Stephanie wins Season 4 of Top Chef
All I have to say about the finale of Top Chef is Thank Goodness Stephanie won. There are several reasons why, but here are my top two. First, it’s about time a woman won Top Chef. Second, I really, really, really, REALLY did not want Lisa to win.
After a breakfast where the three finalists make nice after Lisa’s “a congratulations would be nice” and arrogant attitude last week the chefs go and meet Padma and Tom Colicchio. But they are not alone – world renowned chefs Eric Ripert, April Bloomfield and Dan Barber are with them. They would serve as the finalists sous chefs for the final challenge: create a traditional four course tasting menu. The courses had to be in this order: fish, poultry, red meat, and dessert. The dessert course was required. Each sous chef had a variety of proteins in front of them and at first the producers decided to have the chef who won the most elimination challenges get the right to pick first. But it was a dead heat between Richard and Stephanie – both of them had 4 wins – so the knife block came out to decide who picked first. Richard said to let Stephanie go first and she got first. She picked Chef Ripert; Richard picked Chef Barber and Lisa was paired up with Chef Bloomfield.
The sous chefs worked with the finalists for three hours that day and the chefs were fully expecting them to come back the next day. At the beginning of day 2 Colicchio comes in and says that the sous chefs would not be there. The judges wanted the finalists to “live and die by their own hand” when preparing the final meal.
The kitchen atmosphere was interesting. For the first time all season Lisa was very relaxed. Richard was extremely anxious and almost nervous, while Stephanie had some self doubts.
The final meal was a black tie event with the sous chefs as guests along with judges Padma, Colicchio, Gail Simmons and Ted Allen. The other guests at the dinner were Chef Alfredo Ayala (a famous chef from Puerto Rico) and Tim Zagat (CEO/co-founder of Zagat Survey). Watching the meal I thought for sure after the second course that Lisa would be named winner of Top Chef. Thankfully I was wrong.
The judges thought that all three had really good dishes, but that all three made some errors. Richard came right out and said he choked, and I think the pressure and his nerves might have got the best of him. I felt so bad for him at the end when they showed his “confessional” interview – he looked as if he would cry. Colicchio said that the dish where he thought he choked was his third course, a pork belly with a pickled radish.
In the end the judges said the winner was the chef who created the dinner they would want to go back and have again – and that chef was Stephanie. Thinking about it the judges said that just when they thought they had her figured out she goes and does something that totally surprises them. And that might have been the deciding factor. Lisa did an Asian menu, something she’s done all season. Stephanie created a lamb dish that totally floored the judges. Perhaps that was the difference, but who knows. Like I said in the opening, I’m happy that a woman won Top Chef and I’m glad it wasn’t Lisa.
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