7/1 - Top Chef 18 FINALE Discussion

It's been an incredible season. I really thought it was Shota's to win, so I'm a little disappointed that Gabe pulled it out.

But this has definitely been one of the most memorable seasons in years, and it handled the limitations of the pandemic brilliantly. Cheers.

Was rooting for Gabe so I am super happy with his win.

Oh geez. What a mess. Padma commented about it on twitter saying that Gabe was a gentleman while on the show and that Top Chef didn't know about the accusations and they were looking into it, but he got fired in December, the show started airing in May, and the only thing they did was not have him on Andy's "Watch What Happens Live" aftershow--they just had the judges. They've been talking about this on the Reddit Top Chef page for months now--no way they didn't know about it or have a chance to prepare. It's a shame because this was a really, really good season.

After reading numerous posts on Reddit, I think I got the basics of the situation. Apparently, Gabe likes to cheat. Which would normally just be a depressing thing between him and his wife, but Gabe also likes to [censored] where he eats with subordinates, and that's a no-no in a lot of places. He had an affair with a subordinate that worked at the restaurant, and when she ended it he immediately cut her hours. The coworker then went to management and told all. Rather than firing him on the spot, the restaurant decided to do its due diligence and investigated further by interviewing women who worked under him (both present and past) and they found out this clown was telling people that he and his wife were separated when they were not so he could possibly sleep with them. Not sure if he punished the ladies who said no, but it was heavily implied on some of the posts. It was more than a few women too which is why they let him go; you can't have a chef hitting on his workers, and definitely not one who is married. He's not the only chef out here doing stuff like this; the restaurant industry can be extremely toxic. Most decent places don't allow that type of crap to go on.

I have no idea how TC is going to handle this. As for me, I'm sad that Dawn let her nerves get the best of her and she kept forgetting things, and Shota made his rice too crispy but I was rooting for both of them and will support them by going to their respective restaurants when I'm in their cities.