The last woman standing, and the contestant with the most elimination challenge wins, she didn’t manage to wow the judges with her final meal as much as finalists Hung and Dale Levitski did. But she did manage to expertly talk around her feelings toward the admittedly arrogant Hung with us, while also recalling some really great praise and guidance from judge Chef Tom Colicchio and setting the record straight about that infamous onion-dicing debacle.
How are you feeling today about Hung taking the title?
I don’t know…there’s so many mixed emotions today. [During the finale] Dale and I were just looking at each other with blank stares, and he knows what I’m thinking, I know what he’s thinking, and we’re very happy for Hung. He’s a very technical, talented chef. He is. It’s amazing, right before the finale that the judges say, “We haven’t seen Hung in any of your dishes.” And then, all of a sudden, he pulls it out and he’s the winner. You know, I’ve never been the one on the show to say negative things about any of them…
What’s your day been like so far?
I’m in Chicago, having lunch with my parents—corned beef and hash, it’s delicious—and my mother, who’s always the quickest one to tell me things, was like, “Um, you look exhausted!” Thanks, mom. But I am…that’s part of it.
Who are you most excited to see at the reunion?
Lia. I love seeing Lia. She is just a breath of fresh air. She looks at me and is like, “Are you OK?” I’m like, “I’m fine.” And she’s like, “I know, I don’t want to talk about it either.” I’m like, “Cool.” She’s a great friend, an ultimate culinary star. She is amazing.
What’s the one thing you’ve gotten the hardest time about? Was it the onion?
[Laughs] Well, there’s a couple things about that whole situation…the instructions on that were a fine dice, which is very small. And I can’t say that the other contestant’s were as pretty as mine. [Laughs] That is all I can say.
[Laughs] We’ll leave it at that…any chefs that you admire that you were hoping would be guest judges?
The first season when the show really wasn’t established yet, they couldn’t get chefs on the show. Second season, more. Third season, they’re knocking on their door. I feel like it was a jam-packed, high-caliber chef lineup for this season. We had Daniel Boulud, Anthony Bourdain—oh my God, I love that man—Govind Armstrong, Eric Ripert, I mean these are phenomenal chefs that are established, that have multiple restaurants. It was an honor, quite simply put.
Any great moments we didn’t see?
There were a couple of moments where Colicchio had some really great things to say about me, as a chef, and they don’t make the air and you wish they did. But I think I got my fair share of good chef comments!
Did Colicchio offer you a job?
Not yet. But I’m so in love with him! He’s cool and collected and he’ll say whatever he thinks. He’s such a good chef. I love him!
So he was a good mentor?
He has that chef’s point of view. That is just a true chef. One time, we were standing in front of the judges’ table and he was telling us, “Well, I didn’t like this dish. What happened? None of you knew how to do it.” And we were like, then tell us exactly what it is you didn’t like so we can learn from this. And he goes “OK!” And he starts going from the first line of the recipe: Do this, do that, whisk this, add in this, then do that. And we were like Wow, that’s pretty cool. He’s no joke.
Would you do it all again?
At first: No. And then I started winning: Yes. And then, would I ultimately do it after the finale? Hell yeah. I met so many great people and I could not buy this type of experience. I will forever be friends with Dale and Lia—I’m all teary again! Tomorrow’s a new day. Dale put it best—he said, “Our career begins as of yesterday.” So yeah, I’d do it again for sure.
