Top Chef: The real Season Finale!
Hosting live from Chicago, Lakshmi and the audience members were more pumped up than ever tonight for the season finale of Top Chef: Season 3.
Still in the mountains of Colorado, the three remaining cheftestants (Hung, Casey, and Dale) were preparing for their final shot at winning this competition.
The first morning, they were surprised by a delicious breakfast provided by room service, with a note attached. They were told to meet Lakshmi and Colicchio at the top of a mountain, and we all know the easiest way to get up there is a gondola ride.
After the chefs enjoyed a scenic tour of Colorado’s breath-taking mountains, Lakshmi and Colicchio presented the final challenge. It took place at the world-famous Aspen Mountain Club, whose membership costs over $100,000 and whose waitlist is years long.
The final week’s challenge was quite “simple” in Colicchio’s words; to cook the best meal they’re ever cooked in their lives. You’ll find out it’s not as easy as it sounds.
They would all cook at the same time, and serve each course at the same time. Basically, the judges were going to “break apart every minute detail of each dish,” said Dale, as he anxiously awaited the time to start preparing.
The chefs were given just 30 minutes to plan and work out their menus, and then show their future creations to the judges for approval.
Before getting started, knives were drawn in order to assign sous chefs to each cheftestant. Having no idea who these special sous chefs were, the cheftestants were ready for anything.
Hung drew knife number one, and out of the gondola came Chef Rocco Dispirito, an award winning chef and author.
“What more could I ask for?” Hung said; he was ecstatic about his assigned celebrity sous chef.
Casey was assigned Michelle Bernstein, a chef restaurateur and James Beard nominee. Dale’s number three knife gave him Todd English, an award winning chef and restaurateur.
These three renowned celebrity sous chefs were only there to help execute the menus for one day, and Casey, Hung and Dale took full advantage.
Their three hour prep time started quickly, and they knew that there was absolutely no time to waste.
“It’s game on,” Dale said. He made it clear that it was his time to cook to win.
With the three celebrity sous chefs doing whatever they could to help the cheftestants, this finale was bound to be memorable.
As they ordered their sous chefs around, the cheftestants scurried throughout the kitchen in preparation for serving their delectable dishes to the judges the next day. Though three hours may seem long, when you’re cooking “the best meal you’ve ever cooked in your life,” three hours may as well be three minutes.
Because of the high altitudes, Casey was short of breath, and the water the chefs needed to boil was taking too long. Dale’s gnocchi suffered the consequences, as he disappointedly admitted it “turned out like chewing gum.”
Before they knew it, three hours were gone.
After a good night’s sleep, the chefs were up and ready to put together their hopefully delicious dishes, without their sous chefs.
“My strategy today is to get my mind focused” Hung said. He knew it was time to concentrate on winning.
Colicchio joined the chefs in the kitchen with only an hour left, telling them to take everything off the stove and follow him outside. The chefs were not happy to say the least, as they were already pressed for time. If only they had known what was coming.
Colicchio told them to prepare a fourth course, using whatever was available in the kitchen, and they had the liberty of serving it at any time during the meal.
“I wanted to punch him in the face,” Dale angrily vented about Colicchio.
But, it wasn’t all downhill from there. The chefs were given help, from former cheftestants CJ, Howie and Sara M. Hung was paired with Sara, Casey was paired with Howie (tough luck!), and Dale was paired with CJ.
With a short one hour left to finish their original menus, on top of creating an entire new dish, the kitchen was anything but calm.
“This is the final challenge… it was hectic, crazy” Casey said as she ordered Howie to create her fourth dish of a Colorado seared lamb.
Hung chose a chocolate cake with raspberries to be his fourth course, in effort to show the judges that he was in fact capable of something other than Asian.
Dale wanted to add some “garden freshness” to his course, which is why he chose scallop as his fourth dish.
As the clock read ten minutes left, the chefs knew that this was the only time they had left to cook in the Top Chef competition.
The judges for this finale episode included the celebrity sous chefs, former cheftestant Brian, and the other usual judges. The chefs were ready and eager to get the dishes filled with their heart and soul out on the table.
First course: Hung served Hamachi, Dale served foie gras, and Casey served scallop and foie gras.
Second course: Hung served shrimp, Dale served seared scallop, and Casey served jumbo prawn and rice cake.
Third course: Hung served duck, Dale served lobster, corn, mushrooms, and gnocchi and Casey served pork belly.
Fourth course: Hung served chocolate cake, Dale served rack of lamb, and Casey served seared sirloin.
Now it was time for the judges to finally decide who would win this competition and receive the title of Top Chef.
Even though, according to the judges, each chef had somewhat of a faulty dish, the four course meal was nonetheless absolutely outstanding.
They liked that Dale took risks this round and showed that he could pull most of them off. Hung, as usual, proved he was technically the best chef, and Casey’s dishes were all around decent.
The cheftestants all watched the finale themselves live from Chicago with the judges and the audience members.
Casey realized that she definitely didn’t shine during this challenge, as she told the judges that “what makes a top chef is that they can cook every meal precisely and beautifully and this just wasn’t my challenge and I accept that.”
Hung’s confidence did in fact shine, as he told the judges that “we’re all in a better position than we were six months ago and I’m proud to be here.”
Colichio praised Dale by telling him that they were “just so delighted that [he] found [his] inner chef.”
Through the tears, fights, hurt feelings and stress, all the cheftestants gained something special from entering this competition. None of them are the chefs they were before; they have matured tremendously and learned a great deal about cooking in their own style.
Hung was named Top Chef, and he was shocked, proud, and thrilled all at once. Arrogance and over-confidence apparently paid off in the end. Let’s just say this competition doesn’t name the Top Chef based on personality traits.
“I’m so excited, I worked so hard to get here and to prove myself… I’m speechless!” Hung exclaimed, barely able to get his words out.
That’s all the Top Chef there is for now, until next season, that is, when we start all over. See you then!
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Congrats to Hung !
http://the1opinion.blogspot.com/2007/10/winner-of-top-chef-with-guest.html
although i wanted casey to win, hung deserved it...congrats!
although i wanted casey to win, hung deserved it...congrats!
Where can I start? Congratulations to Hung, and congratulations to Bravo TV. It was the perfect recepie to teach me not to ever watch a reality TV series again. I will read a novel--which is just as fictional as Hung being meritorious of winning "Top Chef". Shame on Bravo!
Hung has excellent skills, and I must admit, the duck dish sounded wonderful, but to be a true Chef, one must be a leader. Leadership is a quality that Hung sorely lacks--I can't imagine him in a kitchen, and taking the time to teach his co-workers, and inspiring them. A Top Chef must posess the skills to inpire everyone in the kitchen. He has the social skills of a turd!
I was happy that Dale made it into the final three. He obviously is very gifted. Did I miss something, but didn't CJ make the scallop dish? It was great to see CJ (hunk!), and I thought that Dale delegated an entire dish to CJ, which was the scallop, and which Dale told the judges it was a 50-50 creation between CJ and himself. to be continued!
I was disappointed that Dale did not give CJ the credit he deserved.
Obviously, I wanted Casey to win. She was obviously nervous. I groaned when Howie was assigned to her--flashbacks of Howie sweating into dishes immediately overcame me. I will give Howie credit for trying his best to be helpful, but he put something on the jumbo shrimp (without asking Casey) at the last minute, for which the judges criticize her. I will admit that the dish did not look appetizing, and wished that Casey did not chose the shrimp. It was a bad decision on her part. Also, Howie was supposed to watch the pork belly, which ended up dry and over-cooked. I wish that Casey had not supervised Howie better. He is over-confident in his skills. Casey's seared sirloin did look too rare (as have other meat dishes Casey has cooked in the past).
Bottom line is that everything fell on her, and she took the responsibility for the dishes with style and grace, as usual. (btw-where were the leeks?!) to be continued!
Ironically, Casey's poise in front of the panel while discussing her dishes proved that she has the real skills to be Top Chef--she is a leader, and has what it takes to cook, manage a kitchen (she would put the leeks in the proper place!) and inspire her co-workers.
Hilary, thank you so much for our re-caps. As disappointed I am in Bravo, I was addicted to the show, mostly because of your recaps. Have you been writing recaps for years? Did you use to write hard journalism? I heard you were doing Project Runway. I wish you good luck--we are parting ways. No more reality TV for me. Please let us know if you ever cover a sitcom or drama, and I will follow you.