We Have A Top Chef !!!!!

SPOILER ALERT !!! I discuss the finale, including the Winner below !!!
You Have Been Warned !!!














Thank God it wasn't Lisa !!!!


It was....Stephanie !!!

Hooray for Stephanie !!!
She was one of the people we(My Special Lady and I) thought would make it to the end. We thought Richard would, as well. Lisa, she was an unpleasant surprise.
And I gotta admit, for a few minutes last night, I thought that Padme

And the other judges

Were going to give it to Lisa. And that would have sucked. And it would have sucked for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it would have sucked for me because I just didn't like her. She had a sour face all the time. She whined about everything, nothing was ever her fault.

But I also think it would have been unfair from another standpoint: I cannot remember a moment when she finished highly in the challenges.She was a bottom feeder for most(if not all of the show), She was just fortunate that someone was always deemed(incorrectly, at least once) to be a lesser Chef than her. And in some ways, I don't think it would have been fair for her to win the Final Challenge unless every single thing she did was perfect and near revolutionary, or unless Richard and Stephanie screwed up monumentally.

How you do in the final challenge should be important, but what is the pint of the whole competition, if someone can hang around near the bottom of the pack, sneak into the Finale ,and then win because she did things on a par with the other Chefs ? Doesn't there have to be some cumulative effect of the competition ? Richard and Stephanie were consistently among the Top Chefs every week. If that's going to be the case, they why not just pick three chefs and have them prepare a 4 course meal ? Why bother with all the eliminations along the way ?

It's a bit of a moot point because Stephanie won, but I think there would have been some serious questioning if Lisa had won. I know I would have been up in arms.

I thought it was interesting that Richard said the he choked, and I was completely unsurprised that Tom agreed with him.

Though I must admit, I had the feeling going in that they wanted Richard to win. Not in any unfair way, but I got this vibe that Tom, in particular, really appreciated how Richard goes about things. But in the end, he just did not have his best night when he needed to have it. I also felt like he had counted on the sous chef being there the most on the second day.

Well, I think that's my two cents about this one.

Congrats again, Stephanie !!!