Hootie Hoo! Carla Hall, Top Chef of America’s Heart

Could this finale have been any more of a let down? Underdog and America’s favourite, Carla Hall went into the finale with momentum and then drifted off her course into the rocky shoals of culinary mediocrity. Woe, Tragedy, Sadness.

I love Carla. She was sweet, she made/makes good food. She’s funny. She gave up her Super Bowl tickets to her husband and stepson. She was just such a likeable and respectable chef. She did it all without the attitude of some of the others and it was different and very much appreciated. She runs marathons, which has less to do with cooking than running but is cool nonetheless. She was the oldest and this was her second (?) career which is just awesome in a culinary Dara Torres kinda way. Also, she impressed some very respectable chefs with her aptitude and it’s great to know that behind the good person was good skill.

I think part of the sadness comes from the picture of the final three candidates. Hosea and Stefan were basically out to get/beat one another and  it never seemed like either of them respected Carla as a legitimate threat to win.

Stefan – whom Carla calls a good egg, so I’ll give the benefit of the doubt – just had so many terrible put downs about the other chefs that after a point it just became completely off-putting.

Hosea, I might have been fine with had there been like two extra weeks before the finale but there was something about him and Leah that just killed whatever support I had for him at the beginning. It was just the poor decision train arriving at Grand Central Awkward which was just hard to watch – or support. After Episodes 8/9 – I just couldn’t really like the guy.

At least the Lou Dobbs Tonight-esque Cell Phone poll had almost 2/3 support for Carla. So there you have it, Ms. Carla Hall, not the Top Chef but an honored one nonetheless.

Oh, and Gail came back. I said this to somebody last week, that I had never thought I would miss her. Then she went and go married and left a big ol’ hole at the Judges’ Table. So yay for Gail.

I will leave you with some choice quotes from Ms. Hall

On her start:

While I was modeling I was buying cookbooks and would treat the recipes like puzzles. So I started trying out the food, long story short, I ended up taking lunch to a friend, that blossomed into a lunch delivery service and after doing that for 5 years I went to cooking school, then I was working in restaurants, worked in catering with someone else and then started my own company.

On Quickfires:

Sometimes in the previous challenges I had NO idea, which is stressful because when the clock starts the judges are saying “go be fabulous” and I’m standing there like, um, OK…

Oh and this stolen image from Wonkabout because it’s amazing.

UPDATE: Recession conscious Carla Hall will not use her fame to raise prices. If it came down to it, I’d write my congressman to bailout Alchemy Caterers, her company.

~ by Kyle on February 25, 2009.