Live Blogging Top Chef: The Season Finale
Bravo is still calling this show Top Chef: Las Vegas, even though we left Sin City weeks ago. If I were to suggest a new, more accurate name for it at this point, I'd go with: Top Chef: Suspense!
That's because we have some genuine suspense to look forward to tonight—a recent development on this show: All season it's been obvious who the Final Four would be, and even Jen's ouster last week wasn't a huge shock given her late-season slump. In fact, you wanna know just how dominant the frontrunners were this season? The Final Four won all 13 elimination challenges, and tonight's Final Three won 12 out of 13 of them. So tonight, any of these three could take the prize—Good Volt, Bad Volt or Friar Beard. I even made up new nicknames for them, just for the occasion—that's how excited I am!
So why not join us in live-blogging all the suspenseful excitement? The show starts at 10 Eastern and the commenter-created live blog happens directly below this post. Last week's edition was, as ever, a blast (see a selection of my favorite comments by clicking here). Among the highlights:
- During the pre-live-blog-banter phase, commenter rodmanstreet reported that a friend once lost her car keys in her fridge's veggie drawer. Then Lizawithazee said she once tried to start a car with a zucchini (but I think she made that up).
- When Kevin mentioned that there's a Facebook page devoted to his beard, commenters GonzoMaz and Mat Cherrette immediately headed over to FB to become fans of it.
- Michael Chiarello sampled Michael V.'s pistou, and then complained that it didn't "finish" in his mouth. I guess some people like it when a man's pistou does that.
- Tom praised Jen's duck for being "ducky." Like Sesame Street's Ernie, he's apparently a ducky fan. Unfortunately, that didn't save Jen from getting her goose cooked.
As for tonight, the preview clips I watched didn't contain much that was revealing or interesting, except this: Michael Volt will remark that his brother has gotten screwed over in the prize category. I did a little research on that, and boy was he ever right. Here's a rundown the number of challenge wins (quickfire + elimination) for each of the Final Four, along with the most valuable prizes they got out of those victories:
- Kevin (8 wins) $30,000, $15,000 and a set of Calphalon cookware.
- Micheal (5 wins): $15,000, $10,000 and a Toyota Prius.
- Jennifer (4 wins): $15,000 and a $10,000 Macy's gift card.
- Bryan (4 wins): Diddly squat.
You know what sound effect Bravo should've played every time Bryan won? Just click here and push the big blue button to find out.
OK, time to push the "on" button on our remotes, because the live blog hour approaches. I won't post any maudlin "goodbye till next season" message here, because we can meet again soon to live-blog the Top Chef Reunion Episode that Bravo will air next Wednesday (Note: It will start at 9 Eastern, not 10!). So I'll see you all there next week—and I'll see you down in the comments section shortly!
[Ed. Note: Please NO SPOILERS until the show is over. We posted something earlier today that might give some clues as to who won, but not everyone read it. So, please DON'T TALK ABOUT IT until after the show.]