After a very exciting showdown last week, Jeremy emerged victorious and Amar mad

e a blazing comeback from Last Chance Kitchen.

(Am I the only one who felt a tiny bit bad for Jason, winning for so long only
to lose LCK so late in the game?)
Now that they were the final two, Amar and Jeremy sized each other up over a gam
e of pool, with Amar noting that
Jeremy tends to go a little crazy under pressure.
The final two had the pleasure of having Tom cook a private, four-course dinner
for them.
The most delicious-looking course was the first one, the crab and sea urchin wit
h finger limes.
Every season has its disproportionately used odd ingredient, and this season, i
t s either finger limes or Dungeness crab.
Tom s dinner was only an amuse-bouche to the final challenge, which would have Jer
emy and Amar
make four-course meals of their own, with each course highlighting an ingredien
t they particularly love to cook with.
When the final two showed up at the kitchen, all the previously eliminated chefs
were waiting for them.
Amar and Jeremy got a choice of two chefs to help them each. Amar, who got to ch
oose first, picked Kwame
because he knew Jeremy wanted him; Jeremy then chose Carl, Amar chose Marjorie
to help with breads and desserts,
and Jeremy chose Angie for her prep skills and speed. For someone who got elimi
nated so early, Angie has a great
record for being chosen first for challenges.
The twist of the challenge was that Jeremy and Amar s mentors
superstar chefs Jean
-Georges Vongerichten and Charlie Palmer, respectively
were on hand to help prep and cook. Jean-Georges and Jeremy have the kind of re
lationship where they can call each other bro,
but Charlie and Amar have a deep, complicated history. They apparently had a fa
lling out, with Amar becoming arrogant as he struck
out on his own, having said things he regrets to this day. We didn t get an exact p
icture of what happened between these two,
but Charlie, despite claiming he wasn t one to hold a grudge, seemed to display of
pride and spite toward Amar, reminding Amar that
no one s too good to wash dishes and telling the camera, There s a difference betwee
n being confident and being an a-hole.
There s a story here, and I suspect it resembles that of a young Padawan defying h
is master.
At the dinner service at Craftsteak, Jeremy and Amar went head to head in each c
ourse. In the First Course,
Jeremy served foie gras two ways with chili, passion fruit, and marshmallows. It
was such a strange combination,
but it seemed to work; unlike Carl earlier in the season, Jeremy figured out ho
w to do a torchon in a limited amount of time.
Amar served seared tuna tataki; Gail complimented the brightness of the flavors
, but Charlie reacted strongly to the spice
of the dressing. From the sounds of it, Jeremy won the first round.
Following that was the Second Course. Jeremy served up bright green bronzini fil
lets, slathered in lime vinaigrette, squash,
and tomatoes. Tom thought the details of the flavors were lost in the sauce, alt
hough everyone loved the sweetness of the tomatoes.
Amar dared to make a risotto, the dish that sent countless chefs home in the pa

st, but Amar knocked it out of the park.

Gail said it was the best risotto they ve had in many, many seasons, although the
undercooked duck was a problem.
Even though both dishes had problems, it seems Amar s risotto won him this course
.
They both stumbled in the Third Course: Jeremy for his almost raw duck, and Amar
for inconsistently cooked lamb.
When Padma said she liked Amar s lamb jus, Charlie was quick to take some of the
credit for that. Tom noted that
both of the dishes were actually pretty similar, but there were basic cooking i
ssues in both
it sounded like this round was a draw.
Last came the Fourth Course, and both chefs went all out. Amar s coconut financier
had great flavors,
but Charlie noted that the texture of the financier wasn t right. Jeremy concocte
d a highly unusual
cheese dish, with a ricotta and mozzarella cylinder with spiced fig jam, pumper
nickel toast, and what
he called a honey water ball. This whole dish was a little too molecular gastronom
y Richard complained
that the technique drove the dish, not the ingredients, but Jean-Georges stood
firmly by his protegee,
saying he wanted to put this dish on one of his menus. Perhaps JG s enthusiasm pu
shed Jeremy to a slight edge in this round.
At the judges table, Padma gave the familiar spiel of We don t know who s winning thi
s thing!
She said one chef was technique-forward, and one was flavor-forward. Clearly she
meant Amar was
the flavor-forward chef, which I thought meant he was the winner
judges always
go for flavor but instead,
she announced that Jeremy had won, and he reacted in his typical bro-y way: No f in
g way! Holy s !
It s not a terribly surprising win, since he did win the first Quickfire, which is
a pretty solid predictor of
the overall winner of Top Chef. It s worth noting that there wasn t much of a domina
nt chef this season,
but Jeremy was a solid performer week to week, except for the time he came up w
ith his Taco Dudes concept restaurant.
It wasn t a mind-blowing season, but there were some memorable chefs
I m thinking of
Marjorie, Isaac, and Kwame and
Jeremy is far from the least worthy winner we ve had. I hope his daughter is inde
ed proud!
thsi article was written by STEHAN LEE
this article was taken from http://www.ew.com/