Top Chef Season 1 Still My Favorite

Now that Top Chef S3 is over, I've been thinking a lot about the differences between the seasons. Season 1 remains my favorite, and I've been trying to figure out why I feel Season 3 came up short against it. (S2 was another story.)

I don't think it's just the chefs. I did like Lee Anne quite a bit; she was really the one person I was rooting for 'til the end. Season 3, by comparison, had Tre and CJ, both of whom I was rooting for until they got knifed, but neither of whom I liked quite as much as Lee Anne. On the dislike side, S1 had Stephen and Tiffani (and Ken, but he was off right away); S3 had Joey, Howie, and Hung -- though in fairness all three got better. Still, overall I'd call it slightly to S3's favor, but not far off.

In terms of skill... well, since I can't taste the food, it can be hard to be sure, but I think they were overall on par with one another. Possibly S3 had a slight edge there, judging from how much better judges' table went in the finale, but anyhow, both seasons were very interesting to watch cook and create.

That leaves editing, and I think that's really where S3 suffered. I'm not sure precisely what it was, but it felt like S1 had far more emphasis on the food and cooking, and S3 tended to skip more of the tasting and showing us the dishes in favor of extended other scenes.

See, when I watch a cooking show, what I want to see is the cooking. Since the judges emphasize time and again that personality isn't important and cooking is, I think that should be the focus. This season it seems like the editing tended to emphasize the people over the cooking at times, and it bugged me.

Hopefully they'll strike a slightly better balance in S4, while still giving us a rounded bunch of interesting people with interesting food ideas.

I could blather on about comparisons more here, but I'm going to split that off into a separate post.