To borrow a line from Iron Chef, “Whose cuisine reigns supreme?” Hosea is the winner of Top Chef Season Five. He wins the trophy, bragging rights and the top prize of $100,000 to help him start his own restaurant. Even though I was pulling for Carla, I’m happy for Hosea. In my last post I said Hosea was consistent and sure enough, that was his strength. Hosea stayed true to himself throughout the season.
The Final Challenge
The final challenge took place at Commander’s Palace in New Orleans. Tom Colicchio told the finalists to “Cook the best 3 course meal of your life.” They had to cook for twelve guests: Ti Martin, Susan, Spicer, John Besch, Rocco Dispirto, Hugh Keller, Fabio, Branford Marsailis, Padma, Tom Coliccio, Tory McPhail, Gail Simmons and Toby Young.
To help the chefs in this season’s final challenge, Top Chef bought back three runner ups from previous seasons to work as their sous chefs: Richard from Season 4, Casey from Season 3, and Marcel from Season 2. Hosea had first choice and it was Richard. Casey worked with Carla and Marcel worked with Stefan.
The Twist
The finale wouldn’t be the same without a twist. At the last minute, Tom told the contestants they would have to make an appetizer. For the appetizers the chefs had three choices: crab, red fish and alligator. Hosea had first choice and chose the red fish, he gave Carla the crab and Stefan the the alligator.
Judges Table
In the end, Carla was out. She allowed Casey too much influence over her dishes and it showed. The judges immediately knew that the food they were eating was not what they had come to expect from Carla. Not only was Sous-vide strip steak not Carla, it was tough and her dessert was a disaster. So the decision was between Hosea and Stefan. Hosea was Hosea – his food was good and it was consistent with his style. One of Stefan’s dishes had some problems and his dessert was labeled ordinary.
In the end, whose cuisine reigned supreme? – Hosea’s!
