Hung wins the title Top Chef
The show begins with Casey, Hung and Dale having breakfast in Casey’s room. They get a note on their room service cart with lift tickets and the information that they will learn about their challenge when they arrive at the top of the mountain. The ride the gondolas to the top of Aspen Mountain and the home of the Aspen Mountain Club to find Tom Colicchio and Padma waiting for them with an amazing spread of food. Tom gives them their challenge – to cook the best meal they’ve ever cooked. The chefs are given 35 minutes to plan their menus for the final challenge and hand them over to Tom.
There are a few curve balls that are thrown to the chefs. First, they are going to be cooking at the same time and in the same kitchen and serving their courses head to head to the judges. Second, they have to draw knives from the knife block to find out who their sous chefs will be. Usually the finalists get to pick from the eliminated candidates, but this time the decision was made for them. The chefs were nervous to see who they would be getting (Hung said Howie, Micah or Clay) but it turns out that they are going to be working with some well known and world famous chefs. Hung would have Rocco DiSpirito as his sous chef; Casey would be working with Michelle Bernstein; Dale would be working with Todd English. I think at first the contestants were a bit in awe and star struck about working with these chefs. It was mentioned by several of the contestants that they felt strange telling these accomplished chefs what to do as their sous chef. You could kind of tell that the “experts” were holding their tongues, not wanting to influence the contestants in any way but as the three hour of prep time wound down you could see that they were really going to be pulling for the contestant they worked under.
The next day the contestants have two hours before service. With about one hour to go Tom comes in to “check in” on the contestants, but then he throws another curve ball. He tells them to take the food off the stove and follow him where a knife block is waiting. He tells the contestants that they are now going to have to create a fourth course for this meal. The course could be served at any time in the meal. The chefs were going to get some help though – in the form of a sous chef from one of the eliminated contestants. Out walks Howie, CJ and Sara M. The finalists draw knives to see who gets who. Hung will work with Sara M. (and he is happy because he said Howie is sloppy and CJ hates him). Casey will work with Howie, and Dale will work with CJ. I thought it was interesting to see the behind the scenes interview with Howie, because he was really working as a team player. He said that he did not get where he was without having to work under an executive chef and he had no problem saying “yes chef” and doing what he could to help Casey win the competition.
The “guests” at the final meal are the three chefs who worked as sous chefs; regular judges Gayle Simmons, Ted Allen, Padma and Tom; and former contestant Brian Malarkey. How Brian scored this gig versus working as a sous chef is an interesting questions. Padma said they wanted a point of view of a former contestant in critiquing the meal. For the most part the judges seemed to enjoy the meal, but they were getting pretty picky about some of the dishes.
There is a judges’ table right after the meal, and it becomes obvious pretty quickly that the judges did not think Casey’s meal was as strong as the other two’s dishes. Part of me wants to cry sexism but then again the judges had not been sexist at any point this season. The judges deliberate and decide that the courses were split evenly between Dale and Hung Hung won the first and third courses while Dale won the second and fourth courses.
We then go live to Chicago for the announcement and did anyone else notice that Padma and Gayle (and possibly the guys but I’m not sure) are wearing the same outfits that they wore at the final meal? Pretty cheesy I think. No one watching the show would actually think they just arrived from Colorado and the final meal. One other thing I noticed – Marcel from season 2 of Top Chef was there to support Hung. When the chefs are brought out the audience cheers and gets to their feet. The last person (or almost the last person) in the audience to stand up – Marcel. Just an observation.
Ultimately it was Hung who was named Top Chef. I guess I wasn’t too surprised, being that the judges told him last week that he was the best technical chef in the finals. I’m disappointed just because I was hoping that Casey would win, because it really is time for a woman to be named Top Chef.
[tags]top chef, television, bravo, tv, reality, food, topchef, reality tv, top-chef, cooking, chef[/tags]
Read these other great entries
October 4th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
Casey, Dale, I was hoping for anyone to win but Hung
He reminded me of Marcel from day one – the *&^%# that thinks he is better than everyone. And both are talented chefs, as long as we don’t have to actually interact with them. And did you notice Hung put foam on the duck – that was SO Marcel of him – LOL!
October 6th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
I am glad that Hung won:)
October 6th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
I just watched the rerun of the finale on Bravo and Hung actually put foam on two of his dishes in the final meal. Is it me or did that foam look NOTHING like the foam Marcel put on his food? Maybe that’s why Hung won and Marcel didn’t?
October 6th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
I noticed it was on two dishes too. I dunno – they were too much alike to me. Good chefs, sometimes very likable, but overall just obnoxious. Poor Casey, she just fell apart, didn’t she? Dale came on strong in the end, but I think the fact that Hung was consistent throughout the show helped him. Maybe if Casey had put together a great finale, she would have won because she won plenty of challenges over the course of the season.