Oh how I missed them so. It's hard to forget that just a few short months ago CJ, Tre, Howie, Joey and the rest of the Season 3 cast of Top Chef started competing for the ultimate title of Top Chef. But last night's Top Chef Reunion Show reminded us of everything we loved about this season and just why each contestant made it great.

To start it all off, everyone asked if they thought Hung deserved to win. It was kind of interesting to see their response. Everyone somehow managed to say something like "Hung was the guy to beat," or "Everybody in this competition was so talented that really anyone could have taken it." But many people did not actually say, "Yes, Hung deserved it." I've said it before and I will say it again: Hung might have been a little cocky, but he knew how to cook and managed to impress some amazing chefs. I think Hung deserved to win.

I have to admit, I was not as excited to watch last night's Top Chef finale as I have been with previous season's finales (in my defense baseball playoffs are going on and the Red Sox played their first game last night; sue me). I was somewhat anticipating something similar to what we have seen in previous seasons.

As the competition progressed though, my excitement grew. I started to realize the best part of Top Chef is not about all of the crazy tests and heated arguments; it's about the food. The greatest thing to watch is when the extremely talented chefs are told to "have at it." There's no insane challenge. They just have to cook their best meal ever. And once I saw that this finale was a little different than the previous seasons, I felt like I was in for an exciting ride.

So here we are, down to the Top Chef final three (a first for Top Chef, which usually goes straight from four to two). Brian was sent packing, so let's took a look at how the field was narrowed from four to three. I must admit, up until a couple of weeks ago I would not have picked the final four - Brian, Dale, Casey and Hung - to be the last ones standing. Of course I always thought Hung would make it to the end. And ever since Casey really started impressing the judges within the last few weeks, I knew she would be able to go up against any of the contestants. But I have to say that Brian and Dale both surprised me a little bit. Dale had not won any challenges and didn't wow too many people, and poor Brian will be forever known as the seafood guy.

When the chefs arrived in Aspen, I had to laugh at how each one arrived. Dale, Brian and Casey got there around the same time and seemed genuinely happy to see each other, never too shy to throw their arms around each other. When Hung got there (late, I might add), he very rigidly collected his suitcase and marched to the other contestants. When he arrived you could feel the awkwardness through the TV. It is so apparent that Hung is the outsider and is only there to win.

Just in case you didn't get enough of him this summer with Hell's Kitchen, Chef Gordon Ramsay is back with his brand new show, Kitchen Nightmares. This show is a take on the his successful show in England (just like Hell's Kitchen) where Ramsay visits run down, unsuccessful restaurants and attempts to resurrect them as only Ramsay knows how. If you missed your weekly dose of yelling in the kitchen, look no further. Gordon Ramsay will not disappoint.

The first episode of Kitchen Nightmares was an amusing start. Ramsay visits a small Long Island Italian restaurant called Peter's, owned by an, lets just say, interesting family. Peter's sister actually owns the restaurant, but Peter himself is regularly seen in there, usually not doing too much. To top it off, Peter (who by the way thinks he is in Goodfellas) would rather spend money on a Mercedes and nice clothes than a new oven for the restaurant. Oh yeah, and likes to get into fights and threatens money collectors in front of the restaurant. I said they were interesting, right?

So it's been a while since I have blogged. In cased you missed it, this week's episode was down to the top five chefs, Brian, Hung, Dale, Sara and Casey. And they aren't in Miami anymore. Last week the chefs shipped out and flew to New York City where they weren't exactly let out of the airport. The chefs had to create a high-class dish that would hold up when cooked on a plane. I must say this challenge made me slightly giddy. I love food science (I own more than one food science book that I read for fun) and I get a little happy with food that is conceptually put together with a specific cooking method in mind that must taste delicious. I'm odd I know.

In any event, after testing and tasting, CJ's dish, specifically the broccolini, did not work. In fact Tom Collichio said it might have been the worst dish ever on Top Chef. Hey at least CJ received one title, right? Casey, on the other hand, managed to impress the judges and won the prize: two plane tickets to anywhere in the world. Casey might not have wowed the judges early on, but she is certainly starting to now, which is good, especially where the prizes are the most rewarding, and the competition is nearing its end.

But even though this is the final stop for this year's Feasting on Asphalt, Alton Brown's work is truly never done. He will certainly continue producing the greatest show on Food Network, Good Eats. And I'm sure we are bound to see Mr. Brown commentating on Iron Chef on a regular basis. But the problem with Alton Brown is that I can't get enough of him. I watch food and cooking shows and say to myself "man I wish Alton Brown was here to prove this guy wrong."

So here is my list of new shows I would love to see Alton Brown do next.

1) A Kitchen Equipment show. There is a show on the Fine Living Network called Shopping with Chefs. It follows around two chefs as they shop for food and equipment and tell you why you should buy this gadget or that gadget and which is the best. And 9 times out of 10 I think Alton Brown could do this show so much better. He would tell you everything there is to know about each gadget, and then he'd follow that up with 20 reasons NOT to buy it because it's a uni-tasker and a waste of money. If you do want advice from the master about your kitchen, I suggest picking up his book Alton Brown's Gear for Your Kitchen. It's a very good read.

I wasn't that excited to watch Top Chef last night. You would expect that with last week's episode being a rerun, this week I would be eagerly awaiting the clock to strike ten. But now with Tre being booted prematurely and the rest of the contestants just kind of boring me, I could barely pull myself away from Guitar Hero.

We are starting to enter into the episodes I like to call the "Straggler Episodes." These episodes are the in-between episodes that are kind of there to boot off the stragglers, like Howie last night. These are the people you know aren't going to make it to the final 4, but somehow manage to keep holding on week after week through luck. In last season, for example, Mike managed to stay in the competition for a while until he was asked to pack his knives around the same time. Only, we liked Mike.

You can tell the judges aren't fans of these episodes either. Both Gail and Ted weren't there to judge the boat party last night, although Gail had mentioned in her blog that she was very busy during these months. Her stand-in was very, very well qualified, but I kind of miss Gail in a strange way.

After becoming a die-hard Top Chef fan, I have a newfound respect for talented chefs and innovative food. Shows like this have helped me explore a vast culinary world and exercise my taste buds as I constantly try and update my cooking knowledge. But even though I have nothing but admiration for the talented and creative chefs on these shows, television has strayed slightly from celebrating good American cooking at its finest. Good thing we have Alton Brown and Feasting on Asphalt.

One of the greatest aspects about this show (among many) is that Alton sits down with the real backbone of American cuisine. No, I'm not talking about any celebrity chef who owns three restaurants in Las Vegas. I'm talking about that 75-year-old woman who makes pies in that local diner down the street and has been baking since she was 10. Or that fry cook who would rather go a round or two of interrogation with Jack Bauer than give up his fried chicken recipe. These are the people who make the best food in the country - and no, I don't care how many "throwdowns" Bobby Flay has won.

Well it looks like we were wrong folks: Tre had to pack his knives and go.

In last night's episode of Top Chef, my decided winner (and many others' might I add) was asked to leave by the judges. Although it might not have been as shocking as season 2's fan favorite Sam's departure, seeing Tre being kicked off was pretty surprising. But after the shock wore off, I was left with one burning question - which remaining contestant is even deserving of the title of Top Chef?

CJ - CJ seems to be pulling his weight and has the drive to win, but he just is not taking any sort of responsibility. Last week he won the quickfire and picked the "dream team," but stepped aside and let Tre lead both nights, which ended with his demise. As much as I like CJ, I just don't know if he is Top Chef material.

Brian - It all goes back to being versatile. We get it, you can cook seafood, shuck oysters and cook a scallop or two. But it has been my understanding that a Top Chef should be somewhat adaptable in their cooking by blending different ingredients and flavors. In one of Lee Anne's blog posts (season one contestant who works behind the scenes now) she wrote how Brian's salmon burger dish he made for the high-class burger challenge was extremely similar to the dish he made for the seafood challenge. That's just a bad move in a competition.

There are very few people in this world that I would say I worship. Jimmy Page might make the list. George Lucas is a possibility (I am a huge dork, I know). But there is one person who undoubtedly tops my list of borderline insane infatuations. This almost god-like man has taken everything I have known about cooking and food, turned it upside down, and made me better in the kitchen. I am speaking of course of the almighty Alton Brown.

Now I know what you're thinking: this obsession is probably a little unhealthy. But Alton Brown has opened up a whole new world for me when it comes to cooking. I have always loved food and spending time in the kitchen, but it was not until I saw my first episode of Good Eats that I fully started to understand food. I never would have thought I would be so glued to the TV set while watching Alton describe why a copper bowl ionizes the atoms of egg whites more than an aluminum bowl thus creating a better meringue. No one had described food like that to me before and I was hooked.

As the judges pointed out, last night's episode of Top Chef featuring Restaurant Wars is a favorite episode of many. The contestants are split up into two teams and are given the close to impossible task of designing a restaurant. This is the challenge a lot of people were waiting for, and even though I'm pretty much done with team challenges (yes, we get it, Howie doesn't work well with others), I am willing to make an exception.

Lets start out with the teams. I think the quickfire winner CJ (who, by the way, desperately deserved a win) picked a great team. I probably would have picked Dale over Casey myself, but his choice seemed to be a good one, at least design-wise. And he did avoid those pesky vanilla candles that caused so much controversy. But by talent alone I would peg CJs team to win, so I was a little surprised they did so poorly.

The other team also didn't do so hot, but they made some poor choices as well. I was extremely surprised Sara took the helm as executive chef. I'm slightly surprised she's even still in the competition. Even though Howie has some rough spots and apparently cannot make a risotto to save his life, he has executive chef experience. I'm surprised being the bulldog he is he didn't fight that.

I'm usually not one to say I told you so, but.... HA HA I told you so!

In last night's finale of Hell's Kitchen, the one true competitor of the show, Rock won his dream job by successfully navigating a superb dinner service. His food seemed well crafted, his restaurant was very elegant, and his team was skillfully led. I said it from the third show; Rock was going to win it all.

Tre on Top Chef
Photo: Matthias Clamer

According to the judges, there are a number of qualities a person must have in order to be considered a Top Chef. These traits seem to often change or vary from episode to episode, but usually the judges have a general guideline. Top Chefs should obviously be able to cook, should have an abundance of culinary knowledge, and should be somewhat versatile in their cooking. They should also have a good understanding of what food is appropriate given the customers' tastes and the situation, and should ultimately leave the customer satisfied. And of course, the judges expect all of these traits to be held strong under short time frames and constant pressure.

One trait the judges really seem to sort of be on the fence on however is leadership. The judges say they want the Top Chef to be a leader, someone who can successfully pilot their chefs through the challenges they offer. In the past two seasons the final challenge gave the finalists a chance to cook an impressive 5 course meal as the head chef, leading dinner service for some of the best-known chefs in the world with some of the best ingredients in the world. The catch however has been that their sous-chefs were previous competitors - a raw deal for people like Tiffany and Marcel who stepped on anyone and everyone to get to the end. When the time came for the sous-chefs to speak about their experience with their leader, very few came to bat for the ones who led poorly. Clearly leadership is an important aspect of being a Top Chef.

Bonnie and Rock
Photo: Greg Gayne/FOX

So here we are, down to the final two on Hell's Kitchen. I almost thought we would never make it. Bonnie the personal chef/nanny versus Rock the professional executive chef. An interesting duo of finalists to say the least.

Two weeks ago I gave ten good reasons (ok nine, but who's counting) why Rock is going to win it all. In all honesty I thought Jen would be standing in Bonnie's place, but I can understand why Ramsay would want to get rid of Jen as quickly as possible (ugh even the flashbacks last night reminded me how annoying she is). I still think Rock is really the only choice here and has been for the past five shows or so. However, Bonnie has surprised me in the last few weeks and I feel she might have a fighting chance.

I want to prelude this by saying a lot of things I am about to give credit to Bonnie for are based on last night's episode, which was probably heavily edited in Bonnie's favor to appear that way. They want to "even up" the competition so it appears they both have a shot to win. They did the same thing last year so that viewers were questioning the winner right up until the end. That being said...

Host Padma Lakshmi and Guest Judge Alfred Portale
Photo: Glenn Watson/Bravo

My girlfriend grew up in a family of non-chefs. To her, grilled cheese was best made in a microwave. She survived college thanks to the frozen food section in the grocery store. It's not that she never tasted good food - since her family couldn't cook, they always went out to restaurants. It's just that in retrospect she's realized that she never appreciated how great that food was.

Then we started watching Top Chef. While the drama on Top Chef is one reason that the show is wildly successful, it's the superb level of cooking that also attracts viewers. Hell's Kitchen thrives for the sole reason that Gordon Ramsay's show is one hundred percent about the yelling and theatrics. The food is not the focus of the show, as it is on Top Chef.

Top Chef introduces viewers to a new level of cuisine and teaches them the hard work and detail that goes into creating those dishes. The skilled "chef-testants" consistently bring new and innovative dishes to the table, and the judges and guest judges educate the viewers with their insight and criticisms of the dish. Speaking of the guest judges, they also do their part in introducing us to superior restaurants.

A few weeks ago, chef-testant Howie won the challenge, which awarded him the chance to spend a week in the kitchen of guest judge Alfred Portale's famed restaurant Gotham Bar & Grill. You know a show is of a high caliber when it is able to feature chefs like Portale. On the episode that Portale guest judged, the contestants had to reinvent an American classic. Portale told MediaVillage (during an extraordinary dinner at Gotham) that he was very pleased with what the contestants did in the quick fire, but in that elimination challenge, he was very disappointed.