Top Chef All Stars Review: No Surprises Is A Good Thing

The honest to goodness finale for Top Chef: All Stars didn’t have too many surprises, and that is a good thing.  There’s Richard Blais, who everybody is expecting to win, and Mike Isabella who nobody wants to win. Who exactly is rooting for Mike, I don’t know. Even if you find Blais’ tendency to psych himself out annoying or if you get bored of all of his frozen concoctions, you want him to win. Richard Blais deserves to win, we all know it and we all hope the Top Chef judges know it as well.

The only challenge for the  finale, Padma explains, is that the remaining chefs have to ”create for us the restaurant of your dreams.” That means it comes down to a four-course tasting menu for the $200k and the title. The finalists need sou chefs, and they bring back the eliminated chefs so they can each cook one amuse-bouche.

Richard and Mike select their three  favorite dishes without knowing who made it. I personally loved this plan, and not surprisingly the kinda sexist Mike picks the dishes of three women: Tiffani, Jamie, and Carla.  Of course Mike comments “they’re like my angels” and I threw up a little in my mouth.

Richard selects Angelo, Antonia, and Spike’s dishes. Richard worries Spike “did have jet ski reservations,” and he might not be up to the task. This later on becomes an ironic statement because of how well Spike performs for Blais. The chefs have one hour to come up with a menu and five hours to cook for the judges. Mike names his dream restaurant,“Restaurant Iz” which isn’t that creative but it’s better than the name  Richard comes up with, “Tongue & Cheek.” Seriously Richard? Horrible, just horrible.

I’m going to put on the brakes here and tell you Blais wins it. He is the Top Chef of Top Chef All Stars. The show held no surprises no drama no suspense,  and I was fine with that. I just wanted the show to end like it should end – happy. And for it to be a happy ending Blais needed to win this season. Do you want to know what they cooked? I thought so. Well…

Richard made a Raw Oyster Amuse Bouche, a Raw Hamachi appetizer, a Pork Belly with a Black Cod Cutlet  and a Beef Short Rib. For dessert he decides to concoct a Cap’n Crunch ice cream, but then, in a last-second decision, switches it to a foie gras ice cream because he obviously wants to try to lose the competition.

At “IZ” Mike prepared a beet salad with mozzarella, truffle and chocolate vinaigrette, a halibut with kumquat marmalade, cauliflower puree and pancetta crumbs, a braised pork shoulder with pepperoni sauce (pepperoni sauce?!?! I want), roasted cabbage and turnips and then a rosemary caramel custard with pine nuts and apple for dessert. The judges doing the tasting were: Hubert Keller, Lidia Bastianich, Alfred Portale, Art Smith, Curtis Stone, Bill Terlato and the regulars Tom, Gail and Padma.

My personal favorite part of the finale was that Richard sent Spike out into the dining room to spy on the judges and report back with their comments on his food. This was brilliant of Richard and also added some actual fun into the show. It worked out well for him too, since his foie gras ice cream wasn’t getting rave reviews (big surprise), he was able to give it a little tweak and improve it.

All of the judges praise both chefs and think all of the dishes were amazing. Well, except for the desserts. They give Mike the edge in two dishes and think Richard was better with the other two. But with the two chefs standing before them Padma finally reveals, “Richard you are Top Chef.”

Richard is shocked and then he cries. Other chefs cheer and give hugs. It was all pretty short and sweet. Ultimately redemption is what this season is all about. It was like they made this season just for Richard so he can be redeemed as a top chef. Hopefully now he will stop being so neurotic and get to making good food for me to eat.

Season 8, Episode 16 “Finale” (original air date March 30, 2011)

Top Chef: All-Stars airs Wednesday 10/9c on Bravo.

Images courtesy of Virginia Sherwood and Bravo.