Can you guess from this quote?
I
didn’t think I won at all. I really had no idea because they said negative
things about all of us which in the end feels good because I know that nobody
was perfect that day but of course I would have wanted to be much more perfect.
But they definitely made it hard for us all to have any idea what happened. You
can never read the judges and I just had no idea.
Episode
recap, winner interviews, food porn and more, after the jump!
Who knew
braised pistachios were the key to ultimate Top
Chef glory?
Well, kids,
Hillary may have only cracked the glass ceiling, but first female Top Chef Stephanie Izard brought the
house down with her innovative dishes. Last night’s big hit (the only dish to
earn the word “love” from the judges) was her “Roasted Lamb Medallions with
Maitake Mushrooms, Braised Pistachios and Blackberry.” But I’m getting ahead of
myself…(and hungry)...
The season
finale was really all about the food: choosing it, cooking it, and watching the
pretty, pretty judges slurp it up. We began with three guest-star chefs — Eric
Ripert, Dan Barber of Blue Hill, and the Spotted Pig’s April Bloomfield—
showing up to play assistants to the finalists. Since Stephanie and Richard had
won an equal number of challenges, they drew knives to see who could choose
their celeb sous chef first.
Stephanie won, and chose Ripert. Richard went with Barber, and Lisa was happy
to end up with Bloomfield.
One
baby-twist here was that each celeb chef came with a set group of proteins; so
in essence, you choose your sous chef
while also choosing your menu. Once the teams paired up, it was a few quick
hours of frantic prep work in the kitchen. The chefs were instructed to create
a four-course menu, serving fish, then poultry, then red meat, then (gasp! the
horrors!) dessert.
During
prep, Stephanie fretted that she micro-managed (and therefore ticked off) Eric
Ripert. (who could hate Stephanie?) Lisa, who could start a fight with a fallen
log, gets along amazingly well with
April Bloomfield. They hugged it out at the end of prep, and Lisa used the term
“girl power!” But the most adorable moment of the entire show was when Richard
used liquid nitrogen to make bacon ice cream (yes, all those words go together)
and all the celebrity chefs gathered around to watch. Seeing the pure joy and
excitement of these veterans as they learned something new was awesome.
The next
day the chefs show up to — of course — a surprise twist! None of their sous chefs would actually be there to
help them cook. Richard was frazzled; Stephanie was not happy with her ricotta
pound cake; and Lisa was…happy? Calm? Cool? Collected?
It is the
rare reality show that later makes you question reality, but c’mon: was Lisa
actually a joy to work with all this time, and the producers took one or two
moments of nastiness and used them to create her “personality”? We went through
the looking glass on that one, but then it was time for the meals…
Again,
Lisa’s dishes looked great, received a surprisingly welcome reception, and I
still want to make her Tom Ka Soup with dumplings. You had a feeling that if
there hadn’t been cameras there, at least half the judges would have licked
their bowls. (And probably at least one would have licked Padma…) Stephanie
blew folks away with her red snapper fillet and roasted lamb, but the pound
cake was a miss. Richard’s food looked spectacular, and his dessert—a banana
“scallop” with bacon ice cream—was much beloved, but overall the judges seemed
to think his food lacked taste.
Stephanie’s sautéed red snapper
filet with truffled white asparagus and clam broth
Stephanie’s
seared quail breast with butter-poached lobster ravioli and mango
Stephanie’s roasted lamb medallions
with maitake mushrooms, braised pistachios and blackberry
Stephanie’s ricotta pound cake with
lime glaze, pineapple and salted banana cream
Then came
the judges’ table, where the final-moment big shocker was Richard saying he
“choked.” The judges were floored, and even though they slightly agreed, you
could tell no one expected, you know, truth or humility. In the end, the judges
praised all three contestants (and I still want some of Lisa’s soup)…but it was
Stephanie who was crowned Top Chef.
Here she
is, giddy and cute as all get-out:
