The Final Table

The Final Table is an American cooking competition and reality television series hosted by food writer and critic Andrew Knowlton, and filmed in Los Angeles, California for Netflix. The first season was released on November 20, 2018.[1] It features twelve international teams of two professional chefs each competing to create elevated dishes based on the country chosen for each episode.[2] The first round is judged by a three-person panel—a food critic, and two culturally significant citizens, all representing the episode's country—assessing each team's interpretation of their chosen nationally significant dish. Interspersed among the cooking activities are video packages featuring the culinary biographies of the contestants.

The Final Table
GenreCooking show
Directed byRussell Norman
Presented byAndrew Knowlton
Country of originUnited States
Original language(s)English
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes10 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)Adam Cooper
CinematographyRamy Romany
Running time53–59 minutes
DistributorNetflix
The Old School
Release
Original networkNetflix
Original releaseAugust 11, 2018 (2018-20-11)
External links
Official website

The second round of each episode is The Final Plate Challenge. A renowned chef, who already has an honorary seat at The Final Table, picks an ingredient representing their country's cooking culture, and then judges each team's dish highlighting that ingredient, eliminating one or two teams.[3] In the first seven episodes, the bottom three teams are up for elimination in the second round, in the eighth and ninth episodes, only one team is not up for elimination.

For the finale, the nine renown chef judges from each episode return, and are featured at The Final Table along with signature dishes they had each created that changed the food world. The final two competing chef teams break up and compete as individuals. Each of the four contestants must prepare a signature dish that defines them as a chef, and will “cause ripples around the culinary world”.

Chefs

Each chef was paired with a fellow chef that they knew from their personal or professional life before the event.

  • Charles Michel (Colombia & France) and Rodrigo Pacheco (Ecuador)
  • Aaron Bludorn (United States) and Graham Campbell (Scotland)
  • Alex Haupt (Australia/Germany) and Ash Heeger (South Africa)
  • Darren MacLean (Canada) and Timothy Hollingsworth (United States)
  • Shin Takagi (Japan) and Ronald Hsu (United States)
  • Shane Osborn (Australia) and Mark Best (Australia)
  • Monique Fiso (New Zealand) and Amninder Sandhu (India)
  • James Knappett (United Kingdom) and Angel Vazquez (Mexico)
  • Jessica Lorigio (United States) and Johnny Spero (United States)
  • Collin Brown (Jamaica) and Colibri Jimenez (Mexico)
  • Esdras Ochoa (Mexico) and Rafa Gil (Brazil)
  • Manuel Berganza (Singapore & Spain) and Benjamin Bensoussan (France)

Episodes

Season 1
No.TitleFirst Round JudgesThe Final Plate JudgeNational DishFinal Plate Ingredient
1"Mexico"
Enrique Olveratacoopuntia
2"Spain"
Andoni AdurizPaellaOctopus
3"United Kingdom"
Clare SmythEnglish breakfastEnglish pea
4"Brazil"
Helena Rizzofeijoadacassava
5"India"
Vineet Bhatiamurgh makhani (buttered chicken)coconut
6"USA"
Grant AchatzThanksgiving dinnerpumpkin
7"Italy"
Carlo Craccopastaartichoke
8"Japan"
  • Hikari Mori, Yuji Ayabe, Akiko Katayama
Yoshihiro Narisawakaisekisea urchin
9"France"
  • François-Régis Gaudry, Estérelle Payany
Anne-Sophie Pichare à la royaleegg
10"The Finale"N/AN/AN/AN/A

Contestants' progress
Contestants 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Darren MacLean (Canada) and Timothy Hollingsworth (United States) SAFE SAFE BTM3 BTM3 SAFE WIN WIN WIN BTM3 Winner
Shane Osborn (Australia) and Mark Best (Australia) SAFE WIN SAFE BTM3 WIN WIN WIN BTM4 WIN Runner-up
Charles Michel (Colombia & France) and Rodrigo Pacheco (Ecuador) WIN WIN SAFE SAFE BTM3 BTM3 BTM3 BTM4 ELIM
Esdras Ochoa (Mexico) and Rafa Gil (Brazil) SAFE BTM3 WIN WIN SAFE SAFE BTM3 BTM4 ELIM
Aaron Bludorn (United States) and Graham Campbell (United Kingdom) BTM3 SAFE BTM3 WIN BTM3 WIN SAFE ELIM
Manuel Berganza (Spain & Singapore) and Benjamin Bensoussan (France) SAFE WIN SAFE WIN WIN BTM3 ELIM
Monique Fiso (New Zealand) and Amninder Sandhu (India) SAFE SAFE WIN SAFE WIN ELIM
Alex Haupt (Australia & Germany) and Ash Heeger (South Africa) BTM3 BTM3 SAFE SAFE ELIM
Jessica Lorigio (Spain) and Johnny Spero (United States) SAFE SAFE WIN ELIM
Shin Takagi (Japan) and Ronald Hsu (United States) SAFE SAFE ELIM
Collin Brown (Jamaica) and Collibri Jimenez (Mexico) SAFE ELIM
James Knappett (United Kingdom) and Angel Vazquez (Mexico) ELIM
     The contestants cooked the best dishes in the challenge (winner of season listed in italics).
     The contestants were in the bottom, but cooked the best dish of the night.
     The contestants were in the bottom.
     The contestants were eliminated.
     The contestants were safe.

Reception

Upon release, the show received a mixed response from critics. On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds a 50% approval rating based on 6 reviews, with an average rating of 4.67 out of 10.[4]

In a review for The Guardian, critic Lucy Mangan described the show as "bombastic and barely watchable", giving the show two out of five stars.[5] In a more positive review, David Sexton wrote in the Evening Standard that fans of MasterChef will "love this".[6] David Levesley of GQ noted the high and low points of the show, writing that it contained "the perfect blend of trash and intellect".[7]

References
  1. "The Final Table: Has Netflix reinvented the recipe for food programmes?". The Independent. November 16, 2018. Retrieved December 3, 2018.
  2. "'The Final Table' Is a TV Spectacle That Shows Room for Improvement". Eater. December 1, 2018.
  3. Griffin, Annaliese (November 28, 2018). "Seven cringe-worthy moments in Netflix's awful food competition show, "Final Table"". Quartzy. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
  4. "The Final Table: Season 1 - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
  5. Mangan, Lucy (November 21, 2018). "The Final Table review – big, bombastic and barely watchable". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
  6. "Celebrity chefs go nuclear on Netflix' The Final Table". Evening Standard. November 22, 2018. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
  7. Levesley, David. "Netflix's latest cooking show is the perfect blend of trash and intellect". British GQ. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
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