Why Top Chef Was Right to Pick the Wrong Winner

For what it's worth, I agree with you. Top Chef wouldn't retain any suspense at the finale--indeed, it wouldn't even require a finale--if the show was simply awarding the finalist with the best track record. Still--jeez, what a downer of an ending. I was hoping that after all the alpha-male posturing between Stefan and (especially) Hosea, the sweet, humble Carla would simply outcook them when they weren't watching.
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I'm holding out hope that Carla will win Fan Favorite. I figure it's her or Fabio (from whose immortal words I suspect several Bravo T-shirts will be born, one most likely including the phrase "monkey a**").

I completely agree with you as well. Hosea lost my respect when he hooked up with Leah (aka The Tramp).

Carla, Stefan or Fabio should have been the finale chefs.

I'm not sure if I'll be back for Top Chef next season...

I think Leah had some talent, but she also had such an offputting air of petulance. I wanted her GONE.

I am sorry, but I disagree. If you draw the analogy to the NFL, you miss the fact that regular season performances are rewarded e.g., by giving a home field advantage in the playoffs. What this means is that Stefan should have been given the choice of ingredient (curious to see how Hosea would have handled alligator), and the sous chef (imagine Stefan + Richard).

Alternately, I think the producers can come up with a smart way to keep score for each round so that the final is not rendered meaningless -- either by not taking into account previous performances (as was the case this time), or by having the winner judged even before the final takes place (which is most people's worry with cumulative scoring). For example, how about scoring a contestant each round depending on how they perform in that round and also the round number (i.e., first round is less important, then second, and so on). This way, contestants are rewarded for how they perform overall, and also how they improve through the show. Using this scheme, I can see Stefan, Carla, Jeff, Jamie do much better than Hosea, Leah etc. Anyway, that's my two cents.

I completely disagree with the premise that the judges picked the wrong Top Chef in Hosea. He was consistent, if not great, week in and week out and that can not be said of either Stefan or Carla. Carla started off very slow but gained momentum while Stefan clearly had several let downs at the end, when it counted the most. Stefan clearly was a star this season as far as cooking but choked when it mattered the most. For the finale, Carla could not even send out four COMPLETE dishes and 2 of Stefan's dishes were mediocre. Hosea consistently cooked imaginative and well put together dishes all season and shined when it mattered the most. He was the Top Chef in y mind as well as the judges. You want sports analogies? Stefan was the Atlanta Braves, dominating the regular season and choking when the pressure of the playoffs hit and Carla was last year's Rockies team, getting hot at the right time but falling short in the end, perhaps proving her talent wasn't quite there. Congratulations to Hosea, enjoy the win and let all the second guessers figure out a good dish to make out of sour grapes.

@ fulukai: you can find a flaw in any analogy if you draw it out far enough. The basic principle holds up and I agree with it. In many many many sports, lower ranking teams have turned around and eliminated the favored contenders in post-season competition. That's why I don't bet on sports.
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Let's be clear, Hosea would not have won if he had cooked a mediocre meal. He cooked multiple extremely good dishes to get to the final and ultimately win. Him and Stefan were neck-and-neck in the finale and he would not have pulled ahead if his whole meal had not been extremely good. Also, Stefan's alligator dish was one of the best dishes, so it wasn't detrimental to him at all to get that.
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I will also guarantee you that Carla and Stefan get more job offers then Hosea.

You are right. The problem with this season is that there was very little impressive-seeming talent to begin with. To extend the sports analogy, it's more like winning the Division 2 basketball championship. Yeah you get the banner for the gym, but does anyone think you could beat Duke?

[...] Why Top Chef Was Right to Pick the Wrong Winner     We’re out of the reasonably-expect-to-avoid-spoilers zone on last week’s Top Chef, but the rest [...] [...]

@jaxonvet

"I completely disagree with the premise that the judges picked the wrong Top Chef in Hosea. He was consistent, if not great, week in and week out and that can not be said of either Stefan or Carla."

That is the exact opposite of the truth. Hosea barely skated by every week. He won ONE challenge (note that he had plenty of help also from Stefan that week when his dish spoiled). Stefan won FOUR challenges and FOUR Quickfires. Carla also won around 3-5 total challenges. Also your name is jaxonvet? Doesn't Hosea work at Jax's Fish House? Coincident?

It is important to understand the rules of the game. In this case each episode stood on its own merit. Prior performance could not be considered. This keeps one or more contestants from getting a 'halo effect' which offsets some bad meals. A bit different in the finale to where past performance could be considered, but only in the case of a tie. Three out of four judges went with Hosea. No tie, no consideration of past performance.

However, even here, how far back would you look? In the semi-final Carla won, Jeff was gone and Hosea was selected as next to Carla. That left Stefan and Fabio for elimination. With Fabio the judges indicated, while his food was good, it just wasn't up to what they expected out of him as to flavors. The exact same thing happened to Stefan with his dessert in the finale. The judges indicated it just wasn't up to what they expected on him. He had also frozen his raw fish dish which made it watery, which was noticed immediately. Had he done either better he may have won outright, or tied, and be given the title on past performance. He simply failed to come through in the semi-finals or the finale (like Carla, he choked at the end).

The real winner of the season? Fabio, hands down. Since the series started business at his restaurant in CA is up 40%, he has a cookbook coming out and is likely to become a familiar TV chef figure.

As to the quality of the contestants, they simply may have had a weak pool to start out with.

[...] | Tags: food and wine | by sandeep If you Google “Top Chef”, the first news link is this.  It seems I agree with the overwhelming majority of viewers that the wrong guy, Hosea, won the [...]

@astall35

You make it sound like Hosea was at the bottom of each challenge, dodging elimination week in and week out. That is far from the truth. As I said before, Stefan was the star of most of the season but had some real let-downs in the last few weeks. It seemed like he should have been eliminated in the semi-final round but dodged a bullet when Fabio was sent home. All I'm saying is Hosea was solid beginning to end and really stepped it up as finals approached. When it mattered the most, when there were no restrictions or surprises, when all the the judges asked for was cook the best 4 course meal you can come up with, Hosea shined. He won and he deserved it. And by the way... jaxon is a nickname and I live in Los Angeles. So yes, it is a coincidence.

[...] d. why top chef picked the worst winner HERE. [...]

The reason Top Chef is such a great, addictive show is because it's (supposed to be) a meritocracy. Unlike the complicated chess playing of vote-out shows like Survivor and ridiculous STD sharing shows like Rock of Love, Top Chef is about WHO DOES THE BEST. Anyone who watched the entire season saw that there were more than a few chefs far more impressive than Hosea. People don't really watch Top Chef for suspense. It's about seeing the best person, the one who really deserves it, work their ass off and then win.