And so here we are. After 17 weeks, 18 chefs, 15 recaps (and 15 ridiculous portraits of myself), we have reached the Top Chef All-Stars finale.
Mike and Richard were presented with their final challenge: make the restaurant of your dreams and a four course tasting menu to go along with it. This is a deviation from the standard format where the chefs just cook one meal (of varying lengths each season).
We saw some flashbacks of season four, and remembered that back then, Blais was faaaat, and then saw a recent shot of Mike, and remembered that he is faaaat.
To pick their sous chefs, every eliminated chef (except Dale L.) had to cook an amuse and the final two would taste blindly, picking 3 sous chefs based solely on the food. Richard ended up with Spike, Angelo, and Antonia, while Mike got Tiffani, Jamie, and Carla.
Blais’s restaurant was called “Tongue in Cheek” — oh, how I love him so much. He originally planned to make Cap’n Crunch ice cream, but scrapped it for the much fancier foie gras (really, those two are interchangeable in all cooking).
Mike’s was called “Restaurant Iz,” and he said much of the food was inspired by his childhood, or something. I really stopped listening and just hissed whenever they showed him. I mean Blais had to win right? RIGHT?
While I originally thought that this format would let us see each meal in its own order (something we haven’t seen since the season 2 finale), those wonderful editors jumbled up the meals again by splitting the judges into two groups. First, Padma, Lidia Bastianich, Alfred Portale, Hubert Keller, and Bill Terlato ate at Richard’s, while Tom, Gail, Art Smith, and Curtis Stone ate at Iz. The judges then swapped.
However, for the sake of clarity in my recap — which I retain full control over (take that, copy editors!) — I will present the meals as they were meant to be eaten.
Blais started with an amuse bouche, something he called “oysters and pearls.” It was a raw oyster with creme fraiche pearls and salsa verde (I haven’t seen salsa verde since every episode of season 6). His first real course was raw hamachi with veal sweetbreads, then a dish of pork belly, black cod, and bone marrow, followed by short ribs with red cabbage marmalade and was safe (though perfectly executed) and the first batch of judges hated his ice cream, while he fixed it in time for the second round.
Mike sent out a spiced beet salad with chocolate vinaigrette, steamed halibut with cumquat marmalade, pork shoulder with pepperoni sauce (yes I said that, and the judges loved it, too), and a rosemary and caramel custard. His salad was met with praise at the table, but was later maligned at judging. Tom called his fish, “the best cooked piece of fish,” he’d had on Top Chef, but thought that his custard was cooked too high too fast.
At judging, Tom redacted his comment about Mike’s fish, qualifying it by saying it was the best piece of fish … until he tasted Richard’s.
As they stewed, Mike’s mother and wife came in for support, while Richard got his … uncle?
By the end, the judges agreed that they loved Richard’s amuse, and Richard took the first two courses as well, but Mike had the third, and they split on the dessert (ultimately giving it to Mike).
After what felt like hours (though I know it was ten minutes), Richard was named Top Chef. I can finally sleep easily. Justice has been served. It took 16 weeks for Top Chef to prove what someone who read the contestant list had said “Oh, well Richard’s going to win.” It could have been that easy, but I was glad to go along for the ride of what was a really great season (I think it made up for season 7), and I’m glad that you all got to join me here on the Quad.
Andy Cohen’s “Watch What Happens” special is going on as I write this, but I have no intention on watching that, since it’s probably as awkward as those bumps of the judges at viewing parties across the country. I will, however, be tuning in for the reunion next week, followed by the premier of Top Chef Masters.
