"Top Chef" finale: Anyone but Lisa

As much as I want to give lesbian contestant Lisa my support for the "Top Chef" win, I just ... can't. She's too bratty.

I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt: It's a pressure cooker on the show, everyone's sleep-deprived, yada yada. But then last week, after squeezing into the finals by the skin of her teeth, she had to snark at Richard and Stephanie, saying, "You guys think the wrong person went home. A congratulations would be nice." As Richard said, "Sure ... congratulations on the bronze medal."

I'm not alone: Bravo's cell phone poll showed a staggering 91 percent of viewers want Lisa booted from the show. The "Top Chef" blogs are peppered with comments like, "What an ungrateful, ungracious, disrespectful excuse of a chef." And my coworker here at Gay.com just told me, "I hope Lisa reaches for the salt when she's looking for sugar."

This season has been a snooze from start to finish -- too many catering challenges, not enough creative food shown, and few really interesting cheftestants (well, maybe Dale). Let's pray to the culinary gods we get better challenges next season. And some cute gay contenders wouldn't hurt ... I mean, it's Bravo.

That said, I'm watching anyway. Though I'd love to see an LGBT winner and would really like to see a female Top Chef, my vote still goes to "the Blais." He really fine-tuned his food at last week's challenge, showing he's learned to rein it in -- and knocked it out of the park. But will his finale meal get lost in bells, whistles and molecular gastronomy gimmicks? The utterly reliable and super-nice Stephanie would be great, too.

Repeat after me (and, apparently, the entire nation): ANYONE but Lisa.

PS: Look like this season all the action's happening off-air:

• Salon pronounces Tom Colicchio a bear ...
• ... but Colicchio's wife affirms his hetero status by stating his shaved head is "easier on the thighs."
• Where are past cheftestants now? Well, someone threw a bottle in Marcel's face in a bar, girls scream for Sommelier Stephen, and Hung has been ... humbled?
• And -- get this -- they're developing a "Top Chef Junior" show for teen prodigies.

Comments

[Sean]

w00t! I was rooting for Stephanie. Blais would have been fine if he didn't completely fall apart at the end, but I'm glad that good, old-fashioned talent won out in the end. I'd eat that lamb-braised-pistachio-olive thing for sure.

[sballlvr]

I am sad to see Top Chef come to an end. Next up for me is America's Got Talent tonight on NBC at 9 p.m.