I got your back...

Toby! What am I talking about? This. 

So after last night's Top Chef, I suppose some soul searching is on order for me. See I should be supporting our local winner, but I really, really, really wanted Stefan to win. I lurve him. I think he was the better bald man.

Anyway, if you're a fan of the show and saw last night's ep, then you know it was a bit heart-wrenching to watch Carla. I felt terrible for her. It really was hard to watch. I think throughout the season she showed that if she went with her gut and cooked HER food, she was really a force to be reckoned with. She was lucky in that she slid by at the beginning, but towards the end she really started to shine. 

As for Stefan. Oh man. First off, since I totally love the man (sorry, Mike, I love you more!) I think the editors and producers set out to pin him as the bad guy. I mean c'mon, the man was no Lisa, he could roll with the punches and take the criticism, but he was confident and rightly so. I'm not sure if Hosea really spent as much time as the editing made it look complaining about Stefan and creating this rivalry, but it was obnoxious at the least and enough for him to lose any appeal that he had with me in the beginning.

I've said it before when talking about this show, but the attitude of the competitor plays such a big part in who I would prefer to see win. I think Stefan was confident and I really think he had reason to be. He won a ton of challenges because he was a damn good chef. Hosea on the other hand, started out strong and then sort of lost it in the middle. What really clinched it for me, though, was the farm episode. Teaming up with Leah and letting Ariane take the fall for that challenge was a putz move. I mean seriously, in that particular challenge it looked like neither Hosea or Leah really did much of anything.

And the following episode was no better. Hosea didn't redeem himself in my eyes like Jeff did - explanation: in the first ep Mr. Florida made a comment about how he checks his freaking hair before going out on the floor. Not at all a comment that made him a star in my eyes in spite of the fact that he's good looking enough for bad hair to be an "issue." But, he was a good chef and throughout the show I think he was humbled a bit. By the end, I was rooting for him. Anyway, with Hosea it was just the opposite. I liked him at first and then some of his actions and the attitude portrayed on the show caused me to lose all of that "local support" stuff. Meanwhile, team Europe had me cracking up just about every episode and Stefan was rolling out fabulous dishes (with only a few hiccups).

What I'd like to see is a reality show with Fabio and Stefan! Team Europe reunited and running a kitchen together. And that's all I want to see, the two of them goofing off in a restaurant together. I would watch. 

So, Hosea won even though my vote went to Stefan. Hat's off to Hosea. I wonder if he'll be staying in Boulder and opening a place here or leaving for NYC or some other food mecca (I think it would be a bad move as Boulder really is kind of a foodie community in some ways and can support a lot of different restaurants). Can't wait for next season!

**So right after I hit "publish post" here, I found this EW interview with Mr. Boulder himself. Again, not sure how much of what we saw on the show was edited for extra drama, but Hosea's comments on Stefan in this article are quite a breath of fresh air. Who knows.