I Refuse to Call them Cheftestants: Week 13

With one week to go, I’m finally warming to this season and cast of Top Chef. Last night’s semi-final had all the key components of a good episode for the second week in a row, and furthermore it left the identity of the winner completely up for grabs.

When is a Quickfire Challenge not a Quickfire Challenge? Answer, when the contestants aren’t taking part. Last night the show threw a curveball and gave Jeff, Jamie, and Leah a chance to make it to the finale. I did throw up in my mouth a little bit when the guest judge was revealed to be Emeril. The guy is such a media whore you have to believe he was calling the Top Chef production team the minute his Food Network contract went south. With so many cutting edge and classical Creole chefs to choose from in the Big Easy, I was saddened to see him as the producers’ choice. Thankfully, he toned down the “bams” and was a little more subdued. As for the challenge itself, I just kept praying that Leah did not make it back. Luckily, she didn’t know a crawdad from a shrimp and ended up with a soup that was supposed to be a gumbo. Meanwhile, Jamie made something that was very Jamie but unfortunately, that wasn’t what Emeril was looking for. Lastly, you had Jeff, who after weeks and weeks, finally found his own inner editor and that resulted in a winning dish. Jeff also seemed a bit humbled to be back which made his addition to the final four easier to take. The final twist also made Jeff’s inclusion easier as it was announced he had to win the Elimination Challenge to continue on.

Anytime you get to see two chefs go home at once, I’m inclined to like the Elimination Challenge. While I feel catering challenges don’t let the chefs shine through, I do appreciate that this was the semis and not the final. Jeff certainly made this a close call as all of his dishes certainly intrigued. However, Carla, once a cute novelty, continued to cement her status as favorite by cooking her ass off. The beignets she made elicited the best possible Top Chef reaction in me, as I was this close to licking my TV. Her daring choice to avoid the alcohol in her cocktail was worthy of recognition especially since it was good. Hosea surprised but honestly, if he couldn’t have delivered here, I think his whole resume should have been questioned. His catfish dish was second in my book to Carla’s beignets. If not for Jeff I think we’d have seen Team Euro go home and with good reason. Fabio has done little to excel all season long so while he was a sweetie, his time had finally come. Stefan on the other hand clearly was a victim of his own press. I’m sure the already cocky chef had spent the last few months before the finale watching episodes and reading blogs and realizing how much more talented he was compared to the other chefs. This of course made him ripe for the picking. I’m not sure if he got the wake up call last night and will bring his A game to the finale or if he’s got his head stuck so far up his own ass that he will quietly go away next week.

Speaking of next week, I’ve got to congratulate the producers for not making the mistake of airing the reunion show prior to the finale. That’s one of my biggest pet peeves and I’m happy to just get to the winner. As for the winner, I’m going to stick with my early season Stefan pick but Carla is a worthy adversary.