# Top Chef Finale pt. 1 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 19, 2009, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-chef-finale-pt-1/486561 "2009-02-19T16:34:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-chef-finale-pt-1/486561/21 "2009-02-20T04:54:06Z")
> [@MissGypsy](#): > > It bothered me that the judges agreed that Jeff was one of the best 3, but because of that contrivance in which he had to win to stay, he had to leave. That was screwy. > > . On his blog, Tom said Jeff never had a shot of winning. > [@](#): > > That night, however, Jeff was never in the running for a reason that didn’t make it into the final edit. He did a very fine job, however he used some sort of sterno chafing dish to keep his oysters warm that, for whatever reason, imparted a taste of burning sterno to the oysters. We all smelled it and remarked on it while the chefs were setting up their stations, and then we tasted that horrible taste when we sampled his selections. ---
**Author:** ![flickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7bcc69/32.png) [@flickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flickster)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-chef-finale-pt-1/486561/22 "2009-02-20T05:22:20Z")
I’m jumping on the Carla bandwagon. I’ll admit that early in the season I made comments that the only place I would like to see her was as a feature on a website like beautifulagony due to her facial expressions. But she has won me over in the past 3 weeks. I just hope she didn’t peak too soon. Stephan, I would have booted him each of the last two weeks. Hosea, I liked his dedication to traditional creole in tonight’s episode. I was a little concerned about his roux. From the looks of that saucepan ,I though he had burned it. ---
**Author:** ![sohvan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@sohvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sohvan)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-chef-finale-pt-1/486561/23 "2009-02-20T05:59:16Z")
I figured Jeff got his food edited to be better than it actually was to create tension about the possibility of him winning and 2 chefs being eliminated. What Tom said on his blog made perfect sense in that light. In a way Jeff seems even more arrogant than Stephan to me. He’s been screwing up dishes for overcomplicating things throughout the season, and never seemed to pay any heed to the judges comments. He didn’t seem to learn anything from getting eliminated for the same reason either. I thought it was a bit odd that several of the guests in New Orleans knew about the hoody-hoo thing with Carla. Were the NO episodes filmed much later than the New York episodes after the first Top Chef episodes would have already aired? There seemed to be a gap in the competition between NO and NY, but how long was it really? I was sad to see Fabio eliminated, but apparently he has been doing very well professionally afterwards. I would love to see Carla win the whole thing now that Fabio was eliminated. EDIT: I just saw on [wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Chef_(season_5)#Episode_15:_Reunion) that the this episode was filmed 6 months after filming of The Last Supper. Not sure what their source is, but it makes sense. It must have been interesting to put a pause on everything Top Chef related, then come back to compete after such a long break. ---
**Author:** ![Drygon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/edb3f5/32.png) [@Drygon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drygon)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-chef-finale-pt-1/486561/24 "2009-02-20T14:45:05Z")
> [@sohvan](#): > > It must have been interesting to put a pause on everything Top Chef related, then come back to compete after such a long break. I believe that is what they have always done. It makes sense if you think about the fact that they don’t want people knowing who won before the show is broadcast (and they always send the last 3 or 4 eliminated chefs to the new location as well so no one really knows which chefs are actually in the finale). The eliminated chefs also go to an elimination house and aren’t allowed to go home until after the first filming session is over (there are videos of eliminated contestants being greeted there at [Top Chef - Official Site | Bravo](http://www.bravotv.com/topchef)) so no one can know who was eliminated when. What I think would have been awful was in Season 3 they filmed the finale but declared the winner live after it was broadcast! That’s at least a few weeks between doing the final challenge and finding out the results. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-chef-finale-pt-1/486561/25 "2009-02-20T15:31:11Z")
I thought it was interesting to see Emeril as a judge, compared to that Brit-crit (I’ve deliberately repressed his name) who was far more arrogant and obnoxious than any of the contestants from any season. While that jerk went out of his way to make use of clever little derogatory witticisms, Emeril was complimentary of what was done well. Aside: Long, long ago, the filmmaker Francois Truffaut said that there’s a brand of critic who will sacrifice honesty for the sake of a _bon mot_; for instance, if a French film had _la nuit_ in the title, the review would pun on _l’ennui_. I think was talking about Hitchcock’s THE BIRDS which some reviewers had to say, “for the birds.” Trying to show how clever you are rather than actually reviewing the work at hand. Grrrrrr. ---
**Author:** ![Shark\_Sandwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@Shark\_Sandwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shark_Sandwich)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-chef-finale-pt-1/486561/26 "2009-02-20T15:45:10Z")
> [@rexnervous](#): > > Read Tom’s blog. He says Fabio’s got all kinds of things in the works (not necessarily TV, but that’s the impression I got) Plus, he’s Shatner’s private chef. He mentions in an article on E! Online that The Shat mentions him in two pages of his biography, and gives his restaurant in LA mad props. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-chef-finale-pt-1/486561/27 "2009-02-20T18:05:03Z")
I am also a Carla convert. She has really shined in the past several episodes. Originally I thought she was just chaff to be eliminated. She’s a little kooky but she’s likable. Sorry to see Fabio go, he was entertaining, but I didn’t think he would be able to do Creole food too well because he was bound to try to use Italian influence in it. Creole already has too many influences, I think any more would just make it suck. I agree Stefan comes off as an arrogant jerk, but I also agree he’s probably getting a little extra jerk edit as well. I have to wonder how much of it is a culture or language difference? It seems everytime he says something arrogant or stupid at judges table he realizes right after that he said the wrong thing and ends up looking at the floor. I was actually glad to see Jeff get another shot. He apparently learned to edit himself a bit and at least got to go out on a high note. But does this mean that they won’t have recently booted contestants back to help the finalists? I really don’t care too much who wins this. I am not crazy about Hosea but that’s mostly because of the Leah face-sucking but “I love my girlfriend” thing, food wise he’s competent enough. I am curious about the girlfriend drama that a previous poster mentioned. How did that come about? Surely she couldn’t have seen any of the episodes yet so did he fess up? Who broke up with whom? And how about Leah and her boyfriend? Anyone have the dish? ---
**Author:** ![jonesj2205](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecc23a/32.png) [@jonesj2205](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jonesj2205)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-chef-finale-pt-1/486561/28 "2009-02-20T18:36:44Z")
In interviews on the Bravo site, Hosea says he told his girlfriend, she forgave him, they tried to make a go of it but it just didn’t work out. Leah didn’t get into as much detail but basically said her boyfriend didn’t think it was a big deal and implied they are still together. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-chef-finale-pt-1/486561/29 "2009-02-20T18:41:11Z")
I’m not buying the Stefan “arrogant jerk” edit no matter how much they try to shove it down our throats. So he went for a smoke break. Big deal. it seems like 90% of them smoke, but the edit only shows Stefan going out, so that’s supposed to show what a lazy asshole he is. According to [Gail’s blog](http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/blogs/gail-simmons/closer-than-ever?page=0%2C1), contrary to how the edit made it look, the choice for winner actually was between Carla and Stefan, not Carla and Hosea. The edit made it appear as tough Hosea did better, but according to Gail: > [@](#): > > Hosea’s was good. It was solid and it tasted great, but it was not as good as the others. On why they picked Carla over Stefan: > [@](#): > > I’m sure people will wonder why we picked her over Stefan. Stefan made a beignet and she made a beignet and his was stuffed with apple and it had a nice sauce and it was a well prepared dessert. It wasn’t piping hot like beignets need to be. Hers was piping hot, it was savory, and it showed this extra level of care. And her oyster stew was the same. It was unique, it was her own, and she added some beautiful touches that really brought the dish to light and really added to the complexity of the taste of the stew. They were just flawless. Her cocktail was good too. It was nice and refreshing after other cocktails. Most of the other cocktails were very sweet. Stefan’s was well executed and there’s no question he doesn’t have the skill, but it’s that little piece of thoughtfulness that he’s lacking. He’s sort of on auto-pilot. It’s more of an assembly line with him and with Carla you can really see her mind working with the dishes she produced. That’s why she won. So there was a really misleading edit and Judges’ Table sequence in that episode. They made it appear as if Stefan was in the bottom 2 when he was really in the top 2. The guy’s won 10 challenges and the best they can come up with as a criticism is that he doesn’t stress out in the kitchen? What? Stefan seems confident to me, but not arrogant or jerky the way Hosea is, and Stefan can at least back his confidence up with wins. Hosea is a ham and egger off the street (no formal training) with an inferiority complex a mile long. Bravo wants us to hate Stefan and see his confidence as his “Achilles heel.” It’s not working. He seems like a pretty amiable, cheerful guy, who’s always quick to pitch in and help others and always has a big hug for whoever gets eliminated, but the fcat that they’re trying to force a villain edit, and that giving Carla such a soft one pretty much telegraphs that Carl is going to win. Not that I would be bothered by that. She can be a little precious, and I think she’d wear on my nerves if I had to be around her all the time, but she also appears to be really earning her wins with creativity and a little daring backed up by the skill to execute. The peas, for instance, were an example of a choice that was brave by virtue of its very simplicity – just a side of peas – but thejudges all seemed to think it was one of the best things they’d eaten all season. How good can a side of peas be? She must have executed the hell out of that dish.It’s the kind of thing that could have really blown up on herand looked lazy. I don’t think Stefan’s weakness is arrogance (when has arrogance ever stooped a chef from being successful), I think it might be that he’s too much of a pure technician and not really that creative. Being able to perfectly analyze and reproduce a Ripert dish is a technical tour de force, but it remains to be seen whether he can create something memorable of his own. ---
**Author:** ![jonesj2205](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecc23a/32.png) [@jonesj2205](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jonesj2205)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-chef-finale-pt-1/486561/30 "2009-02-20T18:51:23Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I don’t think Stefan’s weakness is arrogance (when has arrogance ever stooped a chef from being successful), I think it might be that he’s too much of a pure technician and not really that creative. Being able to perfectly analyze and reproduce a Ripert dish is a technical tour de force, but it remains to be seen whether he can create something memorable of his own. I agree completely with this. It may be the only thing Toby Young said I agree with as well. In his blog after that episode he said that Stefan was technically excellent but tended not to show creativity. I do disagree a bit about Stefan’s arrogance. I think there’s a clear difference in how he treats people he respects with how he treated those he didn’t. I think it was the chaff in the beginning he was really intolerant of. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-chef-finale-pt-1/486561/31 "2009-02-20T18:57:53Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Bravo wants us to hate Stefan and see his confidence as his “Achilles heel.” It’s not working. He seems like a pretty amiable, cheerful guy, who’s always quick to pitch in and help others and always has a big hug for whoever gets eliminated, but the fcat that they’re trying to force a villain edit, and that giving Carla such a soft one pretty much telegraphs that Carl is going to win. Remember that the final challenge doesn’t happen until half the season has already aired. So while there may be a “final four edit”, there is no “winner’s edit.” Unless you are one of those guys that thinks that the producers decide everything. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-chef-finale-pt-1/486561/32 "2009-02-20T19:07:49Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > Remember that the final challenge doesn’t happen until half the season has already aired. So while there may be a “final four edit”, there is no “winner’s edit.” Unless you are one of those guys that thinks that the producers decide everything. That’s a good point. No, I don’t think the producers predetermine winners. I do think they tweak the edits to create narratives they think will be compelling to the audience, and try to create “characters” that the audience will either love or hate. So I’m probably wrong about them telegraphing a win for Carla, but they at least worked to build an _audience_ for the finale by creating an underdog narrative for her. In fairness, they tried to force the “arrogant” edit for Hung too, and he still won. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-chef-finale-pt-1/486561/33 "2009-02-20T19:57:50Z")
**Diogenes** between Hosea and Stefan it seems like it was probably a push (reading Tom’s blog), but it seemed to me that Emeril might have preferred Hosea’s Gumbo slightly and that was why they ended up where they did. But I agree with you about Stefan, he is getting the arrogant edit, which is fine, I think, not because he is arrogant necessarily, but that’s the deal we make as reality tv fans. Hisd one moment I felt was insincere was when he said he tasted Hosea’s gumbo and thought it was disgusting. I suppose it was his true feelings about how it tasted, but it was certainoy at odds with pretty much what everyone thought. So it seems like it might have been his arrogance coming through a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-chef-finale-pt-1/486561/34 "2009-02-20T20:16:23Z")
I think he just doesn’t like Hosea, and those feelings are certainly mutual. I doubt he really thought it was “disgusting,” but just didn’t want to compliment Hosea. Not so much arrogance as just personal dislike for one particular guy. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-chef-finale-pt-1/486561/35 "2009-02-20T21:17:54Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I think he just doesn’t like Hosea, and those feelings are certainly mutual. I doubt he really thought it was “disgusting,” but just didn’t want to compliment Hosea. Not so much arrogance as just personal dislike for one particular guy. I think that’s a lot of it. He always seem to mess with Hosea the most. He and Fabio messed with each other but it was mutual and seemed to be all in good fun. I wanted to add that I thought Carla looked great with the straight hair. I could finally see the former model and not Big Bird. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-chef-finale-pt-1/486561/36 "2009-02-20T23:10:21Z")
> [@Wile\_E](#): > > … > I wanted to add that I thought Carla looked great with the straight hair. I could finally see the former model and not Big Bird. 😉 In [an interview](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/11/AR2008111100590.html) with the Washington Post, she says that the afro thing was the show’s stylist’s idea; she’d never had that hairstyle before. ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-chef-finale-pt-1/486561/37 "2009-02-20T23:28:59Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > In [an interview](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/11/AR2008111100590.html) with the Washington Post, she says that the afro thing was the show’s stylist’s idea; she’d never had that hairstyle before. Well, then that stylist needs to be shot. She looked… nice yesterday, instead of someone with a thyroid disorder. It’s easy to see that she has features that can be “tamed” and can look quite appealing. Same thing with Jamie. She was much, much better looking - dare I say cute - when she came back. I think Stefan is an arrogant ass, but isn’t that par for the course with culinary types? He doesn’t seem to be able to mask it very well, though. I thought Fabio was a giant douchebag initially but I’ve grown to like him quite a bit. He has a lot of personality - take for instance how he handled working the front on Restaurant Wars. He brought some charm. Stefan, on the other hand, is all competition. Which doesn’t matter, I imagine, when you’re sitting down to eat at a fancy restaurant. I thought bringing back Jeff under those circumstances was ridiculous. I am rooting for Carla, and especially for them to keep the Bravo stylist far away from her. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-chef-finale-pt-1/486561/38 "2009-02-21T00:12:45Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > The peas, for instance, were an example of a choice that was brave by virtue of its very simplicity – just a side of peas – but thejudges all seemed to think it was one of the best things they’d eaten all season. How good can a side of peas be? She must have executed the hell out of that dish.It’s the kind of thing that could have really blown up on herand looked lazy. > > . I’d forgot about that. Did they ever explain HOW those peas were so damn good? Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE peas (and Carla), but to hear them tell it they were peas of the gods. ---
**Author:** ![rexnervous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@rexnervous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rexnervous)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-chef-finale-pt-1/486561/39 "2009-02-21T02:50:58Z")
one an unrelated tangent - my God did Padma look absolutely stunning, just ravishing, at the party. My wife was not particularly happy with me mentioning that. Out loud. More than once. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-chef-finale-pt-1/486561.md?page=1)