WARNING: This post includes Top Chef finale spoilers. If you DVR’d it and haven’t watched it yet, please scroll down and read this post later.
I’m usually a fan of whatever artisanal reality competition show is running on Bravo at a given moment, but this was the first season I really cottoned to Top Chef. The chefs developed a genuine camaraderie, Tom Colicchio got to be a bit less of a dick, tall-drink-of-water CJ and sweaty Brian provided eye candy, and we got an up-close look at Rocco DiSpirito’s recent facework.
Even Padma’s relentless sycophancy (Colicchio: “That dish was awful.” Padma: “Awful.”) got to be less annoying as the season wore on.
That’s why I was disappointed by tonight’s finale, which saw a shocking flameout for Casey (my favorite of the finalists) and a stick-in-the-craw victory for cutthroat, immature Hung. As for Dale, well…my guess is he isn’t a top anything.
It’s hard to second-guess the judges’ decisions on Top Chef since, you know, you can’t taste the food. But it sucks to invest in watching an entire season only to be left with a douchebaggy victor. Now if somebody would just mail me a vacuum-sealed sample of Hung’s raw hamachi fish ‘n chips, I might re-consider.
Nice job on this post. You expressed my thoughts completely and I didn’t even have to write it. I have gotten disgusted with the pretentious judges on this show. Each one thinks he is such an expert. If they are such experts, then why do they disagree with one another? And they are also just plain nasty. Followed “Top Design” on the HG network and it was a pleasure. The judges were very amicable and the nastiness exhibited on “Top Chef” was totally absent from this show.
i agree that these food connoiseurs were far too haughty and bitchy .. do they ever enjoy ANYthing ?
casey seems like a nice gal, but she totally fell apart and always serves her meats raw. two of dale’s dishes were proclaimed triumphs .. so, of course, in the tradition of game shows everywhere, the winner had to be the other guy : boring, safe, but ‘technically good’ hung. what a disappoinment. hate to see the selfish and nasty win… and dale was suddenly growing on me toward the end .. kinda sweet.. oh well. i did get into ‘top chef’ more this season too though ..more cuties i guess which always helps.
‘top design’ was fun and it looks like ‘project runway’ is shaping up to be a hoot. too bad tim gunn’s show is just a total rip-off of ‘what not to wear’.. i’ll stick with stacey and clinton, thank you. tim’s a riot in spurts but he can’t carry a whole show.