The Working File

Reihan Salam on Hosea of Top Chef:

Many moons ago, Hosea mislaid his pork. The gang rallied around and saved his pork, and he won the elimination challenge. And you know who helped rather a lot? Stefan. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was the “12 Days of Christmas Episode.” Hosea was throwing a fit, as always. He is a punk. It’s a fact.

I completely agree
The rest below the fold because it reveals who won
Spoiler Alert

Salam recounts a few of the instances in which Hosea revealed himself to be a petty jerk, but doesn’t discuss the finale, because — although he knows Hosea won — he hasn’t watched it yet.
Hosea was as much of a petty jerk in the finale as he has been all season. The contestants had free unlimited access to the ingredients in the kitchen they were using. So whenever Hosea wanted something he took all of it — just so nobody else could have any. Stefan, who has turned out to be a man, and not a jerk, called him on it twice, regarding foie gras and caviar. It would have been different if they had a budget. If Hosea wanted to spend his cash on all the available stock of a given ingredient, then that would be his choice, which would have consequences, but to take all of an ingredient — when it is essentially free — just to keep someone else from using it, is the act of a punk. And it is wholly consistent with Hosea’s past acts. As Salam mentioned, this is a guy who once berated himself for not taking an artichoke he had no intention of using because if he had done so, Stefan could not have used it to win a quickfire challenge.  Hosea’s repeated excuse for this behavior, “This is a contest,” is the cry of every immature self-centered jerk in the world.  “What I do is OK because — well it helps me.”

Yes it is a contest.  One with rules, and hopefully being contested by people with some sense of right, wrong, and shared obligation.  Hosea’s mindset reveals him to be someone who has no conception of rules except for those that are formally written down and promulgated by authority.  The idea that communities and societies can have informal rules of proper behavior is something he apparently rejects — at least when the informal rules are applied to him.

Then, whenever he lost, Hosea was a petulant whiner, and oh how he let Stefan get into his head.  The past few weeks Stefan has been slipping, and Hosea’s obsession never faltered.  Last week they both were destroyed by Carla and Jeff — a contestant who had already been eliminated.  Yet Hosea still spent the post-show interview focusing on Stefan as his main threat.

So it is disappointing that Hosea won, even though he probably did present the best meal in the final challenge.  I might have given Stefan more credit for presenting a desert as his last dish, which Hosea avoided.  It is also, of course, impossible to judge the dishes at home.  So while I can acknowledge that Hosea probably deserved to win based on the final challenge, it is still annoying.

One other incident fully turned me against Hosea.  During the finale, Carla made two mistakes, both of which could be traced to her decision to follow the advice of her sous chef instead of her own judgment.  The judges made it impossible for her to miss this, and I think they even overstated it a bit.  as a result, when the three finalists were given the last opportunity to plead their case, Carla broke down.  Not in an embarrassing way; she didn’t fall apart.  But she did cry in a fully honest and endearing, but sad, moment.

Hosea, standing next to her, just stood there.  Stefan looked at Carla, looked at Hosea, and then walked around Hosea to get to Carla to provide her with some comfort.  Hosea just stood there looking uncomfortable.  This is why I say Stefan revealed himself to be a man.  Hosea is a child.  He might still grow up, but damn it’s getting late.  When a woman starts crying next to you, you do something.  Maybe if her husband or father or somebody with more of a connection to her than you is in the vicinity, you hold back.  But there was nobody else.  Tom Colicchio sure as hell wasn’t going to do anything, nor was that self-important British judge who isn’t as clever as he thinks he is.  It was down to Hosea or Stefan, and Hosea punked out.  Stefan continued to comfort Carla back in the hotel room where they awaited the decision.  Hosea rubbed it in, stating that he at least has the comfort of knowing that he stayed true to himself and his vision with his food, even if it fails.  As that was exactly what Carla lacked and was grieving about, that was a stupid thing to say.

Finally, a few more words about Carla and Stefan.

I did not warm to Carla at first.  She was bug-eyed, had a weird hippy-dippy energy, and sometimes didn’t seem to know what she was doing.  Early on she was pigeonholed as someone who could do desert, and let herself be tasked with that too much.  As the season progressed, she became more properly self-assertive, and showed her true abilities.  and the additional time I had to see her let me se past the superficial aspects that turned me off and to see her real warmth and genuineness.

Stefan.  Stefan was the early-season villain.  The arrogant bastard.  As the season progressed, it was clear that his self-regard was — at least — not delusional.  It was also overdone by everyone but him.  He turned out to be a great teammate and quite generous.  In the Restaurant War challenge, he was the last person picked, then completely saved his team.  Leah made the worst dish of that challenge and was team leader; Hosea also made a poor dish,  This was also the week they were distracted by their high school level make out session.  All that team had going for them was Fabio’s charm as a host, and Stefan’s desert — and Stefan had never previously demonstrated he could make a desert.  It made the team win, and saved probably Leah from elimination.  In the challenge at the farm, Stefan’s teammates were rolling their eyes at the prospect of working with him,  but when they hit a rough spot he was the one who raised their spirits and got them back on track.  If I remember correctly, he had immunity that week, so his team could have lost with no danger to him, but he still saved them.

Further, as Salam points out, he generally didn’t trash talk with the women, but there was one exception, I think: Jamie.  Jamie the tough San Francisco lesbian chick.  Stefan not only talked trash with her, he openly flirted with her and professed his desire to make her his girlfriend.  It half pissed Jamie off, but she also knew it came from affection and respect.  Stefan knew she could dish it out and take it.  If he saw that it would genuinely upset her he wouldn’t have done it.  Stefan is a man.  Carla is a woman.  Hosea is a punk.  he won, probably deservedly so, but he is still a punk, and iff you offered me a free meal at his restaurant, I wouldn’t take it.