My Acceptance of the Top Chef Finale

It's taken awhile for me to come to terms with the way Top Chef season 3 ended up. Hung won. (crickets...quiet...more crickets). By all means, Hung was worthy. He'd been told by the judges outrightly 3 weeks ago that he was the best technical chef there, but that they found his food soulless. They wanted to see more of "Hung" in his cooking. Frankly, I thought his cooking already was a good indicator of "Hung." I guess they gave him more credit--maybe he was different in person. But, in being consistent with the rest of what seemed to be an "iffy" season, I don't think the new live finale format went off without any hitches.

Hitch #1: Casey blew it in the final round making the "final 3" format senseless. Once we watched her completely bite it in Aspen (which was sad, but predictable. I think it would be hard to argue that Casey deserved to be in the finals. Did I like her, yes. But was the run of creativity that got her to the end in part luck, also yes.) it was silly that she had to show up to the final judging table and basically try to save face. Everyone knew she was out--including her. She stuck up for herself, god love her, and bowed out gracefully. However, the final three didn't seem to "pan" out (ha-HA!). Recommendation: Go back to the final 2 scenario. I almost wonder if they tried the "final three" to avoid the fan reaction from last season when fan-fave Sam shockingly got eliminated (b/c he totally sucked it in the last competition round) leaving Ilan and Marcel (neither fan favorites) to go to the lackluster, overly "foamy" finale. It doesn't matter--the 2 best should, by all means, funnel into the final.

Hitch #2: Directly related to Hitch #1--the judging. It annoyed me that Gail was back for the finale when she'd been there all of 3 prior shows. Anthony Bourdain seemed the rightful choice to be there, as he was there equally often as Gail, blogged the show EVERY WEEK (check this out for the finale--hilarious and I'm willing to trust that he knows better than I) , and brings forth the chef perspective instead of the food critic perspective. Ted Allen was already representative of that group and, honestly, the show is not "Top Food Snob." If you're going to harp on technical skills and, ultimately, choose Hung b/c of them, then your judges need to have some credibility in that area. Sorry, Gail, but get out. Recommendation: Stick with a panel of three judges who are there EVERY WEEK and have the one rotating guest judge throughout the season, but for the FINALE go to the three who have seen everything from start to finish.

Hitch #3: Dale had soul that the judges somehow overlooked. Fact is, I loved Dale. I think a lot of fans of the show loved Dale. Dale is lovable and obviously serious and he lives food. Hung tells me that but Dale shows me that. So, when the judges did the dish-for-dish comparison, it sounded to me like Dale was the one. The judges got hung up (ha-HA...and I didn't even mean to here) on that (supposedly) crappy lobster dish, but here's the thing: Dale brought it. He served it. He rocked it. Yeah he made a mistake...but he had the balls to make a BIG mistake. Anthony Bourdain called them "balls the size of casaba melons"--seriously. That would have made me choose him. Hung did not do that, thereby forcing me to assume that Hung has little balls...(ahem) culinarily speaking. Recommendation: For the sake of my fan-ship, please pick Dale next time. Just throw me one...I'm begging. (Although, I think Harold of Season 1 managed to be both a fan-fave and a kick-ass chef).

Hitch #4: With the "final three" format, the eliminated chefs who returned to "help" prepare the final meal were actually a hindrance. Brian got to eat the meal. Um, excuse me, but Brian had just been eliminated for basically presenting a circus on a plate. Is he the best to judge refined culinary style in the final? And Howie? Seriously, I felt bad for Casey; I think Casey felt bad for Casey. She should have gotten extra points for getting Howie's help. When they did the final two, each chef got two of the last four eliminated, thus making up some kind of team. Honestly, that was better for the most part. Recommendation: Stop forcing people to work with the crappy chefs who were already eliminated.

I did really love one part of this finale: I thought it was genius to pair each finale contestant with a major culinary figure (Rocco DiSpirito, Michelle Bernstein, Todd English (who's hot)) That was cool to watch them work as sous chefs for the contestants and to hear their commentary ala Tom Colicchio from the kitchen. If they could talk them into it, these chefs should be the "helpers" for the finale, not eliminated contestants.

So, there it is. My humble opinion. Am I happy with Hung? No. But honestly, I haven't been happy since Harold won in Season 1, so now the bar is really high...but I'm sure looking forward to the next season already.