Bravo Pictured: (l-r) Bryan Voltaggio, Stephanie Cmar, and Melissa King.
Season 17 of Top Chef‘s finale featured three finalists – Bryan Voltaggio, Melissa King and Stephanie Cmar. This was an all-stars season, with fierce competitors but only one of them could be a winner.
Read on for the finale spoilers and results on who won the all-star LA season. For those who want to just know who won, skip over the finale recap.
BEWARE OF MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW.
“Top Chef” Season 17 Finale Recap
To kick off the finale, each contestant’s journey on Top Chef was shown, bringing the viewers up to speed on each of their evolution on the show. The finalists then enjoyed an intimate breakfast before meeting up with judges Padma Lakshmi and Tom Colicchio. For the finale elimination challenge, each chef had to make a progressive 4-course meal and would serve their food to esteemed chefs from across the globe.
Helping each of the contestants were cast-offs from this season. Those cast-offs included Brian Malarkey, Lee Anne Wong, and Kevin Gillespie. After drawing knives, each finalist chose their sous-chef. Cmar went with Malarkey and then Voltaggio picked Gillespie. This meant that Wong was automatically put with King.
For King’s first course, she decided to go with a char siu octopus with fennel. For Cmar’s first course, she went with prawns in kataifi. And, Voltaggio’s first course was a beet dish, while his second course was lasagna.
Cmar’s second course was a taleggio stuffed cappelletti and her third course was a milk-braised veal with Parisian gnocchi. For her dessert, Cmar made a sticky toffee pudding.
King’s fourth course was a Hong Kong milk tea tiramisu.
Voltaggio went with a cacciucco, which is an Italian fish stew, as part of his course lineup.
Following some prepping for their meals, the finalists were served dinner that was made for them by the three judges. During dinner, everyone discussed their time on the show. For Voltaggio, it’s his third time in the competition, while the others are on their second attempt at the Top Chef title. Voltaggio said on the show that this season was his final time being on the show.
The three first courses went over smoothly but King started to feel the heat when prepping for the second. Regardless of this, each of the dishes got rave reviews from the judges and chefs who were served.
Course number three was next and Cmar was worried about her veal drying out. After eating the third courses, host Lakshmi told the contestants that a lot would be riding on their fourth courses because all of the courses had been so outstanding. However, a few of the diners had some critiques of Cmar and Voltaggio’s third courses.
“Top Chef” Season 17 Winner
BravoPictured: Melissa King
And the winner was … Melissa King.
While receiving criticism from the judges, the guest judge of the night told King that her third course was her favorite dish of the night. At this point, it sounded like King was definitely up to take the win.
While deliberating, judge Colicchio said that Voltaggio had the edge when it came to the first course. All three chefs got praise for the second course and King was revered for her third course. When it came to the dessert, it sounded like it was between King and Voltaggio, though Colicchio said Cmar had grown the most over the season.
Ready to hear the results for this season, alongside the finalists, were their sous-chefs and their loved ones.
In addition to winning Top Chef, the person who won gets to go home with $250,000.
On last week’s episode, Bryan Voltaggio, Melissa King, Stephanie Cmar and Kevin Gillespie took on a cooking challenge incorporating Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and Prosciutto di Parma ham. Each contestant had to develop two courses and serve each of their dishes to Michelin star chefs. Though each contestant displayed great culinary skills and plates, King was chosen as the standout chef of the night, with Cmar coming in at a close second. It was down to Voltaggio and Gillespie, with Gillespie being sent home.
Voltaggio, King and Cmar were the three cheftestants who made it to the finale of Top Chef: All Stars LA, season 17. Fortunately for him, Gillespie still got to be a part of the finale, though not as a finalist.
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