seems to always happen on reality shows, isn't it? I'm sure that the producers couldn't have anything to do with it...).

In the end the winner is: MIKE. Antonia hears the final "please pack your knives and go." Well, while I don't like Mike - that is the right choice. He cooked better than her consistently for the episode, and had been on a roll.  He also would have been safe had they used the actual EC as an EC, so overall I am glad that they stuck with that.  I am looking forward to Blais kicking his butt next week in the finale though. I think Blais's biggest issue will be getting out of his own head. The man has some inner demons for sure, and if he can keep them under control I expect his meals to be fantastic next week. I can't wait to see it.  From the previews, it looks like they'll each be more or less running their own restaurants with former cheftestants on the line.  Should be a lot of fun.

Until the next episode...
Chris

Top Chef without Hootie Hoo

This week's Top Chef left us down to 4 contestants: Blais, Mike, Antonia and Tiffany. Gotta say, at the beginning of the show, NO WAY I would have picked these four to make

it through. Ok, obviously everyone had Blais...but the others? Where is Dale? Where is Marcel? Where is Angelo. Sure, at the beginning of the season there were people we all knew wouldn't make it this far: like Tre and Mike I....wait. Mike is still on the show? WTF, mate? Beyond his cooking - which almost always seems to just be second worst (enough to get by), his cocky attitude is beyond obnoxious and he makes me upset just watching him on tv. I can't even imagine competing against him. So, I go into this episode with huge bias that I'd like the other three to move on.

Anyway, onto the quickfire. Cooking 100 dishes consistently. The guys decide they wanna impress with a bolognese and homemade pasta. Not a bad idea - but nearly impossible to make consistently unless you sit there counting the noodles. The girls had more things on the plate (4 components), but the basic dish was all cooked together = consistency! From the beginning it was clear the QF would go to the girls. They were smarter about it, and far less cocky. They played the game well. As usual, Mike was his cocky self, dissing the girls and everyone else, but he lost, so that gave me some enjoyment.

Next they are told of their elimination challenge: cooking with conch. Now that's just fine - they're in the Bahamas. BUT. They had to put on snorkel gear and go dive for the conch before they could cook it. Sure.

This is normal for chefs from the US. Oh wait. No it's not. I kinda hate it when Top Chef turns into "Top Cheftestant vs Wild." I watch this show to enjoy the creativeness from the contestants...to see them scramble under pressure. Not to see them take off their shirts in the Bahamas. And, believe-you-me, there is not ONE chef this season who looks good without a shirt on. Poor form Top Chef. In fact, the only person who would look good without her shirt on is Padma, but Top Chef would never--wait, that's Padma without her shirt on! In a bikini. Mike, of course, pointed it out...but it was a very welcome surprise. Points for Top Chef here.


The cooking on the beach seemed really hard. Wind keeping the fires from getting hot, salt water dripping in their eyes, and just all forms of the elements in their way. I thought all the dishes looked pretty good - I loved Blais's innovation of the sweet potato thinly sliced as pasta. Tiffany's seemed the worst to me, she always seems to me to just not be at the same level as anyone else. I feel like to relate it to another field it would be to say that TIffany is like an allstar student, who just doesn't have the quite correct mindset to play in the big leagues. (Of course shes not a student and is far beyond that, but I find that she consistently just doesn't think through everything at the same level).

It became pretty clear to me that the win would be between Blais and Mike (most likely Blais), and the bottom two would be Antonia and Tiffany. But, as the judge's table began, they were much tougher on the chefs than they had been in the past. BUT then, out of nowhere...MIKE WINS. How did this happen? Mike is in the finals?! I am starting to hate this show at times. Although I think the big head he has gotten from this past week may come back to bite him in the final. (as you can tell, I really don't like Mike).

In the end, it is Tiffany going home. She couldn't hold her weight against the other chefs and this looks like the right choice. I really liked Tiffany on her original season, but she was not up to the same level this time, I felt. Maybe the competition was harder - maybe she has changed since season 7. Either way, this was probably the right choice.

Next week: finals. I'm excited. And I'll say it now...if Blais (and his oft funky hairdo) doesn't win, I think the world of Top Chef watchers will be disappointed. He lost it once in the final his year, and this season seems more or less like an excuse to get him a title. Time to step up and take what is yours, Richard.

Until the next episode...
Chris