Top Chef Crowns First Female Winner

From LoveToKnow Celebrity

For the first time in the four seasons of Bravo's reality cooking competition Top Chef, a woman has taken the crown…or chef's hat, if you prefer.

Padma Lakshmi, host of Top Chef.

Beating out the Favorite

From the beginning, Atlanta based chef Richard Blais, although suffering a few missteps along the way, was the judges' favorite. The judges presented Blais and fellow final three contestants Stephanie Izard and Lisa Fernandes with the challenge of preparing a formal four-course meal for the judges. They got their choice of one sous chef to help them during the prep-work, but the extra hands would not be present during the final cook-off.

The Finale

For their final meal, the chefs had to prepare a meal that included fish, poultry, beef and dessert.

The Judges' Favorites
- Course one - Stephanie's red snapper with truffled white asparagus and clam sauce
- Course two - Lisa's Tom Kha soup with dumplings.
- Course three – Stephanie's roasted lamb medallions with braised pistachios.
- Course four – The judges loved both Richard's banana scallop with bacon ice cream (yes, bacon ice cream) and Lisa's black rice pudding.

The Decision

Lisa, known throughout the season for being out of touch with the other contestants (not to mention her frequent use of the "f" word) and a bit catty, commented that she felt her dishes were best for courses two and four while Stephanie's were best for courses one and three, noticeably excluding any of Richard's dishes.

The judges were a bit disappointed in Richard's performance during the finale and when asked what happened, he commented on how he "choked" and that was the contributing factor to his lackluster dishes.

In the end, the judges believed that even though they disliked Stephanie's ricotta pound cake, she deserved to be the winner of the $100,000 prize, a spread in Food and Wine magazine, a showcase at the Food and Wine Classic and a vacation in the French Alps, making her the first female ever to take away top honors for the show.

Stephanie is now looking for space in her home town of Chicago for the new restaurant she plans to open.

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