Linda, you missed my point re past performances (and maybe I’m missing yours). If they came into play, they should have helped Eric, not hurt him, given his season long performance, yet he was still sent packing. If, as you say, it always is in the back of their minds, then the fact that he did not advance must mean his dish was clearly the worst. Going into the finale, he had the most wins and fewest lows of any of the chefs, so if past performance was a factor, it should have been a factor in favor of him, not against him. What I am saying is either it didn’t come into play and he lost because his dish wasn’t as good, or it did come into play, and helped his case, but couldn’t get him over the hump because his dish clearly wasn’t as good. But again, maybe I’m missing your point re past performance.
And I am glad that you’re not downgrading the performance of the other two, but obviously I wasn’t the only one to read your posts that way. Saying things like Eric is what “a Top Chef should be” read to a few of us (as evidenced by the number of likes Thimes post received) as denigrating the winner and the runner up.
Of course it’s a TV show, of course, none of us were there, and of course our favorite chefs sometimes don’t win. Your post read to me as saying Top Chef screwed up by not picking him. I have no idea, I didn’t taste anything, but it seemed to me like the two women earned their spots.
