Live Blogging Top Chef: The Season Finale
Welcome to our end-of-season commenting blowout. Join us! Because the site of the Top Chef finale is Singapore, tonight's live-blogging party will be dedicated to that late, great figure of Singaporean history, Ngiam Tong Boon.
And who was Ngiam Tong Boon, I hear you ask? Why, none other than the bartender who invented the Singapore Sling. So tonight, I propose that those of us who like to drink—and who can scrounge up the ingredients—mix up and knock back a few Singapore Slings during tonight's live blog. This will not only honor Mr. Boon's memory but, more importantly, help us better enjoy the finale despite the fact that this season's three finalists are a relatively boring and unlikeable bunch. (We miss you Tiffany!) So here is a recipe I found on the Internet for a "simplified" version of the Singapore Sling:
- Ingredients: 2 shots pineapple juice; 1 shot gin; 1 tablespoon grenadine*; 2 lime wedges; seltzer; maraschino cherry. *If you don't have any grenadine, I suggest substituting a tablespoon of cherry-flavored cough syrup—and if it contains codeine, so much the better!
- Directions: Shake the gin, pineapple juice, and the juice of one squeezed lime wedge into an ice-filled glass. Add the grenadine and a splash of seltzer, and stir. Garnish with the cherry and the remaining lime wedge.
Got it? Good! Now, here is the recipe for participating in this live blog, if you haven't before: Combine a computer and a television in the same room, watch Top Chef (starting at 10 Eastern on Bravo) and post comments about it below this post. Garnish with pith and wit. Enjoy!
There was wit and pith aplenty during our last live blog. As usual, I've read through all 1,200-plus comments and collected a few of my favorites in a "highlights from last week" post, so take a gander after you're done looking for the grenadine. And later, keep an eye out for these developments on tonight's episode:
- Three champions of Top Chef seasons past—Ilan Hall, Hung Huynh and Michael Voltaggio—will return to serve as "sous chefs" for the three finalists. This means that six male chefs with relatively unpleasant personalities will be preparing the final dishes, so expect a lot of dickishness in the kitchen tonight.
- At one point, Kevin will say: "I have a one-in-three chance of winning Top Chef"—which would be true if the judges picked the winner using a random method like "rock, paper, scissors." However, because they will base their choice on which chef prepares the best food, I'd say Kevin's chances are probably closer to one-in-thirty instead.
- A Singapore man will penetrate Angelo's butt—right on camera! With a syringe, that is! Angelo will be visited by a local doctor after falling prey to some kind of illness. Let's hope it doesn't knock him out of the last challenge, because a two-way competition between Ed and Kevin would be just too boring contemplate.
Now, I was about to post some kind of "thanks and so long until next season" note here, but then I remembered that Bravo will be airing a Top Chef "reunion special" next Wednesday night—so I think we should have one more live-blog for that, and we can all say our "au revoirs" then. (Note: Next week's special will air at 9 pm Eastern — an hour earlier than the show's usual start time.) So right now, let's just focus on preparing for another great live blog, and mixing up those Singapore Slings! And when you sling down those drinks, try not to sling any back up again. Nobody likes a "Singapore slingshot."