We’re sorry that it’s turning into reality TV day over here, but seriously, did you guys see Top Chef last night? Awesome, right? We had been rooting for Casey who, unfortunately totally choked. (We must wonder: if they had quite a bit of time off before the finale and if they knew the finale was happening in Aspen, why would they not study high-altitude cookery?) Although he’s never been a favorite of ours throughout the competition, Hung completely deserved the win based on the food he put out in the final challenge. Hamachi with tomato vinaigrette and sous-vide duck? We’re sold.
The real treat of the episode for Bostonians, however, was the surprise appearance of local top chef Todd English. As longtime readers know, we quite like the Toddster, and he was in rare form last night. Each of the three finalists got a celebrity sous chef for day one of the challenge, and Chef English was paired with Dale, the self described “Big Gay Chef” from Chicago. He chopped veggies! He chatted about his restaurants! And because he’s Todd English, he did all of this while looking handsome! Later on in the episode, he served as one of the judges for the final meal and bestowed the night’s biggest compliment when he told Hung that his sous-vide duck was “Michelin three star, in my view.” Hung looked appropriately stunned and joyful.
Annoyingly, as of this writing the episode is not yet on the Top Chef website, but since it’s Bravo, we can bet you good money that it’ll run about twenty times between now and Columbus Day, so do check it out.
Top Chef [Official Site]
[Photo: Bravo]
