'Top Chef' finale, part 1 recap

February 21, 4:46 PMTop Chef ExaminerMatt Wolf

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Carla's on fire

The fifth season finale began with a surprise quickfire, as eliminated chefs Jamie, Jeff and Leah were allowed to make their way down to New Orleans for a shot at redemption. With reknowned New Orleans chef Emeril Lagasse serving as guest judge, the three chefs were tasked with creating a crawfish dish, with the winner rejoining the other four finalists in the competition. It was pretty apparent from the start that Jeff was on a mission to prove that he should never have been eliminated in the first place, and sure enough, he delivered a winner with his Crawfish and Grits. 

The elimination competition had the chefs cooking at a Mardi Gras-style costume party, and the chefs unveiled their menus for the night. Jeff went with a fried oyster with sausage and a crawfish pot de crème dish, which, from what Colicchio says in his blog, was doomed for reasons that did not make it into the episode. Apparently, Jeff kept his oysters warm in a sterno chafing dish, which gave a burning sterno taste to the oysters. As a condition of being let back in, Jeff would have had to win the day in order to make it to the second part of the finale, so he was done.

It was obvious when the judges tasted Carla's Shrimp and Andouille Beignets as well as her Oyster Stew, that she wasn't going anywhere. I'd like to say that it's no longer a surprise when Carla knocks every dish out of the ballpark, but it still is a surprise, at least to me. I never saw this coming, I don't think anyone did. But it's great to see. Just the fact that Carla not only made her beignets to order, but did the same with her poached oysters, shows that she is a huge talent, and at this point, has to be the favorite heading into next week.

Hosea continued his season-long trend of coasting in the middle, making what was judged to be the best gumbo dish of the night with his Chicken, Duck, Andouille Gumbo , and otherwise churning out dishes that were just good enough to keep him out of the bottom. He'll have to raise his game to have any kind of a prayer against the technically superior Stefan and the red-hot Carla.

That left Fabio and Stefan, Team Europe, fighting amongst each other to avoid elimination. While the cuisine of New Orleans has many foreign influences (French and African, mainly), it is still uniquely American as a whole, and Fabio and Stefan were at a severe disadvantage heading into this year's finale. Stefan, despite his bizarre behavior the entire episode (yawn), actually seemed to understand the flavors of New Orleans, despite stumping Emeril by making an unusual gumbo with grits dish. As for Fabio, it was pretty obvious when the judges tasted his food (which apparently wasn't too bad) that something was lacking: namely, creole flavor and heat. Nonetheless, we were at least treated to one more bit of comedy gold from Fabio, who had this to say about the masks at the party: ''Everybody there wear a mask, which kind of reminds me of an old porno movie."