Top Chef Season 4: The Finale Tonight

After much drama…surprise, surprise….the Top Chef Finale has arrived.  Amazingly enough I thought that it was another week until the Top Chef was crowned.  Usually they have those Reunion shows somewhere in between the madness.  I suppose they are saving that for next week.  So I wonder just how many of the cheftestants can’t stand Lisa?

Lisa definitely has some personality issues.  I was quite amazed at her remarks to Stephanie and Richard for not congratulating her.  She feels this need to be on the defensive….hence, her weakness, and what will not only keep her from winning, but could be a detriment to her career.  I loved Richard’s comment, “What were we supposed to say.  Yeah, congratulations on your bronze medal.”  I truly do love this man.

It was sad to see Antonia go, but I saw that one coming.  She had an off day and made an unforgivable mistake, the pigeon beans were undercooked.  Lisa skated by and didn’t make that big of a mistake….again.  If you haven’t had a chance, go over to Skillet Doux.  He is a chef who looks in detail at the food.  The puts a microscope to the recipes each week and writes his take just from a food stand point.

Tom Colicchio discussed in detail about the decision to have Antonia “Pack up her knives”.  As everyone knows, most people think that there is some conspiracy to keep Lisa there for ratings.  He explains their decision and addresses the theories in his blog:

So who made the small mistakes? Lisa’s puree was too sweet. Antonia’s pigeon peas were undercooked and she opted to serve all of her offerings on one plate. Rather than giving it the rustic feel she was going for, this gave her food a muddy, jumbled quality, and turned the “al dente” peas into a spoiler for four dishes instead of just one.

One taste of each contestant’s dishes was all it took for me to know immediately how the judging would play out, and a quick glance around the party confirmed it: As the guests queued up for seconds, a long, winding line snaked its way around Richard’s table. Another line, of decent length, led to Stephanie’s, and a short but interested one led to Lisa’s. There was no line at Antonia’s table……

…It seems that the theory-that-just-won’t-die has surfaced yet again because of Lisa, who has enraged people with her defiant, arms-crossed Judges’ Table scowl. She’s clearly not as loved as some of the other chefs who have been sent packing, leading to the conspiracy theories: They kept her for the ratings! I can see why some take issue with Lisa — she’s been called out on the carpet a number of times and somehow seems to hang on. I think Lisa, along with a few chefs from past seasons (Dave Martin and Mike Midgley are two that come to mind,) benefited from a phenomenon I call the “lucky-dog-who-keeps-skating-by-effect,” in which a chef of decent, but not stellar, skills gets lucky and doesn’t screw up at precisely the moment that one of their more gifted opponents does. And since we judge each week’s Elimination Challenge on its own merits, we are operating each time under the assumption that everyone still cooking deserves to be there.

Now you may hate us for standing in the “judge each week on it’s own merits” corner, and personally subscribe to the “judge each week by overall performance” camp, but consider for a moment if we did judge each contestant based on their cumulative merits — by whose analysis, exactly? And how do we arrive at a consensus? My idea of how the chefs rank may vary widely from Ted or Gail’s. And what about our Guest Judge — he or she doesn’t know any of the chefs — of what value at that point is their input? The debate would shift from “who won this episode?” to “who’s won the most episodes?” and “should we factor in the Quickfires?” “Does attitude or likability count?” “How about we assign each dish a score, tally them up, and then knock people off by the numbers?” Etc. etc …. It opens a huge, even more contentious can of worms. The “week-by-week” logic may be only incrementally fairer than the “overall performance” argument, but it’s our story, and we’re sticking to it.

That said, I felt manipulated by the week-before-last’s show — it really did seem like Lisa should have been sent home over Dale. I wrote this in my blog not to sell my fellow judges up the river, but rather to empathize with viewers who are left to wonder, How did that happen?” It’s hard to boil four or more hours of nuanced debate into a few minutes of screen time, and I can see why the results don’t always mesh with what viewers have seen.

I can only resolve to follow my gut each week about the food in front of me, and hope that Top Chef fans stick it out with us and keep writing in. Your thoughts and comments, even when I don’t agree, are an essential part of making this a dish that works.

I do understand where Tom and the judges are coming from and by this explanation this makes sense.  I disagree on one point.  I do believe that in the beginning of the competition each challenge should be rated on it own merit, but when you are at the finales that judging theory should go out the window and past performance should matter.  If you are a Project Runway fan then you understand.  Of course, I know that Tom hates to be compared to that show and Uncle Tim (I always imagine that Tim Gunn is that uncle of mine who always is there to give me advice, “Make it happen, Tracey, make it happen.”).

Anyway, when you watch the judges on Project Runway they take into consideration the designers past accomplishments, their fashion point and if they want to see more from them.  I disagree with the judges at Top Chef.  This is not, “Who is the Top Chef Today”, it is TOP CHEF.  A Top Chef has very few bad days, often arises to the occasion, has a very distinct and personal culinary point-of-view and is a strong leader.  Their judging process makes it possible for chefs like Lisa to make it to the finales, which should be an honor.  It also makes it possilbe for chefs like Ilan to win.  Ilan wasn’t a bad chef, but he really fell under the radar and skated to his win.  He never really pushed the envelope and made it to the final two because others made mistakes at the wrong time…others who I feel were really better chefs.

This brings us to the finale.  I will say that Stephanie and Richard both fit the title of Top Chef to a tee.  Lisa is far more another story.  I am not concerned that Lisa will pull off an upset and win.  I agree with Dominic at Skillet Doux:

Can she do it again? I don’t know. But I’m not convinced it matters, because even at her best, there’s no way she wins this thing. Always being better than just one other person can take you all the way to the final episode, when you suddenly have to be better than two, and I just don’t see that happening.

I believe he is right….and I guess we will find out tonight.