Top Chef season comes to an end

Early in the season, I made a habit of blogging on Top Chef. Eventually, I let the posts die down – between my own hectic, sleep-deprived schedule and a general realization that for me to say much of anything about each episode would necessitate including the sort of “spoilers” I just don’t think to be proper, I didn’t think it wise to continue. Still, I watched week in and week out – often times recording episodes during work hours and viewing them later or, when on the road, perusing iTunes for the latest $1.99 download.

Now that the show is over with – season one, at least – I though I’d offer one last piece on what quickly became my favorite television program. (And that is saying a lot considering that, for almost the entirety of my college career, I made a habit of watching almost no entertainment television.)

In terms of winners and losers, I was happy to see Harold Dieterle emerge victorious in the end. I didn’t harbor quite the same animosity toward Tiffany Faison, the other finalist, as many seemed to. Though I will admit to being quite perturbed with her after an early episode in which she basically bashed children to no end. But Ms. Faison proved an excellent chef and, in a sense, it was disappointing to watch the fan votes come on screen during the finale and realize she was trailing to Mr. Dieterle by a 93% to 7% vote.

Mr. Dieterle was on The Today Show this morning and did a cooking segment with Al Roker. I found the piece enjoyable, but must admit that perhaps more than anything it was the irony of the whole segment that caught me: Top Chef proved one of the finest culinary shows on television and yet somehow it wasn’t on The Food Network. I was long wondering if an Iron Chef or Rachel Ray reference might slip onto Bravo’s airwaves, but none ever did. Then, the morning after the show finished its run, the winner was there cooking on network television with Mr. Roker, a Food Network host.

For what it’s worth, I also did some research and wandered on to a few interesting factoids now that the show is over:

First, Mr. Dieterle’s restaurant, set to open in the fall, will be called Perilla.

Second, the two dinner courses in the finale were actually served in the morning. As Gail Simmons, one of the judges, notes on her Bravo blog:

[W]e had to film dinner in the AM to allow enough time for Judges Table that evening…

Third, and this is the one that floored me, it turns out that the reunion episode which aired before the two finales was actually filmed after the two finales! In other words, all that chatter at the end about who should win was completely moot and, in fact, many of the emotions on air may have been directly born out of the eventual results (which at least six of the contestants would have known going into the taping). Ms. Faison’s mid-show breakdown makes a lot more sense now.

I’ve never been much a fan of the new wave of “reality television.” I watched part of an American Idol season when I was a freshman at the University of Wisconsin, saw some of the original episodes of Survivor and even tuned in to view The Real World on a few occasions. None of it was ever really for me. Iron Chef, sports coverage and the news are about as close to “reality television” as I have ever enjoyed wandering. But, for some reason, Top Chef really did prove a pleasure for me – and not necessarily a guilty one at that. I don’t know if it was my love of cooking (which matures every day), the period of my life (a rather stressful one until a couple of weeks ago) or the simple escapism.

One way or another, I’ll miss it.