By Arthur Perkins
 
Let me start with a mea culpa. I could not read my notes properly and identified the new car Carla won in the last episode semi-finals as a Nissan Sentra. In watching this final episode, the commercials for the Toyota Venza (I have never heard of it before) convince me that I made a mistake and it was the Venza that Carla won.
 
The final episode is again in New Orleans and Stefan, Carla and Hosea are battling for the $100,000 prize, as Padma says provided by the Glad family of products. Most observers see either Stefan or Carla winning it with Hosea being the "Steady Eddy" of this competition but a dark horse due to fewer Elimination challenge wins than the other two. The Final Elimination challenge (no Quickfire needed) is to cook the best possible 3 course meal. Cocktails do not enter into this at all, which in my view is totally appropriate. Designing drinks for the semi-finals was a distraction in my opinion. However, Hosea says to look out for a twist as Tom Colicchio is famous for adding tasks in finals. A very wide selection of ingredients including some luxury ones is available, but only in limited amounts. It's first come first served and so Hosea takes all the foie gras and the caviar and Stefan is bitching because he did not think and act quickly enough. Hosea gives him one bag of foie gras, but keeps all the rest. There is 2 hours to prep/cook at the Audubon Tea Room, then next day 3 hours to cook and serve at Commander's Palace restaurant. I have been there to eat once and I found it good but not as special as its reputation as the finest restaurant in New Orleans indicates (I would give the nod to Brigsten's and never had the chance to go to Bayona). In any event, major kudos are due to Commander's Palace for hosting this.
 
The day of final competition starts with a leisurely breakfast on the Creole Queen, a paddlewheeler making tourist trips up and down the Mississippi River near New Orleans. Tom arrives as they start cooking and brings the twist with him. The judges want an extra appetizer course added to the meal.
One additional event was the arrival of the 3 sous chefs. Normally these are drawn from the recent eliminees in the same season, but Jeff, Jaime and Leah had been used last episode. Top Chef 5 has gone with one finalist each from Top Chef 2, 3 and 4, Marcel Vigneron, Casey Thompson, and Richard Blais. An important knife draw determines who gets first pick. Hosea wins and takes Richard, Stefan takes Marcel and Carla is left with Casey. Next, Hosea is the lucky chef gets to also gets to assign three special ingredients, one to each of the contestants. Hosea wins and takes redfish for himself, gives crab to Carla and forces Stefan to use alligator. Stefan was on record as considering alligator to be difficult to work with. Then Tom tells them that this ingredient is to be the foundation of their appetizer. Stefan cuts the tail off and uses only that because of its higher ration of meat.
 
The auxiliary judges are a special group:
Ti Martin, owner of Commander's Palace
Susan Spicer, owner/chef at Bayona
John Besh executive chef (I saw him win a national cooking competition over about 100 other chefs on the Food Channel)  of August in New Orleans
Rocco Dispirito (when not on Dancing with the Stars he tends to show up on Top Chef) and celebrity chef
Hubert Keller, probably the eminence grise of American cooking and chef/owner of Fleur de LysFabio Viviana, semi-finalist in this competition
Tory McPhail, executive chef at Commander's Palace
Branford Marsalis, noted musician and foodie
 
In addition, the final judging will be done by Toby Young (who graciously stepped out so Emeril Lagasse could be the semi-finals judge last episode), Gail Simmons,  Padma, and Tom.
 
The menus are:
STEFAN
Alligator Soup with celeriac, parsley leaves and puff pastry
 chipotle salsa and Asian spices
Smoked Salmon and Halibut Carpaccio w/ microgreens, lemon vinaigrette and caviar
pan-seared Squab, braised red cabbage and schnupfnudlen dumpling, food gras and grape jus
Stracciatella Ice Cream and Chocolate Mousse w/ Vanilla syrup and banana lollipop
 
CARLA
Shiso Soup w/ blue crab and chayote Thai sauce
Redfish on Saffron Aioli and crouton, braised fennel and grilled clam
Seared New York Strip Steak (cooked sous vide), seared potato rod and merlot sauce (Carla's version of meat and potatoes)
Apple Tartlet (a blue cheese souffle was overcooked and curdled so she elected to not serve it as originally planned with the tart) w/ apple coins and blue cheese and walnut crumble, a small salad, blue cheese, and kumquat
 
HOSEA
Blackened Redfish w/ grit-filled corncake and Creole Remoulade
Trio of Sashim (tuna, hamachi, black bass), fennel oil, citrus and fried tempura bits, kumquats, shaved fennel salad
Seared Scallop w/ foie gras on pain perdu, apple preserves and foie gras foam (the Richard Blais influence; I was surprised to not see any from Marcel)
Pan-roasted venison loin w/ chestnut and celery root puree with wild mushrooms, carbonated blackerries (also the Blais influence)
 
A significant event happened as Carla's menu choices were discussed between Carla and Casey. Casey recommended that Carla try sous vide, which Casey knew but Carla had no experience with. Casey also recommended doing a souffle in addition to the apple tart. Carla was responsible for quality control on it but lost sight of it and it overcooked and curdled, forcing her to not put it on the plate. Marcel states that Stefan's choice of frozen fish for the carpaccio will come back to bite him.
 
There was another controversy as a result of Hubert Keller not understanding the rules or trying to rewrite them. Contestants were told that there was no penalty for not making a dessert their last course. Stefan and Carla made desserts but Hosea chose a meat dish that he was more comfortable with. Hubert argued that this was not a proper complete meal, but the 4 final judges ignored him (probably because they knew their rules better than he did). There was a comment on foie gras where I believe Rocco di Spirito thought it was out of place. Branford Marsalis told him he could eat unlimited foie gras all the time and that it should be always welcome.  Fabio and Tom said that Hosea's dish lacked enough salt. Tom stated that Stefan's salmon overpowered the halibut and that using frozen fish with thin shaving caused it to be diluted. Toby says Hosea's and Stefan's dishes were perfectly executed but bland but Carla's had real personality.
 
Carla lost the soul of her first dish in her meat and potatoes according to John Besh, even though her sauce was good.
 
Gail is disappointed that no good desserts are on the plate. She claims that Stefan did a 1982 dessert. Tory liked the total meal from Stefan but he is not getting much support from others. Tom and Gail both loved Hosea's venison.
 
Padma asked Fabio who the winner should be. Fabio swallowed hard because he is on record as favoring Stefan, but he admitted that the best meal was Hosea's. Carla acknowledged to Casey that this was not the best meal she ever cooked and she relates that to not cooking her own food, a direct dig at Casey for her recommendations. However, the person who approved and adopted those recommendations was Carla herself, so if she was not clear on her own judgment prevailing then she did not deserve to be Top Chef.  It is almost certain from the auxiliary judges comments that she will not win.
 
Final judging team comments are next, with the finalists there:
Gail - Hosea's appetizer was excellent; Toby agrees
Gail - Carla's appetizer was also excellent
Tom - Carla's bouillabaisse was excellent; Gail agrees
Gail - Carla's NY Strip Steak had an unusual texture which was a negative (undoubtedly from the sous vide); Tom agrees and Toby finds the dish should be larger in flavor
Toby- not enough citrus flavors in hamachi
All agree that Hosea's scallop and venison dishes were really good
Toby  and tom -alligator soup was good
Tom- fish was watered down
Tom and Gail - squab was excellent
Stefan defends his dessert but that did not change Gail's mind.
Gail - Stefan's squab was cooked perfectly
 
Padma summarizes the discussion to date and states that Carla is out of the running. It is pretty clear that Stefan had the one best dish but fell down on his carpaccio and one dessert. Hosea did a very good or excellent job on all his courses so I expect him to win (even though I came to this episode wanting Carla to)
 
Gail states her principle that a good meal should progress from light to heavier and Hosea was one who did that. There was also a discussion of "soul". I personally think this is complete rubbish. Carla claims more love and heart and soul in her food. I like flavor in mine.
 
The chefs return again as the final verdict was announced. Carla did manage to throw Casey under the bus but this does not change the taste of Carla's food. Toby says Stefan's menu was better, but the carpaccio was bad. Stefan's squab was the best dish of the night.  Tom agrees with Gail that Hosea had a wonderful progression of food. Hosea wins, with Stefan an unannounced second and Carla clearly third. Hosea is happy to have taken it away from Stefan, who he detests. The fan vote was over 60% for Carla, indicating why the fans cannot judge from their TV rooms as they go on personality and do not have direct access to the flavors being tasted.

(Photo courtesy of Bravo)

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