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Put a Fork in Season Three, It's Done

Posted by Harold Check, October 4, 2007 at 9:45 AM

The third season of Top Chef came to a close last night with the second half of the Aspen, Colorado, challenge, pitting Dale, Hung, and Casey against each other in a finale that covered some familiar territory with a few new twists. The biggest adjustment was perhaps a little bit anticlimactic—a live reveal. The contestants were kept in the dark for the past month or so, in preparation for 15 minutes of live TV from a dimly lit Chicago studio, which did not compare very favorably to the scenic grandeur of Aspen.

As in previous years, the chefs were free to prepare dishes that were largely of their own design, with little in the way of constraints beyond the ingredients and equipment provided by the show. In fact, the cornucopia of fresh produce available to the trio made for some of the most visceral shots of food we've seen on Top Chef. Not the intellectual enjoyment of a a finished dish, but the powerful sweetness of incredibly fresh ingredients. It was nice start to a good final episode. [Warning: Spoilers after the jump.]

The show opens with Dale, Hung, and Casey getting ready for the big cookoff. Their breakfast arrives along with lift tickets. They are heading to the proverbial (and literal) top of the mountain to face the final judgment. Casey is already struggling to catch her breath in the thin Aspen air, so who knows what another few thousand feet above sea level will mean.

When they make it up to the top, the ground rules are laid out. Unlike previous seasons, the chefs will cook and present their meals side by side, as one huge tasting menu. Three courses are called for and the competitors are shown the spread of ingredients, including just about everything under the sun. Dale gives a great sound bite on how the most of the produce is right at its peak, making for perfect timing of the final challenge.

The chefs are given pen, paper, and 35 minutes to plan their menus. And it's clear that their work is going to be collected. It looks like they will be held to their original game plan and not allowed to improvise much, which seems strange at first but less so when the first twist is revealed.

Each contestant is asked to pick a knife from the block to see who will be acting as their sous chef. Of course, everyone assumes that three recently eliminated cooks will be the cheap labor. However, 'tis not to be. Hung, who had drawn the knife labeled No. 1, is first to see his sous chef emerging from the ski-lift gondola, and much to his delight, it's Rocco DiSpirito.

As the rest of the assistants roll out, we learn that Casey will work with Michelle Bernstein, South Florida restaurateur and former guest judge. And Dale is assigned Todd English, nattily decked out in black, as opposed to the usual chef whites. Looks like that was why the menu plans were recorded. These heavy hitters are meant to support the contestants' visions, not substitute their own. Presumably, if menus veer too severely, serious questions will be raised.

So the contestants have celebrity sous chefs to do the heavy chopping for three hours of prep. Unfortunately, they won't have their superstar underlings for the actual cooking and service, since the final meal is 24 hours away. Still, the contestants work well with their partners and each seems to gain some much needed confidence, although in Hung's case, there was plenty of confidence to start with.

After the celebrity lovefest, the second day of the competition takes on a breakneck quality. The chefs have only a few more hours to get everything ready for service, and as Tom Colicchio saunters through for his inspection, its looks like some of the competitors are dangerously close to being in the weeds. Not only are the contestants short-handed, in cramped conditions, and dealing with their ambitious menus but they are having to make major adjustments due to the extreme altitude. Apparently, water does not boil at the top of a mountain, which explains why there are no three-star restaurants at the top of Everest.

In any case, none of the chefs are all that keen to take a break, but that's exactly what Colicchio insists they do. They dutifully follow him out to the patio, where he unveils twist number two (but who's counting). In the remaining hour, they'll each need to prepare an additional dish. But, hey, they'll get some help. And this time, the producers do trot out some old favorites—Howie, Sara Cheesemaker, and CJ are lined up and ready to be put to work.

It may have seemed useful to throw a final curveball at the contestants, albeit one that was already thrown on Project Runway, Bravo's other flagship reality competition. However, neither the originality nor the dastardlyness of this wrinkle added much to the show's drama. In fact, the helpers probably did much more to expose the chefs' weaknesses than highlight their quick thinking or skills at delegating. Oh well. Next time, send us more celebrity sous chefs. Or maybe a cage match between Bourdain and Emeril or something.

During the last dash to the finish, Casey isn't really under control. The final 15 minutes catch her by surprise and she barely plates her first course as the timer sounds. That said, the dishes do roll out on time, and they look stunning. From first course to last, the chefs manage to put out some great-looking food. Here are the menus as they finally emerged:

First Course

Hung: "Fish and chips"—hamachi, potatoes, olive oil and tomato vinaigrette, and "a touch of love."

Dale: Foie gras mousse with peaches, ras el hanout gastrique and arugula, and beets.

Casey: Cinnamon-scented scallop with celery and foie gras (sake-marinated) with gala apple and roe.

Second Course

Hung: Shrimp with palm sugar, cucumber salad and coconut foam (tamarind).

Dale: Seared scallop with purslane, grapes, and sweet corn.

Casey: Sake-poached jumbo prawn with crisp bamboo rice cake in yuzu, lobster, lobster mushroom broth.

Third Course

Hung: Sous vide duck with mushroom ragout and truffle sauce, foie gras.

Dale: Lobster, corn, mushrooms and gnocchi in curry jus.

Casey: Crisp pork belly over pea shoots with a perfectly poached peach and cardamom-whipped crème fraîche.

Fourth Course

Hung: Chocolate cake with raspberries and nougatine tuile with vanilla cream.

Dale: Colorado rack of lamb poached in duck fat with eggplant and onion purée, a white anchovy and garlic sauce, olive-oil poached tomatoes, and raw summer squash.

Casey: Seared sirloin with potatoes, mushrooms, ruby chard and parsely purée.

The assembled diners included host Padma Lakshmi, Colicchio, Gail Simmons, Ted Allen, the previous day's sous chefs English, Bernstein, and DiSpirito, along with first runner-up Brian Malarkey. The discussion at the dinner table was lively, with each of the celebrity helpers chiming in some very restrained support for their respective partners. Overall, the diners were very complimentary, with English going so far as to note that Hung's duck course was worthy of three Michelin stars. Only Colicchio seemed willing to dismiss certain choices or dishes as "crimes" or "inedible." In the end, it looked like Dale and Hung were in a dog fight for the table's ultimate affection, while it was clear that Casey had suffered an off day at the worst possible time.

The discussion at the judges table continued along those same lines, where the streamlined cast of regular judges—Simmons, Lakshmi, Allen, and Colicchio—broke down the meal course by course, awarding two wins to Dale and two to Hung, with the standout dishes being Hung's perfectly cooked duck and Dale's surprising lamb with eggplant purée.

In the end (which apparently took more than five hours of deliberation to arrive at), the deciding factor was that one of Dale's dishes—his lobster in curry jus—was judged to be a failure. Not just a misstep, but truly something that no one looked forward to finishing, much less eating on another occasion. The mantel of Top Chef seemed unlikely to rest on the shoulders of a chef who put out a dud on the final day, no matter how many other of his dishes impressed the judges.

And so it was, when the final verdict was read, live in Chicago. Hung was awarded the title for Season Three, and now we have a day or two of reflection, recrimination, and general I-told-you-so-ing on food blogs everywhere. I, for one, can't wait to pore over the scrolls on the Bravo site. See you next season, Top Chef.

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