Top Chef Season 5

The season finale of Top Chef was last night and I was really excited to see who would take the title. Hosea Rosenberg won the competition and hats off to him. I found all three contestants in the finale to have served uninspired cuisine at best.

Carla was led astray by her “sous chef” a past runner up in season 3 or 4. She chose to listen to her partner when cooking arguably the most important meal of her life. Her downfall was two fold. First she cooked a sirloin “sous vide.” This means to place the meat in a sealed, airtight, bag and SLOWLY poached at a VERY LOW temperature. The idea is that the protein strands in the meat never really tighten because of the low temperature, thus yielding an ultra-tender piece of meat. If done well this can be amazing. But you never employ a technique you have never tried before during a make it or break dinner. In addition to sous vide anything takes hours and hours. A tough cut like sirloin could take up to six hours or more and they only had five hours total to write the menu, prep, plate, and present. This was clearly not enough time. Her second mistake was that she again listened to her partner and made soufflé instead of following her cuisine. The soufflé curdled in an oven that was too hot and her fate was sealed.

Stefan, oh Stefan. I had my heat set on him winning as his ego was as big as all outdoors and I really thought he was the best chef on the show. In the end his ego and his dessert kept him from the title. He thought he had the competition in the bag and he was over-confident. He under estimated Hosea’s abilities from the beginning. His dessert was childish, sloppy looking, and dated. He did chocolate and berry ice creams with a banana lollipop and a chocolate basket that looked like he piped it while have a seizure. CRAP!

Lastly, Hosea the “winner” took the easy way out and served an average meal that lacked creativity and was certainly not Top Chef worthy. He had a great passed canapé of blackened fish on a corn cake with Cajun remoulade, which I thought looked really nice, and was presented well. Then he did some sashimi that the judges said was under seasoned-under seasoned on Top Chef? Then he finished with a roasted venison loin, which looked nice but was served with a blackberry demi-glace that lacked blackberry flavor. With all these issues he was still able to win? A total disappointment all around!

I will say that they all have some skills. I don’t know if I would be able to cook under some of the conditions that the contestants were able to cook under. Cooking for Eric Ripert, Jacques Pepin, Wylie Dufresne, and Anthony Bourdain- fucking BOURDAIN! But if you sign up for it that is what you are in for. I fully intend on applying to the show again this coming season, maybe you’ll see something better than a banana lollipop or grilled deer meat in the finale!