okay so, if you don't watch Top Chef, then move on. if you do and haven't seen the finale, then move on. cuz I'll be holding a discussion (with myself I'm sure) about last night's show.
so these 3 made it to the very end: Hung, Casey and Dale. I've always thought Hung was a little cocky and over-confident from the beginning. He thought he was the shit...and then some. He must've had some magic monkey because he always said the challenges were so easy his monkey could do it. Casey was pegged as the pretty one with the nice smile, she wasn't a favorite or mine but she also wasn't on my shit list. Dale was the cool-mohawk-and-manpris-wearing-gay guy, and I liked him.
(now that I think about it, I should've been doing weekly recaps after the show...oh well.)
The chefs' final challenge was to prepare a 3-course meal together in the same kitchen and to present their dishes to the judges together as well. They were given celebrity sous chefs for the first day of preparation and even then, the celeb chefs questioned some of their decisions. For day 2 of prep, Howie, Sara M and CJ (former contestants from this season) returned to help. at the last moment (and it wouldn't be a challenge without it), the chefs were told they needed to prepare one more dish using whatever was available to them.
Long story short, Casey just couldn't deliver. I guess her flavor profiles and whatnot were off and the judges just didn't like anything she made. Dale and Hung, on the other hand, were tied 2 for 2. Hung has always been, in the judges eyes, a great technical chef with awesome knife skills. Dale made a lamb dish that he's never done before and they loved it. So I knew at this point, Casey was out, but couldn't decide between the other two who would be worthy of the title.
I'll admit Hung is good, but I couldn't get passed his arrogant personality. it's one thing to be good but to go around saying you are good is another thing. Dale was more grounded in my opinion and had everything to gain. Part of me wanted Dale to win, but the other part was rooting for Hung as well (go Asians!!)
the final decision was given live, and Casey knew it wasn't going to be her. Dale almost broke down in tears when asked how he felt about the whole competition and Hung was his normal self, wanting to do it for his family and how he knew he was on point.
so in the end, Hung prevailed. I admit, I did cry tears of happiness for the guy. I could see in his eyes that winning not just for himself but for his immigrant family was really important and that's just what he did. It's too bad there couldn't be two winners, because I think it would've meant just as much for Dale to win. Marcel from Season 2 was there at the finale as well, rooting for his buddy Hung.
I'm gonna miss the show...watching reruns won't be the same. I wonder when Season 4 is gonna start...