Top Chef All Stars: Post Season Rankings

Walking The Line

Before getting on with the ranking, I must say that I was very impressed by the final episode of the season.  It was a straight up competition where each of the two remaining chefs were asked to create their own restaurant tasting menu of four courses.  Each chef was also given the aid of three sous chefs, competitors from All Stars, chosen by the two chefs in a blind taste test. 

Who could ask for more than that?  There were no limitations on the cuisine and the time limitation was completely reasonable.

In the blind tasting, Richard Blais selected Spike Mendelsohn, Angelo Sosa, and Antonia Lofaso.  I thought it was fascinating that he picked two of the three competitors from Season 4.  He was probably close to getting Dale Talde as well, if they had been picking four instead of three.  Michael Isabella picked Tiffani Faison, Jamie Lauren, and Carla Hall, three of the best chefs in the competition.  I thought it was particularly ironic that he picked Jamie and it speaks volumes about how a blind tasting eliminates all personality decisions and brings it down to the food.  Thank goodness!

The menu for each restaurant was superb and the dishes were apparently nearly flawless (except for the elusive dessert course).  Although Mike was his blustery self and Richard was his worried self, both performed at extremely high levels, with Richard pulling out the narrow win.  It was redemption for him and I can understand how he felt. 

Some critics have made much of Richard’s “posing” as Hamlet and even over-rating himself.  I don’t believe that – all along I have believed that Richard was the best chef in Season 4, even though he didn’t win – and I’m not the only one who feels that way.  No offense to Stephanie Izard - she was magnificent and wonderful.  It's just that I thought Richard was a better overall chef.

At any rate, I was extremely happy for him and for the producers for bringing off a great end to a terrific season.

The following ranking is based on the order that I feel best represents the true position of these eighteen individuals as chefs.  It is not based on the order of elimination.  I have taken into account the chefs’ strengths and weaknesses, as I perceive them, including four specific areas of concern: knowledge, technical skill, leadership and creativity.  I have also considered the performance of each chef during Top Chef All Stars – sometimes that has had a large impact on this ranking and sometimes none at all.  I am not so knowledgeable myself in the culinary field that I can be completely objective. 

I have tried to be as objective as possible, but in this kind of evaluation there are always subjective influences.   So please accept this as a flawed, but well-meaning analysis.

1.           Richard Blais.  Preseason 1.

Considering all criteria, Blais grades out first, as he had with most viewers and other bloggers since the beginning of the season.  At different points, he was surpassed by others, Angelo at the beginning and later by Dale Talde and perhaps near the end by Mike, but as Tom Colicchio said, he was steady throughout.  His knowledge, from traditional through cutting edge concepts is very full and he has the technical skill to compete with nearly anyone.  His leadership is inspiring, steady and gets the best out of any chef who works with him and there is no doubting that his creativity and whimsy were the strongest among the eighteen chefs competing.

2.           Michael Isabella.  Preseason 14.

This is by far the largest jump I had from preseason rankings to postseason.  I had Mike pegged for middle or lower for most of the season and I thought that his inclusion in the Finale was unfortunate, considering that there were chefs that I thought better who had already been eliminated.  But between the regular season and the finals, Mike put his time to good use, staging at various restaurants and learning from excellent chefs.  In addition, he came prepared.  He had practiced cooking island food, developing different flavor profiles and finally finding the unique style that sets him apart from others.  He surprised a number of people, including me and he came extremely close to winning Top Chef.  With that kind of performance, I believe that he moved ahead of some other chefs that I would have put before him earlier.  He increased his knowledge and technical skill and projected himself as a confident leader throughout the final episode.  He also increased his creativity to the point where he was toe to toe with Richard Blais and he must be given extra credit for that.  I'm very impressed and I'm letting that impression show with his ranking.

3.      Dale Talde.  Preseason 5.

Despite being eliminated prior to the finals, Dale showed extraordinary composure and depth in the dishes he planned and executed this season.  I was impressed with his performance in many of the challenges toward the end of the season when he showed consistency in a number of wins.  He was the executive chef on the winning Restaurant Wars team and his skill with seafood was a joy to watch.  Although his knowledge of the craft is excellent, he does lose some focus when he has to work outside his comfort zone and this makes for consistency issues.  However, his technical skill is virtually unmatched among these eighteen chefs, his leadership is excellent and he has shown time and again that he can design extremely creative dishes.

4.          Angelo Sosa.  Preseason 3.

Fatigue may have been a factor in Angelo's performance during this season because he went so deep into the previous season.  Even so, he started out very strong.  It was only toward the end that he began to falter and make mistakes in judgement that cost him a longer run in the show.  His knowledge level is very high and his technical skills are amazing.  I think that leadership is a problem for him and that he works better on his own or when serving as a sous chef.  However, he cannot be faulted for creativity.  And he also gets points for being chosen by Richard in the blind taste test and apparently performed extremely well in that role.

5.      Carla Hall.  Preseason 9.

Fan favorite Carla Hall is an extremely good chef.  On the surface, it feels like she specializes in "comfort food", but it would be an injustice to characterize her food in that way.  It is far more complex.  With her classical training, she has always been able to elevate a dish the way few other chefs could.  Her knowledge is extremely high, while her skill level remains very good.  She might have a few leadership issues because she seems to lose composure a little when put under pressure.  I doubt that it is a serious issue other than on a reality television show.  I feel that her endearment to others would be a serious asset in a real kitchen.   She also has a good level of creativity that sometimes falls a little short in the execution.  She gets extra points for being picked blind by Mike and adding so well to his team.

6.          Antonia Lofaso.  Preseason 10.

Although I originally had Antonia ranked in the lower middle of the group, she showed us a lot this year.  Among a group of chefs where ego was a high motivator, Antonia stayed on an even keel all season long.  Initially, she came out toward the bottom because of team challenges, but in individual challenges she shined and from the middle of the competition to the end, she stepped up her game and showed that she was deserving of high ranking by battling all the way through to the penultimate episode.  Her knowledge, skill level and creativity were very high this season, but she proved herself to be a very good teammate in critical challenges.  Her food tended toward the comfort side, but she rose to the challenge and delivered complexity when it was not expected.  Once more, she gets points for being chosen by Richard in the blind taste test.

7.      Tiffani Faison.  Preseason 2.

Because of her extraordinary performance in the first season of Top Chef, I started her out very high, but early in the season, she stumbled a few times and that moved her down.  Although her personality played negatively during her season, the first in Top Chef history, she showed that she was an excellent chef by producing consistently terrific dishes.  Going into All Stars, she seemed much more subdued and far less creative and I think that hurt her performance.  Nevertheless, Tiffani still retains all of those skills that she brought to the first season and she has increased them.  Her knowledge is very good and her technical skill is terrific.  Leadership is still a problem, but her creativity is still very high, so I am keeping her slightly above some of the middle chefs.

8.  Jennifer Carroll.  Preseason 7.

I may have a few people disagree with me on this one.  Jen was eliminated in the second episode of the season and we didn't have an opportunity to see the serious skills that she can bring to the kitchen.  Although she failed to play the game well, there can be no doubting that she is among the top eight in this group.  Her training and knowledge are very high and she has terrific technical skills.  During her season, she brought some excellent leadership skills, but I can't give her high marks here.  Her reaction to losing was embarrassing and her beliefs about winning and losing are positively medieval.  I also think there are issues concerning her level of creativity.  Training and working with great chefs cannot by itself instill a sense of creativity.

9.          Tiffany Derry.  Preseason 8.

Tiffany is a problem for me.  In the preseason, I had her ranked eighth because of her strong finish to the previous season.  Even then, it nagged at me that there just didn't seem to be an impressive level of creativity and I wondered just how memorable her food really was.  So then she goes out in All Stars and performs beyond everyone's expectations by finishing fourth, yet I bump her all the way down to ninth.  I’m still asking myself why I would do that.  Maybe it’s due to the fact that throughout the season, she was just barely handing on, like one of those Garfield window dolls.  Her food never seemed to elevate, although she kept it just good enough to keep from being eliminated.  Knowledge, technical skill and creativity all fall short for me and I have seen no signs of leadership.  No matter where I put her, I am uncomfortable about it.

10.    Jamie Lauren.  Preseason 6.

Jamie also performed very poorly in All Stars and she was also given a bad edit.  But as both Dominic Armato and I can testify, the food she puts out in her restaurants is heavenly.  So perhaps I bring a bit of a personal bias into this ranking.  Personally, I think she is a much better chef than Tiffany.  Maybe she should be lower than tenth, but every time I think back to my meal at Absinthe in San Francisco, I just have to keep her to at least this level.  Her knowledge is very high and her technical skill is excellent.  I can't gauge her leadership skill, but based on her performance in All Stars, I have to put it fairly low.  In spite of that, her creativity level is actually very high and it would be impossible for me to rank her any lower.  It speaks well of her that her dish was chosen by Mike in a blind taste test - and it is even better that she performed extremely well as sous chef for him.

11.          Casey Thompson.  Preseason 11.

Dominic had much greater confidence in Casey than I did to start the season.  But I warmed to her as Dom's confidence waned.  I think that she is a pretty darn good chef and certainly better than her performance on the show would indicate.  Her knowledge level is high, her technical skills are good, and she would seem to make a good leader, although I don't have any evidence of that.  I do think that she has some problems with creativity and with consistency.

12.    Tre Wilcox.  Preseason 16.

Obviously, my confidence in Tre to start the season was fairly low.  I thought he was a talented cook, but did not feel confident in his skills with this amazingly high level of competition.  I was wrong.  Tre was a very strong competitor for much of the season and really knocked out some good dishes, so I had to move him up four spots from my preseason thinking.  His knowledge is good.  His technical skill is very good, but I think he has issues with kitchen leadership and with creativity in designing his dishes.

13.          Marcel Vigneron.  Preseason 4.

What was I thinking in my preseason rankings?  Well, I was thinking that Marcel was very skilled during Season 2 (I thought he should have won) and that he must have improved across the board during the intervening time.  I was banking on his skills and maturity evolving from promising to flourishing.  Unfortunately, I was very wrong and I feel badly for Marcel.  He certainly showed during Restaurant Wars that he is not a leader at all.  In the kitchen, the chef must be able to inspire confidence in those working for him, to lead by example and to lead by pure creativity and inspiration.  He failed all of those tests badly.  To make it even worse, he just doesn’t get it.  I was extremely disappointed in Marcel.  Even with that being said, his knowledge and technical skills are very high, but creativity is also an issue for him.  Although he likes to think of himself as being original, I didn’t see anything this season that knocked me out – rather the opposite, most of his dishes seemed to be knock-offs.

14.    Fabio Viviandi.  Preseason 13.

For all of Fabio’s wonderful personality and charm and even his ability to make a few dishes that are absolutely wonderful, I cannot sense in him the deep knowledge, skills, leadership or creativity to make him a serious competitor in this group of highly talented chefs.  Fabio, I love you, I’d love to eat in your restaurant, but I can’t elevate you beyond this point.  Sorry.

15.    Spike Mendelsohn.  Preseason 17.

Personally, I like Spike.  I always have, from the beginning of Season 4 onwards.  And I’m sure that he is a decent chef, but as with Fabio, this competition was brutal, with so many terrific, inspired chefs in the mix, I don’t think Spike had much of a shot.  I don’t believe that the knowledge level is sufficiently high, I don’t think there is much at all in the way of leadership and Spike is virtually bankrupt in the creativity department.  He does have terrific technical skills and that alone elevates him above the bottom three.

16.    Dale Levitski.  Preseason 12.

Honestly, I thought Dale was going to do much better in this competition.  He seems like a creative person and I have always assumed his skills, but I didn’t see anything here that would cause me to move him up even to Spike’s level.  From what I’ve seen, I have to grade him out fairly low.

17.   

17.   Elia Aboumrad.  Preseason 15.

Well, here we have a promising chef who decided to explode a bomb on her career first by performing so badly that she was eliminated before any of the other seventeen chefs – and then capping it off by insulting Tom Colicchio more than once after she left the show.  I had been willing initially to give her a break, but more than anyone else, she just doesn’t seem to understand what is going on – and that is much worse than understanding and admitting your failure.  The only thing keeping her from the bottom spot is the fact that Stephen Asprinio doesn’t really cook any more.

18.          Stephen Asprinio.  Preseason 18.

Stephen decided to become a first class sommelier, manager and restaurateur, so he allowed his cooking skills to diminsh.  It does say something that he outlasted both Elia and Jen in this competition, but that says more about how Top Chef works than about Stephen’s abilities.

 

 

I welcome comments and would be happy to participate in a discussion about these selections, so if anyone is interested in participating, please log a comment below.