And then there were two!
On Wednesday's Top Chef All-Stars finale, Mike Isabella and Richard Blais will battle for the right to be the king of the kitchen after beating out 16 other fan favorite contestants.
PHOTOS: Look back on Top Chef's All-Star season
Isabella, who originally competed on season 6, hails from New Jersey and plans to open the Italian eatery Graffiato, this spring in the Penn Quarter neighborhood of Washington, D.C. His competitor, season 4 runner-up Blais, owns and operates three and four star restaurants in the Atlanta area, including Flip Burger Boutique.
While Isabella has a slight edge over Blais, having won the penultimate episode's Quickfire challenge, Blais was quick to point out on the March 23 airing that he has a total of eight wins to Isabella's three. In fact, Isabella almost didn't make the show's finale.
During the penultimate episode, Isabella entered into a tiebreaker final elimination round against Antonia Lofaso when the judges — including star chefs Wolfgang Puck, "Iron Chef" Morimoto and Michelle Bernstein — couldn't pick their favorite bite-sized dish. In the end, celebrity chef Puck awarded the victory to Isabella and sent Lofaso home.
"It's just like having your stomach just drop," cheftestant Lofaso said after she was asked to pack her knives and go. "It feels worse this time. So much work to get so close and just have it go away. It's so hard."
As Isabella and Blais get ready to battle in the kitchen Wednesday — creating the restaurant of their dreams — tell Us: Which all-star is most deserving of the title of Top Chef?
The Top Chef All-Stars finale airs Wednesday at 10 p.m. (EST) on Bravo.
By Allison Corneau for UsMagazine.com. For more Channel Surfing, click here.
