<p>Thank you to everyone on the east coast that didn’t spill the results. I am watching it now…</p>
<p>sorry littlegreen, i did not think about people watching the 11pm rebroadcast</p>
<p>I turned it off as soon as Padma congratulated the winner, who was among my least favorites from the beginning. Very disappointing.</p>
<p>Poor Carla. She is very talented but possibly to compliant in an effort to be nice. Strong personalities just run over her. If she had a little more back bone, she would have won.<br>
i want to see the reunion show. For two reasons: 1)It was very interesting to see Leah hanging on Hosea to congratulate him and he appeared very uncomfortable. 2) I want to see Stefan’s reaction to Fabio throwing him under the bus.</p>
<p>I actually appreciated Fabio’s honesty. It seemed really hard for him to say that he preferred Hosea’s dish - I don’t think he “threw Stefan under the bus.”</p>
<p>I felt bad for Carla, but she was an idiot. With $100,000 on the line, instructed to “cook the best meal of her life”, she decided to go with a technique she had never even tried? That’s insane! The souffle - OK, she’d made souffles before. But the steak? She could have easily made a simple, drop-dead meat and potatoes dish like she had done before, and perhaps even walked away with the title.</p>
<p>She’ll land on her feet, though.</p>
<p>I’m glad Hosea won; I would have been really ticked off if it had been Stefan.</p>
<p>I’m joking about Fabio throwing Stefan under the bus. It did appear to be very painful for Fabio to say that Hosea’s meal was better. But I still want to see how Stefan reacts to the tape of Fabio’s commnents. Will it end their “bromance”? And what will Jamie say about Stefan asking the tarot card lady about her. Does he have a clue?</p>
<p>Right - I forgot about the tarot lady, and we never did get to see what she said! But I don’t think Jamie needs to say anything more than she said earlier: What part of “lesbian” doesn’t he understand?</p>
<p>I read Toby’s blog on the Top Chef website - sounds like Tom was coming down heavily in favor of Hosea. Stefan must have really put Tom off with his coasting.</p>
<p>Why didn’t Carla actually cook a sou vide packet during the prep to see if she liked it? She could have then changed it overnight.</p>
<p>I did not like Hosea the manslut (what is with people on reality shows acting like this? do they really forget the cameras are there???) winning, but I am still pouting about Jamie & Ariane being bumped by the Leah/Hosea producer rigged ‘thing’ I don’t watch the show for soap opera behaviour, I watch it because I am interested in the food</p>
<p>I agree. I think Hosea must have risen to the occasion last night, but he never should have been there. It should have been Jamie in my book.</p>
<p>I think what turned the judges off Stefan was his laiz faire attitude. I always felt he was cocky and instinctively “knew” he would not win because of it. When Jeff and Jamie came back I was “sure” one of them would win. When they went (again) I was “sure” Carla was going to pull it out of the bag in the end…UNTIL she made the boneheaded decision to prepare something she never had prepared before. (Cue the Sccoby Doo sound…ruh roh) Oh Carla, you cook with heart and soul and THAT’S just what was needed for the finale.</p>
<p>Wasn’t a fan of Hosea just because he was bland. </p>
<p>Oh well. All in all it was a good season (perhaps the best so far) and I was shocked to see Fabio judging food. When has THAT ever happened before?</p>
<p>Impossible to believe how stupid Carla was. It even made me wonder if the “rigging” of the show went beyond the Leah/Hosea thing to actually having Carla “forget” to set the correct over temperature for the souffle and having her try a technique for the first time at <em>this</em> juncture?</p>
<p>But the show surely would not prevent someone for winning, would they? Or would they? A nice bonus or something to blow it? Payola in reality TV??!?</p>
<p>This has made me quite cynical. I don’t see her being that stupid and moving in one fell swoop from “down home” comfort food as her ethos to sous-vide. Hrmmph.</p>
<p>"and I was shocked to see Fabio judging food. When has THAT ever happened before? "
When I saw Fabio at the table I KNEW that Stephan was going down. Tom C. hates Stephans Euro-jerk attitude(personality and food) and needed Fabio there to back up his choice. as in “See even his buddy thinks his food isnt up to par!” Also I would have loved to have been in the room when Tom(probably) gave that British food critic his well deserved dress-down. The Brit seemed a little too sheepish in the last few episodes.</p>
<p>sous-vide instead of something familiar and souffle instead of tart and forgot the temp change? So, two safe and familiar things versus two new risky things.</p>
<p>no worries somemom. When I saw Carla use a new technique, I knew it was a disaster waiting to happen. Come on. When I have special company over for dinner (and I hate to cook, btw) I use ingredients and create a meal that I know will please. </p>
<p>When you have that much time and talent and knowledge about food preparation and flavors, you know what your limits are. You work with those limits. You don’t say - hey, I think this will work! You have to have a pretty good idea of how long to cook something, what temperature to set it at, how long to grill it, etc. You don’t just wing it on national tv. You wing those dishes in your home kitchen, with nothing on the line. </p>
<p>Remember that episode where the chefs are guessing which items were in the complex sauce? They all came up with a variety of things that implies a significant culinary knowledge. Their knowledge about the way food tastes and the best way to cook it, is how they can whip up new dishes on a spur of the moment. If Carla hadn’t tried that technique, she should have said - okay, next time. Not on the biggest, most important meal she was to cook. </p>
<p>Trying a brand new technique on the “best meal” you will ever cook in your life. Boneheaded move. She relied on this other chef. Other boneheaded move.</p>
<p>I didn’t love Hosea all along. Stefan was an arrogant, if not highly accomplished, chef. Fabio was my guy…and probably not as skilled as Stefan, but I would have eaten his food any day of the week. Or Ariane’s.</p>
<p>I keep meaning to ask…did anyone other than me catch the “vulgar” expression that Stefan used last night? I say “vulgar” (in quotes) because the word is usually so offensive to women that I simply assumed that it would be bleeped. It wasn’t. Also Merriam-Webster’s definition states, “usually vulgar”. And no, it’s not p**** (my own edit there). But it’s the one that’s just not used. Perhaps the censor’s aren’t hip to the word, but I rewound it to make sure I heard what I thought I heard. I did.</p>
<p>Anyone else catch it? He’s an idiot.</p>
<p>I dont have DVR, but something he said caught my attention, but I did not catch the word, I had closed captioning on and looked quickly to see if it was lagging behind, but no luck, I don’t know what he said, but it caught me subconsciously, assuming that was the same moment. ;)</p>
<p>I missed it justamom. Do you remember where it was in the show? I have it on DVR so I will go back and look at it and see if I hear it.</p>
<p>Shoot, I don’t recall where in the show he said it, but he was referring to Hosea I believe. Shoot! I deleted the show after watching it, and of course now wish I hadn’t. It was one of those “private” cam moments where Stefan was talking to the camera.</p>
<p>In recalling, I think it equated with being a wimp?</p>