Top Chef: All Stars Finale

*SPOILER ALERT!*

18 chefs from previous seasons begin. Tonight it came down to the final two: Richard Blais and Mike Isabella. Both chefs have proven to be tough competitors throughout the entire season. Tonight was no different.
We started off the night with the two remaining chefs preparing for the final competition. There were no twists and turns for the final competition. The judges wanted the chefs to showcase what their futures as chefs would be like by having them create their own restaurant. Of course the chef's needed help in running their restaurants; cue the entrance of 15 of the eliminated contestants from the season. To make things interesting, the contestants had to prepare an amuse-bouche for each of the remaining two chefs. In a blind taste test, Richard and Mike tasted all 15 and then picked their top 3 dishes. The dishes selected determined their sous chefs. Richard ended up with Spike Mendelsohn, Angelo Sosa, and Antonia Lofaso while Mike ended up with Tiffani Faison, Jamie Lauren, and Carla Hall. The two teams had an hour to plan their menus and then 5 hours the next day to prep and cook for their restaurants. Richard chose "Tongue and Cheek" for his restaurant name. Mike chose "Iz" based on a nickname his friends called him.
There were 2 round of judges. The judges seemed to have more postive comments about many of Richard's dishes sans his dessert course. But thanks to some clever or more so not-so-clever eavesdropping by Spike, Richard was able to tweak his course for the 2nd round of judges and the result was much better. Mike's dishes on the other hand, seemed to start off a bit weak but then ended strongly.
Both chefs delivered quite strongly which led Tom to say that it was the best food of any finale. It ended up in a tie in regards to the courses. The first two courses went to Richard and the last two went to Mike. The judges literally had to get nit-picky in choosing the winner.

As a final surprise for the two chefs, family members of each joined them for the final announcement. The winner of Top Chef: All Stars was....


Richard Blais!

I felt that Richard deserved to win. He worked really hard throughout the whole competition. When he didn't win a challenge, he would work harder the next challenge. I think the judges made the best decision.

-Adonor