Top Chef NY Winner Named in New Orleans

Top Chef finalists Stefan, Carla and Hosea at left; some of their dishes at right

Last night was the finale of Top Chef New York. The final cheftesants standing were Stefan (aka the European), Carla (aka the chef with love), and Hosea (aka the chef who really hated Stefan), and they were tasked to create a three-course meal—not including the last minute twist, of course. Some thoughts about the finale and season overall below (spoilers are after the jump):

Didn't everyone wish Hosea would just make out with Stefan already? He hated Stefan so much, it was clearly love!
What was going on with Gail Simmons' boobs?
If only there could have been a real throwdown over the foie gras and caviar.

The return of former finalists was welcome—Blais! Marcel with his AstroBoy hair! Casey!
Except for the fact that Casey's suggestions doomed Carla. Poor Carla—she's too nice! We hope she wins a fan favorite prize.
Stefan wasn't a villain—in fact, he's a secret softie, as shown by how he was trying to comfort Carla.
Yay, Fabio came back for the finale.
Ugh, Toby Young was back for the finale.
Hosea was anointed the winner, which was anti-climactic. He's supposedly a seafood chef, but his seafood dishes have been hit or miss all season. Just sayin'.

All in all, it was an uneven season of Top Chef, with our favorite challenges being the Last Supper and the Le Bernardin challenge.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in Food on February 26, 2009 1:10 PM

Comments [rss]

ANGRYGOD11

FABIO: fan favorite prize.

Personality goes a long way.

And his mama his sick.

And I love fresh pasta.

grandeur

I was rooting for carla, but would have settled with stefan.

hosea is a whiny little bitch with an inferiorty complex.

peanut100

i hate you hosea!!!!!

carla for life. i'm still feeling shattered.

what is this now? top middling chef? the guy is a werid creepy dinosaur looking troll.

thanks casey for ruining everything! go make some coq au vin with chicken!

ANGRYGOD11

I remember every single one of Casey's roomates got eliminated. She's talented, nice,and pretty, but she's also the kiss of death.

icedespresso

Gail's boobs can be explained in one word: preggo.

RDR105

Me likey!

Laren Spirer

Agreed.

fakenewyorker

fuck hosea. richard blais won the contest for him.

GOP

Toby Young: "This _____ reminds me of the time I went to _____ and experienced a _____. [Insert weird analogy here.] [Conclude with something that tries to be funny but really isn't but Toby pauses for effect anyway.]"

Jen Chung

That's totally spot-on ... Also: This [dish] reminds me of [non food cultural reference, like a movie, movie star, British actor, something douchey] trying to be [another non food cultural reference] and fails miserably.

Bottomless Chips

I think every Top Chef viewer agreed on that one: Toby Young FUCKING sucked.

He was like Jeffrey Steingarten---a talentless hack, curmudgeon.

At least Bourdain's criticism holds water since---you know---he actually cooks and has a restaurant.

It's not that a non-classically trained chef or someone who isn't a chef at all can't have a great palate and good critiques, but it lacks a certain bit of credibility.

PTG in nyc

Hosea never impressed me as being any better than a top 5 chef, and his whining was annoying. It was nice when he could once in awhile justify being such a bitch about Stefan by actually doing better than him, but Stefan was by far the best overall.

Carla and Hosea both limped along and managed to never get cut, but Carla displayed brilliance towards the end that I never saw in Hosea.

In all seasons good chefs get eliminated from one bad challenge, but the talent pool seems to have decreased to the point where they need to create a points/legacy/credit system so that good chefs are given a pass once or twice for their mistakes.

It could be argued that Jamie and Jeff were better than Hosea, but again none were better than Stefan. Stefan was a dick but the fact that he always won meant he was allowed to be, where as Hosea just seemed like that really inferior jealous guy who needed to shut his mouth more than he did. It was a shame to see Fabio go as well, as I think he was a top 3 contestant.

Seriously, what was with Gail's boobs?

grammarman

I agree completely with PTG. Stefan, in my opinion, can cook anything -- and do it well.

Jen Chung

Carla didn't seem that great in the first half—there were a few episodes where I thought she'd get cut, but part of it, I thought, was because she agreed to do desserts.

I'm not sure why Leah was on for so long—to continue the Hosea-Leah storyline? And Jamie seemed really talented, too, I was sorry she left.

jibbly

Yeah, Leah should have been out much earlier.

Jamie seemed like she didn't really want to be there any longer towards the end of her run. She was talented for sure.

nomnomnom

I think Gail's boobs were getting their revenge on Padima's nipples from that Last Supper episode two weeks ago.

StrawbrryF

I think we're going to find out in a couple of months that Gail is pregnant. Hence the giant boobs.

Internet Handle

Does every male on the show try to look like Tom Collichio? Someone should let them know, he's famous because people like his cooking, not because he's a bald, stern-looking white man.

Clarice City

Jesus, you're right! They are clones!

ANGRYGOD11

Considering all the previous winners had a full head of hair and last season's winner has a vagina, I'd say don't bother.

Jen Chung

I admit—I was disappointed when Hosea won, I was really rooting for Carla. After that, I wanted Stefan to win.

Clarice City

Her nifty hair-do were enough for my vote.

Clarice City

Damnit! I really wanted Carla!

jibbly

I was also rooting for Carla. If only she didn't listen to Casey!

But she still won the car in part 1 of the finale! Oh and Fabio is most likely going to win fan favorite.

One last thing, do you think Hosea's girlfriend will stay with him now that he won the $100k or break up with him because of the whole smoochy-smoochy cheating?