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| Rick Bayless, Photo: Bravo |
So how climactic could last night's finale have possibly been? Three of the most established, entitled chefs in America duking it out for ... what, exactly?
Well, words like "honor," "pride" and "respect" were thrown around, as were references to the charity money at stake, of course. There were the requisite sound bites about "every one of us deserving to win" or "this will be the closest" of all the season's scores. Yes, the group-hug feel of the entire season culminated in a finale so steeped in admiration, they had to set it in a museum, Malibu's majestic Getty Villa.
All of this made Italian stallion Michael Chiarello's fighting spirit -- so cockily annoying in previous episodes (though this week he attributed this impression to Bravo's editing) -- a breath of fresh air, even if he did overdo the boxing metaphors: "It's like Rocky Marciano, Rocky Balboa and Rocky's trainer all in the ring at the same time," he quipped, leading one to wonder who the Burgess Meredith of this trio of celebrity chefs might be -- graying Frenchman Hubert Keller, perhaps?
The pugilist vibe seemed to indicate that the gloves were coming off, or "the truffles are coming out of the bag." Keller was so enamored of his, which were overnighted from his homeland (what happened to the usual dollar limit on ingredients?) that he did a little celebratory dance, shaking the velvety fungi-like maracas.
Alas, his tango of joy was premature, even as all three chefs pulled out every last stop. Keller juxtaposed his decadent truffle- and caviar-adorned courses with a hearty, "laundry day" Alastian lamb stew. Not to be outdone, Chiarello served up gnocchi adorned with truffle fonduta, and had the nerve to serve jars of creamy rabbit polenta atop charred copies of Saveur magazine -- a ironic challenge to judge James Oseland, Saveur editor and sometime Chiarello detractor.
If there was an underdog winner in this rarefied bunch, it was Bayless, and his wish to bring the "integrity to Mexican food that it really deserves" did not go unheeded by the panel, who've been singing his praises all season. Even a fourth-course misstep of slightly overcooked shellfish couldn't erase the memory of his 27-ingredient, Oaxacan black mole, which made Gael Greene "shiver" and Jay Rayner proclaim, "I lost my mole virginity to you!"
The sexy description may seem out of place for the hopelessly nerdy, newly crowned Top Chef Master -- but then again, nerds are in.
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8-20-2009 @11:59AM playswithfood said... thanks for the big spoiler - I may unsubscribe from your feed now.
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8-20-2009 @12:15PM Tom said... playswithfood: ditto
thanks slashfood!...
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8-20-2009 @12:21PM Kevin R. said... Bad form... again. Just over 12 hours after the episode is shown, you spoil it. Can't wait till Top Chef starts up again. No point in watching, just come here.
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8-20-2009 @12:37PM Aaron said... C'mon guys...spoiling it again?! Like the 3 before me, I haven't seen it yet. To top it off, my shriek of disappointment just turned heads in this cafe.
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8-20-2009 @12:45PM Patrick said... Guys, this is a tv review/recap site. This is what they do. If something like this is going to ruin your day, maybe you should read some other blogs until you get caught up. The episode aired last night, so in tv terms, it's not really a spoiler anymore.
PS. I haven't seen the episode yet either, but I came here understanding that it was a possibility I might be spoiled.
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8-20-2009 @1:03PM Harlan said... @Patrick: But the TITLE of the post spoiled the result. That's what's uncool. I'm happy to hold reading the article until after I've seen the episode, but my RSS reader displays the titles, whether I like it or not. It's very, very bad form to put a spoiler in the title!
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8-20-2009 @1:07PM MikeB said... Dammit! I had intentionally avoided opening any of the stories in my RSS feeds that I even thought might talk about Top Chef Masters and here its spoiled in the damn feed title itself. NOT COOL!
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8-20-2009 @1:16PM Josh said... Thanks for the spoiler. :-(
I watched all season to have it ruined by Slashfood. Please consider not using headlines to announce winners of food competition shows.
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8-20-2009 @1:34PM Patrick said... @Harlan: Fair enough -- you have a point (and I see they've changed the headline).
To be honest, I was also browsing TV Squad just before this (which looks pretty similar), where this sort of thing is more common.
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8-20-2009 @1:45PM kas said... My first comment never showed! Anyway, thanks for changing the post title - and I actually do feel okay that I can delete it from TiVo without watching :)
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8-20-2009 @2:10PM Kara said... Wow. Yeah. Great. I couldn't watch last night so I Tivo'd. Nice going Slashfood. Thanks a lot.
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8-20-2009 @2:47PM dennis said... Thanks for taking away the excitement, dear Slashfood. At least put "spoiler alert" in the headings...
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8-20-2009 @2:47PM Kevin R. said... @Patrick: I disagree that "this is a tv review/recap site". I realize that is part of the content of the site but it's not the main focus. At least I've never seen it that way.
I think it's funny that the article title has changed but the caption on the photo has not.
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8-20-2009 @3:22PM Slashfood Editor said... I apologize, guys. It won't happen again.
Best,
Alex
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8-21-2009 @1:01PM Patrick said... @Kevin: Yes, you're right. As I mentioned above, I was browsing TV Squad (which IS a tv recap site) just before this, which uses the exact same layout, so my brain was still in that mode. My mistake.
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8-21-2009 @2:46PM Bo3b said... I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around all this disappointment in Rick's win. We were regulars at his restaurants for many years before we moved away from Chicago. I can tell you every praise heaped on him is richly deserved. His food is truly amazing and not to be believed. You've not tasted Mexican food till you've eaten at Frontera or Topolobampo.
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