The season finale of Top Chef was disappointing on so many levels, and not just because Hosea Rosenberg won the top honors after a completely bland season. The only joy I got out of Hosea’s win was that Richard Blais, Hosea’s sous chef and a runner up from season 4 of Top Chef, helped him win. (I was hoping to see some more bacon ice cream, though. Yum!)
All throughout the season, I was pulling for my girl Carla Hall, and watching her struggle in the kitchen was difficult and stressful to watch, especially when it seemed like she was taking more advice than she should have from her sous chef, Casey Thompson from season 3. When, at Judges’ Table, the judges immediately took Carla out of the running because of the disastrously tough sous vide beef and unplateable bleu cheese soufflés (both Casey’s ideas), my interest in the outcome of the season waned dramatically.
It seemed like all of Carla’s woes could have been solved if she had put more love and less Casey into her meal, but not according to food blog, SideDish.
SideDish quoted Casey’s rant against Carla and Top Chef:
Carla was not prepared and in over her head. The show did not talk about how the first course (crab) took her half of the friggin’ cooking time that day, I was left to work the rest of HER dishes.
She also did not have a plan. The ONLY thing she had in mind was a cheese course! I would NEVER do a cheese course. And where in the hell did french come from!? She is not even classically trained! It (the show) didn’t talk about how I worked on a sauce for 2 days and Carla forgot to put it on the plate… It didn’t show how the 2nd course (fish) was MINE. It didn’t show how she took the sous vide idea and decided to GRILL it last minute causing it to be tough… And it didn’t show how she WANTED to do the souffles which she does not even know how to make! That was HER food, because it certainly was me asking her how she wanted to do this and that while she was busy picking crab the entire time and making a souffle that didn’t rise!
I am done with TC. I did not influence her. She has NO ideas of her own, oh, except a cheese course.
But this might not be what Casey meant. If she did mean it, she certainly did not want for her rant to become public. After the SideDish post hit the Internet, Casey responded to herself on her own blog, ChefCaseyThompson.com.
In her blog, she wrote, “Just after the airing, an acquaintance contacted me on facebook and, it turns out, was seeking to create some controversy. She did not represent herself as a reporter and did not ask for a quote. Instead, she took advantage of me.”
It’s hard for me to tell which version of the Casey’s story is correct. I’m inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt about it since I know that it is only too easy to have your words misrepresented on the Internet, just as it is easy to be edited to look like the sole perpetrator of Carla’s downfall. Plus, it does seem suspicious that in the SideDish quote, Casey claims that Carla isn’t classically trained, even though Carla received her culinary education from C.C.T. L’Academie de Cuisine. However, there might be some truth to Casey’s resentment. I mean, nobody wants to be made to look like a fool on TV.
-Debbie Chang, BuddyTV Staff Writer
Source: SideDish, ChefCaseyThompson.com, Bravo
(Image courtesy of Bravo)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
