Michael had some arrogant moments, I admit, but I never thought he seemed that bad. He never got close to an Ilan level of asshole, for instance. I read somewhere, in some blog or something, that Kevin was pretty forgiving of the “I can do that in 15 minutes” type comments, and was saying that they caught Michael in a bad moment, that he wasn’t like that all the time, that they all got emotionally stressed, etc.
Plus, it looked like Michael really won on the merits, so I’m not too bugged about it.
Yeah, I read an interview on Bravo’s site where Kevin was pretty gracious about Michael’s comments. Plus it sounded like they had talked after and worked it out.
For what it’s worth, Michael comes across as less arrogant in the interview they just posted on the Bravo site than he did in some of his comments during the season. Apparently he had totally convinced himself Bryan had won until Padma said his name.
As for Kevin, he still has the $30,000 from the Bocuse D’Or challenge and a bunch of other winnings, plus I think he probably has fan favorite in the bag.
I feel a little bad for Bryan though . . . despite winning a ton of eliminations he didn’t win a single high-stakes (or low-stakes) quickfire. So I think he got short changed on the prizes a bit. Still, this will surely be a huge boost for all of their careers.
Ugh, so disappointed. I don’t think Kevin imploded like Richard or Jenn did, but A game was not there tonight. Before the first commercial break I could tell he wasn’t going to win. It wasn’t the editing, but the fire in his eyes and the mistakes he was making.
I don’t think if he had Jenn as a sous chef it would have helped. His food wasn’t “wrong” for lack of effort, but like he didn’t know where his mistakes were.
I really thought the results would be the exact opposite of what they were. Although I liked this V brother least, because he seemed dangerously close to going home last week I enjoyed being surprised by his win. There haven’t been a lot of surprises in winners/losers this season, so it’s nice the big upset was in the finale.
Actually, it seemed like Brian won the third course as well, but he had problems with his first two courses, whereas Michael was more consistent throughout the meal.
Check Tom Collicchio’s blog on the Bravo website. He gives reasons there. Basically, both Kevin and Bryan had one superior course, and Michael had two.
In addition to the mushroom problem, Kevin’s pork belly wasn’t cooked properly. At least one of the judges suggested that even if it had been, he should have served a second protein, such as pork loin. And Kevin’s dessert was less ambitious than the other two. I don’t know whether Kevin have been able to win if his dishes had been flawlessly prepared, but it was definitely unfair that he had Preeti and Ash as sous chefs.
I’m not a fan of the way they’re editing the show these days, and I’m pretty ambivalent about watching the next season. It’s happened repeatedly that the show gives a certain impression of how the chefs performed, but you have to read Tom Colicchio’s blog to find out what really happened. That’s just dumb. I get it that they’re going to edit to make the competition seem balanced, so there’s suspense for the reveal. But after they’ve announced the winner, they should offer more explanation. The show seemed to suggest that Bryan’s performance was better overall but Michael won because his performance was good and his creativity won the day. It wasn’t clear to me from the show that the judges’ consensus was that Michael’s performance was clearly better than Bryan’s.
I wholeheartedly agree with this. I usually watch the show a day later, even after reading the thread here, but I’m tired of the editing tricks making viewers go “WTF, really? How’d that happen?” I don’t want to read a blog to find out the “real” story. I deleted the finale off my DVR this morning, unwatched.
BTW, for fans of Dale from Season 3, today’s Chicago Tribune features an article on his life since the show. It talks about the severe depression he slid into, losing his previous job, his mom’s death, the financial troubles he had, and his recovery and the new restaurant that he’s the head chef of (Sprout, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago). He’s teamed up with Sara Nguyen from the show, and they’re close friends.
I’m ok with the decision. While I wanted Kevin or Bryan to win, Michael has pretty consistently shown that his food is both imaginative and delicious. In a weird way this show is probably the only place someone like him can really show that off. In a regular restaurant no one is going to order some of the things he comes up with. And if he does get hired to make something imaginative, it won’t make it into a magazine or review.
Having said all that, I will be surprised if the Voltaggios don’t open a Voltaggio East and Voltaggio West with some shared menu items.
I have to admit, especially after reading the blogs (because who could tell from the show editing? Really?), that it’s o.k that Michael won. He’s not my favorite, but he was consistently good over the entire season and it was his day.
I have to say though, the pacing of this finale seemed really choppy and I did not enjoy it at all (enjoyed it even less after accidently reading a spoiler halfway through!). I thought the presence of the mothers was distracting and was really disappointed that they didn’t get to pull out all stops and create the meal of their life- I think that would have been far more interesting than “meal from your childhood” which was not far from the tv dinner challenge they had earlier in the season. With such talented chefs, it would have been great to see them go all out. The sous chef method was profoundly unfair as well- if you are going to do that, at least pick a pool of the most talented people, not people that were eliminated early on.
I agree. Maybe it’s just because they’re all so good that they never got too frustrated or made barely any mistakes, but it seems like they spent no time showing them cook. Although I did like to see there morning meaning where they were discussing what to do. Show’s how seriously they were taking it.
And the “meal from your childhood” was basically taken from the finale of Top Chef Masters.
Was anyone else shocked to learn that Michael has daughters? Until I read that interview, I thought he was just a free-wheeling single guy with no ties.
Personality wise I was disappointed that he won. Which is odd, because he was my favorite going in, but his rudeness and arrogance were really off-putting, and Bryan’s integrity and emotional generosity showed through as the season progressed. I “liked” Kevin best of all the participants, and he’s the one I’d most like to have as a neighbor.
But I also think that a show like this should be supporting really creative cooking. Good barbeque has been done through the ages, and I’m glad that Kevin is continuing that tradition, but from a “Top” Chef, I’m looking for innovation and creativity. So from a style standpoint I’m happy that’s the style to win.
I would be a lot happier though if it were Bryan going to the Bocuse. I don’t think Kevin will make a good showing, as it’s just not his style of cooking. It’s exactly the sort of highly technical competition where Bryan could shine. Disappointing.
I suspect Kevin will lose in the competition to be the US candidate if only because he has his own restaurant and trying to practice plus run that place would be rough, but I also would have preferred Bryan had the chance.