Top Chef Finale

Posted by Stephanie Gallagher Jan 25, 2007

Oh. My. God. I cannot believe last night's Top Chef! How could they let Sam go? We all knew he should have won it! Of course, none of us could taste his food, but he was the best! Right?

Judging from the Top Chef bulletin boards and the number of emails I've received today, I know I'm not alone in wishing Sam didn't get the boot last night, and that anybody but Marcel ended up the other contender.

On the other hand, let's look at what this really means for the contestants -- and us, food-loving fans.

Sam Is Going to be Okay

The fact is Sam will probably earn more than $100,000 in consulting fees, endorsements and other paid work anyway, thanks to his appearance on Top Chef. So the notoriety alone has helped him. If it's his dream to open a restaurant, Top Chef opened more than a few doors for him. And he will no doubt, easily be able to pursue whatever culinary dreams he has (short of his own Food Network series. For that, he's going to have to get a bit more front-of-the-camera personality).

What About Marcel?

Marcel, on the other hand, is a different story. None of us is rooting for him. Like Steven from last season, he has a superior attitude that supercedes anything else we can judge about it.

While I commend the judges for clearly keeping personalities out of the judging process, I do think personality should ultimately play a role in choosing the Top Chef. A Top Chef should be a leader, and should be able to engender respect and a certain amount of camraderie from his team. Whatever Marcel's talents in the kitchen are, that isn't one of them.

I also feel sorry for Marcel. I suspect the superior attitude is merely covering for his own insecurities, and clearly, he has cooking talent. I wish him well, but I don't wish him the spot of Top Chef.

The Judges Deserve Credit

Which brings me to the judges. They did an admirable job of remaining objective. They clearly knew everybody's opinion of Sam and Marcel going into this round, yet they based their decision on the food alone.

Still, everyone is human. And perhaps the right way to move forward is to keep the contestants anonymous, so the judges don't know whose food they're eating.

In addition, while I like the idea of giving each contestant a fresh slate for each challenge, I believe that toward the end, past successes or failures should count for something.

Marcel managed to pull out all the stops last night, but there were many, many times his food was judged as sub-par. For consistency alone, Sam beat him.

Finally, as Tom Colicchio reminded me when I interviewed at the end of last season, sometimes what we see in front of the camera isn't the whole story. I was rooting for LeeAnne big time last season, and when I spoke to Colicchio, he let it slip that while she was technically proficient, she didn't have the soul of a Top Chef.

Stay tuned...with the success of this season's Top Chef, I'm sure we can look forward to more exciting cooking competitions on TV.