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 ga
me 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 with finger limes. Every season has
its disproportionately used odd ingredient,
and this season, it 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 ingredient 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 brea
ds and desserts, and Jeremy chose Angie for
her prep skills and speed. For someone who got eliminated 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 t
he kind of relationship where they can call
each other bro, but Charlie and Amar have a deep, complicated history. They appar
ently had a falling out, with Amar becoming
arrogant as he struck out on his own, having said things he regrets to this day. W
e didn t get an exact picture 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 between being confident and
being an a-hole. There s a story here, and I suspect it resembles that of a young
Padawan defying his 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 com
bination, but it seemed to work; unlike Carl earlier
in the season, Jeremy figured out how to do a torchon in a limited amount of ti
me. 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, although everyon
e loved the sweetness of the tomatoes. Amar dared
to make a risotto, the dish that sent countless chefs home in the past, but Ama
r 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 pr
oblem. 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 issues in both
it sounded like this round was a dr
aw.
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 concocted a highly unusual cheese dish, with
a ricotta and mozzarella cylinder with spiced fig jam,
pumpernickel toast, and what he called a honey water ball. This whole dish was a
little too molecular gastronomy Richard complained
that the technique drove the dish, not the ingredients, but Jean-Georges stood f
irmly by his protegee, saying he wanted to put this dish
on one of his menus. Perhaps JG s enthusiasm pushed Jeremy to a slight edge in th
is 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 ing 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 dominant chef this season, but Jeremy
was a solid performer week to week, except for
the time he came up with his Taco Dudes concept restaurant. It wasn t a mind-blowi
ng 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 indeed proud!
this article was written by STEPHAN LEE at http://www.ew.com/
for more visit http://www.ew.com/recap/top-chef-season-13-finale