Carla Hall Keeps Her Victory On The Down Low ["Top Chef"]

It’s rare that Bravo exec Andy Cohen’s blog makes me happy, but he managed to do it on yesterday’s post. The Top Chef reunion taped in New York this week and part of the festivities was a viewing party Tom Colicchio threw for all the chefs at Craft Restaurant to watch part 1 of the finale. Carla, ever the trust worthy lady she is hasn’t even told her husband of her win at the Mardi Gras party in New Orleans! Andy tells us the heartwarming tale:

“Tom hosted all the chefs and judges for a viewing of last night’s episode at CraftSteak and it was so sweet watching Carla’s husband watch the show. He cried as he discovered that not only had his wife won the episode, she won a Toyota Venza and a spot in the finale.  (Carla is a good soldier and is living by her confidentiality contract!). The restaurant erupted into thunderous applause celebrating her win, and that lady took her well-earned bows.”

Now, on to the eliminations. I was shocked that Jeff didn’t make it since the judges were so complementary, but as usual Tom clues us in.

“That night, however, Jeff was never in the running for a reason that didn’t make it into the final edit. He did a very fine job, however he used some sort of sterno chafing dish to keep his oysters warm that, for whatever reason, imparted a taste of burning sterno to the oysters. We all smelled it and remarked on it while the chefs were setting up their stations, and then we tasted that horrible taste when we sampled his selections”

Now, why wasn’t this in the episode? It seems only fair to put that in, otherwise it looks like Jeff was eliminated for no reason. As for Fabio’s elimination, his charm could only take him so far. And a Top Chef loss, especially at this point in the game, can do incredible things for a chef’s career: Lee-Ann Wong and Richard Blais, both former Top Chef runner ups, have both gone on to do well and continue to work with Bravo.

Tom hints a similar path is in Fabio’s future: “I  learned that he has a lot of exciting developments happening professionally. This is a man who by the age of thirty had run and sold several successful restaurants in Italy, come to the U.S. and created great opportunity for himself. Without spilling the beans prematurely, I’ll say only that we all have not heard the last from Fabio …”

Perhaps Fabio has his own cooking show in the works. If he does, I hope he can finally share his recipe for Monkey Ass on an Empty Clam Shell.

[Image: Bravo/Virginia Sherwood]