I never once saw Hung be snotty or condescending to a patron. He sometimes didn’t like challenges which felt were not good tests of his ability but the oft-repeated trope that Hung was contemptuous of his audience is mostly an editing contrivance. I remember Hung being just as excited and happy serving hashbrowns to surfers on the beach as he was serving 3 star duck in the finale.
It looked to me like Dale was going along with CJ’s ideas and pretty much just handed the dish off to him. I think he was about to admit that at the judges table and that’s why he came up with the dumb-ass “100% 50/50” line.
Dale and Casey never got villain edits. Hung never got winner’s edits.
Although I am sure that the star sous chefs were less likely than the former contestants to be dragged into being creative parts, I am really surprised that the finalists used the star chefs as line prep men but dumped entire dishes on their former rivals.
All in all, I am glad my last minute prediction came through (it would have been a real editing sleight of hand if it hadn’t). Go Hung!.
ABsolutely no complaints about how they ended. It is unfortunate that Casey fell on her face in this challenge. I would eatanything the three of them made, but HUng definitely demonstrated a consistency that is probably due to his superior technical skills, to be honest. And when he got to cook his food it was just clear that he was the most complete chef on the show. But I think all three of them are better than Ilan and Marcel from last season.
We thought it was a waste of time. We tivo’d past it until we realized they were about to announce the winner.
Great show though. I liked the celebrity sous-chef twist. I hope Bravo realizes how much better this season was compared to last year.
I got the impression that they were basically instructed not to use the star chefs for more than prep-work. Plus when they got the former contestants they had just been given an extra dish to do with only an hour left, so they probably had no choice but to use them more.
I’m not at all surprised that Hung one. Throughout the competition the judges and even the other contestants have acknowledged him as the most skilled and consistent, if not always the most inspired.
Maybe yes, maybe no. He’s from Chicago, so up until the finale, he’s been within about 100 feet of sea level all his life, rather than at a roughly two-mile elevation. I got the impression that he was completely surprised about the effects of altitude on boiling. I just looked it up, and at that elevation, water boils at about 190 degrees - over twenty degrees less than normal. I knew water boiled at lower temps at higher elevations, but I had no idea it was that drastic a difference.
So maybe he had to scrap the original plan, and the gnocchi came out chewy. What really seemed to kill him was the excess of curry.
Frankly, I was expecting Hung to open the oven and find chocolate pancakes. And I was expecting Casey to keel over from altitude sickness. She was really gasping for air at the beginning.
I definitely enjoyed seeing Hung win. First because he was clearly the best chef in the field; second because watching him finally get to totally cut loose, bouncing up and down with a million-watt smile at the end, was hilarious; and third because he bore the brunt of some thoroughly unsubtle editing. If he takes the money and opens his own place, I think I’ll make a point of visiting if I’m ever in whatever city he decides to call home. I’d love to taste his food.
I mean, as long as he slows down a bit and doesn’t impale his expediter with a boning knife or something. 
mmmm fillet of expiditer… with coconut foam perhaps?
Nevermind
Diogenes – I have to tell you that I always hated Hung – in a non-cook, reality-show viewer, find a good villain to hate kind of way, but my first thought when he was declared the winner was “at least Diogenes will be happy.” 