Top Chef - Season 1 vs Season 2

OMG! What a shocker! I tuned in to see season 3 and was met with a All 4 Star challenge pitting the final four from Season 1 against the final 4 from season 2! This is like going out to dinner with your ex girlfriend and your current girlfriend!

Nice to see all the contestants made it back, although LeAnne was replaced by Stephen as she is now a producer on Top Chef! Dave is a bigger douche than Stephen or Marcel in my opinion, I can't stand him.

The fact that both Stephen and Marcel, the two antagonists in their respective series seems a little bit of coincidence. Also, isn't it a bit of a disappointment that both previous winners failed to win the challenge?

Harold looks way too intense! He actually looked like he was planning on how to dump Padma's body when she was announcing the ingredients for the elimination challenge!

It's so weird seeing Stephen and Ilan on the same show! It's freaking me out! It's like they have no right to be sharing the same space at the same time!

I'm not feeling Elia's new look.

I'm rooting for Season 2, I like them all. From Season 1 I only like Harold.

Woah! Season 3 judging the challenge!

I reckon Season 1 have taken it with ease, the judges didn't seem to dig Season 2's offerings.

Damn, the two previous Top Chef's got slated! They were probably the worst dishes of the whole challenge!

Season 1 laid the smackdown on Season 2 big style.

Top Chef Season 2 final thoughts

Some final thoughts on another excellent season of Top Chef which I can now say is way better than Hell's Kitchen!

Firstly, Padma Lakshmi is far superior to Katie Lee Joel (some viewers on the Bravo boards have nicknamed her Katie Bot!) Although I have some issues with the way she speaks, I believe that is partly down to her speaking with an American accent. She seems to know a fair bit about food and she's often sharing her thoughts with the judges.

Ilan deserved to win the show as he was a consistent performer throughout the entire process and I thought Marcel was lucky to be in the final. I had Sam nailed on for the final but his last dish let him down and he was let loose.

The Marcel bullying was uncomfortable to watch at times but the guy really didn't help himself. He was always looking to annoy and aggravate his fellow contestants. However in a way I began to respect him a little because despite being a loner he carried on and every time he won a challenge it wound the others up big time!

Cliff went over the line when he assaulted Marcel, but Sam needs to share some some of the blame, he should have said he wasn't going to get involved from the get go thus stopping Cliff going in for the kill. Cliff was going to get eliminated anyway so it was no big deal for the judges.

I think the final challenge there was one segment I believe was fake. When the chefs were picking who they wished to cook for both Sam and Michael voted for Marcel which I find incredibly unlikely after all the animosity between Sam and Marcel.

Overall a solid season and very enjoyable!