Top Tortoise

Tonight is the night. Tonight we see if the tortoise really can beat the hare or, more appropriately in this case, the hair-free. Carla has been an absolute delight this season. Sure, she started out kinda kooky but now she is absolutely adorable. You just want to hug her. Or dance with her. Or simply be in the presence in such an uncanny human embodiment of a fraggle.

Seriously, at this point if you're not rooting for Carla then I'm not sure we can be friends. It's not just that she is more likable than her competitors. Sure, Stefan is endlessly arrogant and Hosea is endlessly whiny. But instead of hoping someone loses, as I've done in past season, I genuinely want her to win. She is the best chef out there. Plus if nothing else, think of the epic reaction shot we'd be treated to if Padma proclaims her Top Chef. In my mind's eye it would a little like the distillation of rainbows and unicorns and kittens and butterflies, in one smile.

Hell, you just know even the eternally serene Padma is secretly rooting for Team Hootie-Hoo.

So, now it's all over but the cooking. Go Hooti-Hoo, go! Let's all hope slow and steady really does win the race. And if that doesn't work, there's always pizzazz!

p.s. Just because every time I watch this clip it reminds me what it means to be awesome, let's see this one once more, with feeling:

My Weekend Crush

Carla is love. She is sunshine and joy and wonder. Her progression on “Top Chef” this season has been one of those rare revelations. While she may have started as the colorful kook, she is now a force not only to be reckoned with but genuinely admired. And she has done it all without grousing or aggrandizing. She has done it, quite simply, by cooking well. On a show like “Top Chef” where personality too often drives the drama, it's refreshing to see a personality – or more accurately a person – who is so uniquely herself. Carla is different, and that is what makes her so fantastic. Part Fraggle, part classically-trained chef, all lovable, she is the kind of person who should be celebrated on reality TV instead of all the vapid fame chasers who overpopulate our screens. If there was any justice in television, she will be this season's triumphant tortoise. Go Team Hootie-Hoo! Happy weekend, all.