Top Chef All Stars: Richard Blais is Top Chef

I liked the change to the Top Chef finale format, having it between two instead of three.

I thought Wednesday night's Top Chef finale was the best in Top Chef history.

The judges judged that the food coming from the Richard Blais kitchen and the Mike Isabella kitchen was the best in Top Chef history.

I liked how all the Top Chef's from the All Star season were brought to the Bahamas for the finale.

The Quickfire where the returned chefs had to make an amuse bouche, with Isabella and Blais then picking their 3 favorites, with the makers of those favorites being their sous chefs for the final Elimination Challenge, was a clever way to pick the sous chefs.

When Isabella and Blais discussed who they did not want helping, Isabella said he did not want Jamie. So, of course Isabella picked Jamie's amuse bouche.

But that worked out fine. In the end, Isabella was happy with Jamie's help.

Isabella's other sous chefs were Carla and Tiffini, while Blais got Spike, Angelo and Antonia.

The finale challenge was sort of like Restaurant Wars on steroids. Mike and Richard had an hour to prepare a menu and 5 hours to cook. And they also had to make the restaurant of their dreams.

The Richard Blais restaurant was named "Tongue in Cheek," while Isabella's was something like "Iz's."

All the judges were impressed with all the food. Making it very hard to pick a winner.

In the end they picked Richard Blais to be Top Chef.

All the other chefs got to watch the final judgment, along with Mike Isabella's wife and mother. Richard's wife was about to have a baby, so an uncle was his relative in the room.

When they were in the Stew Room, Richard told Mike that if he won the $200,000 he'd give Mike money so he could start his restaurant too.

I doubt either of these two will have a problem getting financing for a restaurant. Richard already has a company called TrailBlais and a modern hamburger joint called "Flip."

Starting last December Richard has been hosting a show on The Science Channel called Blais Off, in which he uses his scientific cooking methods to re-invent classic foods.

I was sort of surprised to learn that Mike Isabella had a wife and had reproduced. You could sort of tell he may have gotten his good looks from his mother.

I've yet to watch the Watch What Happens Live show to see who won fan favorite. My guess is Antonia. Or Carla.