Credit: Bravo

What a long and mildly exciting road it has been.

Here we are, at the end of days for Top Chef Texas. For the final two we have good versus evil, if evil happened to look like Justin Beiber’s mean older sister. And we have Stone…Chef Tyler Stone.

For the “Quickfire” portion of the finale, Bravo brings back the battle of the B-team. Eliminated chefs return to duke it out in a Quickfire cook off and Paul and Sarah must pick their supporting cast according to which dishes they liked the best. But it isn’t merely the eliminated chefs in the bunch. Joining them are also master chefs and James Beard winners Barbara Lynch and Marco Canora, as well as a few of the pre-season rejects. Among them? Stone.

Arguably, the biggest mistake the producers made all season was letting that guy go so early.

Easily the best part of the sous chef selections were Sarah’s picks. Her first mistake? Scheming to discern Heather’s dish so that she could get that ace in the hole on her team. After some debate, the light bulb goes off: That gross looking scallop on a mess of raisons is on Heather’s menu!

BOOM!

Tyler Stone steps out while I fist pump and cheer aloud.

Here is how the teams shake out:

Paul: Barbara Lynch, Chris C., Ty-Lor, and Keith

Sarah: TYLER STOOOOOOOONE, Nyesha, Grayson, and Heather

The closest thing to drama that they could drum up on Paul’s team was his fear that having a master chef on his crew would cause problems,

Sweet tie, bro

which it obviously didn’t. A real master chef can play second fiddle without letting their ego get in the way.

Sarah’s team, however, had the golden goose that is Tyler Stone, and he was probably the biggest asset the team had. Why? Because he was Sarah’s Beverly. His presence allowed Sarah to focus all of her passive aggressive nitpicking and disdain onto one place, sparing the rest of her team from her wrath.

One second, Sarah talks about how she wants to take risks with her menu, and not just turn out the same old thing. And then, minutes later she is snapping at Stone saying that the finals wasn’t the time to try new [stuff].

While I’m sure the editors didn’t have to get too creative to make his montage of irritating questions and suggestions seem downright maddening, I can’t help but think they were a little harsh on the guy. Sarah asks him to chop celery, and he asks how small she wants it chopped. Seems like a fair question to me.

But all pitying aside, Tyler was pretty awful. That is what you get when you try to get Heather on your team. Awful.

ELIMINATION CHALLENGE

Each team puts together a restaurant – Sarah’s Monte Verde and Paul’s Qi – and goes head to head, Restaurant Wars style. The judges split into two groups, eating at one restaurant and then switching for the second service. The gallery includes all of the regular guest judges, some guy from Top Chef Canada (that exists?), and the shrewdest sponsor Top Chef has, Bill Terlato (CEO of Terlato Wine).

Seriously, the huevos on that guy? I can just imagine the negotiation where he says, “Oh, and by the way, I get to eat at the finale.”

Whether it was preening or not, I’m not sure, but the judges all seemed adamant that the food from both chefs was stellar. However, Tom’s claim that it was the best food they have ever seen in a finale just screams of a producer yelling, “The bloggers think this season sucks, so really play up how great everything was!”

Service went pretty well for both teams. Sarah came up with enough menial tasks to keep Tyler Stone occupied and chef Lynch comments on how “amazing” it is working for Paul, which is a high compliment coming from a chef of her caliber.

There are a few hiccups though. Sarah has a mild panic moment when her friend Rob discreetly warns her that he found a bone in his salmon, and she and Nyesha sprint to the kitchen to fondle the remaining fish before making the same mistake with the judges.

By far, the most dramatic point for me personally was when Keith almost blows it for Paul. In between servings, Paul has Keith heat up his first course, the custard-y chawanmushi topped with spot prawns, and the big guy overcooks them. But instead of freaking out on him – or as Keith would say, “Throwing him under the bus…HITTIN’ PEOPLE!” – Paul blames himself for not training Keith correctly on the dish.

Aside from his tendency to constantly doubt himself, Paul impressed me as a person throughout the season.

The editors did their job well, because after that, I was a bit of a nervous wreck worried that Paul might have just lost to Sarah.

JUDGE’S TABLE

The judges break down the competition by courses:

First Course: Sarah’s squid ink tagliatelle, spot prawns, and coconut Vs. Paul’s chawanmushi

Both of these dishes were winners with the judges, but Keith’s botched second batch left Tom wishing that the other judges had tasted the same chawanmushi they did. It was obvious that round one would have been a no-brainer for Paul. Bonus points for Paul for not blaming Keith for the screw up. Sarah takes this round.

Second Course: Sarah’s rye crusted salmon, pickled beets, whipped lardo, and fennel Vs. Paul’s grilled sea bass, clam dashi, pickled radishes, and mushrooms

Easy win for Paul. Sarah’s far-too-raw pickled beets turned everyone off.

Third Course: Sarah’s braised veal cheek with crispy sweetbreads and polenta Vs. Paul’s congee with uni, kale, and smoked albacore

This one was a draw. Sarah had some problems with overcooked sweetbreads, and only Hugh was completely blown away by the congee.

Fourth Course: Sarah’s hazelnut cake with candied kumquat and roasted white chocolate ganache Vs. Paul’s coconut ice cream, puffed rice, candied kumquats, and mangosteen

The judges are split again over dessert. Emeril and Hugh think Sarah nailed her dessert, and Tom and Gayle loved use of chili in Paul’s, with Gayle saying that it really “woke her up.”

So, who won? I’ll pretend for a second that even if you missed the show that you didn’t find out the second you Googled “Top Chef”….

PAUL!!!

We all breathe a sigh of relief. Sarah cries about how it should have been her. We all smile.

Another season of Top Chef in the bag. For you gluttons for Heather punishment out there, tune in next week for the reunion where we can all get reminded of how abrasively terrible she is.

Thanks for reading along this season guys. I can’t say that it was my favorite, but now that it is over it means we can start fresh next fall. I just hope that they let Tyler Stone try out again, because that guy is pure gold. Seriously.

- By Jon Watson, Food & More blog