Top Chef: Episode 12, Hawaii Part 1

Now there are two! Spoiler alert: Both the Crowd Favorite and the Room Service Cook Who Could are were knocked out last night. With Sam and Elia out of the way, the final episode will be a grudge match between Ilan and Marcel.

Who will you be rooting for in the finale?

I have to go with Ilan, a fellow New Yorker, who worked at Casa Mono, a tapas bar near Grammercy Park.

It was disappointing to see that Marcel spent the two month hiatus between episodes learning about gums and other chef-y tricks. Sam's more emotional, natural approach to cooking is far more appealing. That's probably why Sam took home the $10,000 fan fave prize.

Is anyone else sad to see Elia go? I had hopes that she just might be able to win this thing. I can't decide if her speech at the Judge's Table was just sour grapes or if she bravely took a stand against Marcel?

Ready to star in Top Chef Season 3? Bravo is preparing to host open calls in New York, Las Vegas, and LA. You can also submit an application online. If you attend one of the open calls and would like to take some pictures and write a guest post about the experience for The Kitchen, let us know.

Comments (11)

I trust the judges that Ilan and Marcel had teh best meals of the night, but when it comes down to it, I just don't think either is the Top Chef.

Marcel for the win. All the way!!!

Marcel is a poser hack. The guy is just slavishly imitating what Ferran Adria of El Bulli in Catalonia and Heston Blumenthal of Fat Duck in Bershire and others have been doing since the late 90s. Ferran was the one who invented those "foams" a while ago - at this point, Ferran has said that so many people were slavishly copying him as to make foams a fad, so he moved onto his "airs" and other more obscure stuff.

Even Marcel's little experimental test kitchen schtick he talked about is just a bald faced copy of Ferran's El Taller workshop in Barcelona.

Marcel isn't creative. He's just reads too much Food & Wine.

I really thought it would be a Sam/Elia showdown, but it's clear they went the dramatic TV route. I'm usre Ilan's and Marcel's meals were great, but I am sick of the judges not using prior knowledge of the chef's cooking as a factor, especially so close to the naming of the winner. This is why Top Chef is not a good show.

i was very annoyed to see marcel make it over sam. marcel was at the elimination table almost every week, while sam won a competition almost every week...I think the decision is purely based on the producers.

When you write "Spoler Alert," don't put the spoiler in the same paragraph. Put some white space in there so those of us with the episode on our TiVos can skip over the spoiler. Thanks.

I agree that the producers are going for TV-drama-value instead of picking the actual top chef. I was really disappointed to see Marcel as one of the finalists. And also disappointed to hear Tom say that the finalists' behavior in the kitchen doesn't factor in to their decision. If the behavior in the kitchen that Elia pointed out was, say, dropping a piece of meat and serving it anyway, you can bet that they would be judged on that.

I was SO disappointed to see Ilan in the top 2. I hate that guy. Sam should've been there instead, but I'm happy Marcel made it. I don't think he's as bad as everyone makes him out to be. He's kinda cute!

I'm very disappointed that the producers of Top Chef went for the drama route and kicked off the best chef in the group. There was no conceivable reason for Sam to be kicked off instead of Ilan. The entire no-cooking excuse was ridiculous; he was cooking Hawaiian food, which consists of several dishes that are cooked by denaturing proteins with acids.

Sam could cook and lead; he's won more elimination and quickfires than any of the other contestants. This is why Top Chef annoys me to death; they never seem to consider the contestants' overall performance.

I hope Marcel wins. Marcel may be arrogant and lack some basic social skills, but Ilan is puerile and mean spirited.

I am so not loving Top Chef this season. I will probably watch the finale but I feel like Sam should have been in there. I agree with everybody else here - that 1. the judges chose the best two from the luau challenge versus choosing the best overall performers and 2. that the decision was influenced by the producers' desire to create drama over selecting the stronger chefs.
Even worse than my displeasure over the final two is my intense dislike of hostess Padma Lakshmi. She was quoted as saying “I hate reality TV, I have to tell you. I think a lot of it brings out the worst common denominator of the human spirit.” Umm, excuse me, but didn't your husband write "The Satanic Versus"?
I won't be watching Season 3. I think it's a shame this show is as lousy as it is, because I truly love cooking and would enjoy a show like this if it were done with more integrity.

I am soooo sad that Sam got the boot! I think he was the best choice for Top Chef winner. I'm disappointed that Ilan is in the final two, because although he's talented, I think he's immature. Marcel is indeed talented, as well as BOLD which counts for something, and to be honest, he's not stooped to any baby tactics or immature tantrums like the others have. I lost respect for both Ilan and Elia because of their tattletale antics in the latter half of the season. So my perfect Final Two would have been Sam and Marcel with Sam as the winner, but now I have to root for Marcel.

By the way, Sam didn't cook anything with heat, but Chef Colicchio was just being lame -- first of all, they had an entire Quickfire challenge based on raw food, and secondly, he knows the word "cook" is subjective. Sam did indeed create the dishes, prepare them, and present them, which is the essence of the competition, heat or no heat. And anyway, Marcel's Hawaiian challenge dishes were both UNcooked too if I'm not mistaken.