Bravo’s battle for kitchen dominance came to a head Wednesday night, featuring an odd collection of challengers. And really, you could have made a case for picking any of them to win it all. Stefan is probably the most skilled, but he’s also a bit of a jackass, and his confidence could get him into trouble. Hosea seemed to spend most of the season in Stefan’s shadow, but there were enough encouraging moments to suggest that based on one night, he could win as well. And Carla was the underdog from early on, but her run at the end of the competition certainly gave her a chance. So, who won?
Hosea! It actually came down to a close call between Hosea and Stefan, but I think they ultimately made the right decision. And the reason for that gets us right back to the issue I mentioned last week, Toby. In the deliberation he kept going back to the fact that Stefan made a dessert, but Hosea didn’t, as if that should carry any kind of weight in the final decision. I was happy that Tom finally put an end to it by pointing out that the rules said it was fine to not do a dessert. You can’t very well have a rule that says the competitors don’t have to make a dessert, and then penalize them for not doing it, right?
That dessert ended up being Stefan’s undoing, as it fell short of the final plate that Hosea offered. Getting to those plates was another odd bit of the show. I was surprised, and a little disappointed, when the chefs from the past seasons were brought out to assist with the finals. I couldn’t believe that they would give up the chance to get Fabio back on screen, and I was sure that he would end up working with Stefan. Fortunately, he did manage to get on screen as a guest during the competition, and he did a nice job. And really, he ended up getting much more screen time as a result, because Casey, Richard, and Marcel were all mostly ignored.
The sad bit, of course, was the mistake that ended up taking Carla out of the competition. Up until that last dish, it was looking like she still had a chance to win, and given the choices, it was pretty easy to pull for her. The mistake made it tough to watch her answer to Tom’s question about why she should win. Everyone knew at that point that it was down to Hosea and Stefan. In the end, it was another solid season, and Top Chef remains my favorite of the cooking competition shows.
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Feb 26, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
and the Stefan haters need to notice that it was STEFAN, not Hosea who comforted Carla at judges’ table. The editors want to make him the requisite villain of the season, but if you watch carefully, Stefan is a nice guy. He’s confident, but his cooking gives him the right to that confidence. Hosea winning means that Ilan is not alone in using the stay in the middle and don’t actively mess-up strategy to success in this show.
Agreed. There is confidence and then there is arrogant confidence. Stefan was never arrogant. Slightly European sure, but not arrogant.
Even with it being “all in the editing” Hosea was a utter dick time and time again.
Argue semantics all you want, but Hosea won because Stefan had an off day. At his best day, Stefan would beat him every time.