The Final Table

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The Final Table
The Final Table show poster.jpeg
Genre Cooking show
Directed byRussell Norman
Presented by Andrew Knowlton
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes10
Production
Executive producersRobin Ashbrook and Yasmin Shackleton
Cinematography Ramy Romany
Running time53–59 minutes
Original release
Network Netflix
ReleaseNovember 20, 2018 (2018-11-20)

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.

Contents

The second round of each episode is The Final Plate Challenge. A 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 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. The 12 teams were:

Flag of France.svg Benjamin Bensoussan
Flag of Spain.svg Manuel Berganza		 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Mark Best
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Shane Osborn		 Flag of the United States.svg Aaron Bludorn
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Graham Campbell		 Flag of Jamaica.svg Collin Brown
Flag of Mexico.svg Colibri Jimenez
Flag of New Zealand.svg Monique Fiso
Flag of India.svg Amninder Sandhu		 Flag of Brazil.svg Rafa Gil
Flag of Mexico.svg Esdras Ochoa		 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Alex Haupt
Flag of South Africa.svg Ash Heeger 		Flag of the United States.svg Timothy Hollingsworth
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Darren MacLean
Flag of the United States.svg Ronald Hsu
Flag of Japan.svg Shin Takagi		 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg James Knappett
Flag of Mexico.svg Angel Vazquez		 Flag of the United States.svg Jessica Lorigo
Flag of the United States.svg Johnny Spero		 Flag of France.svg Charles Michel
Flag of Ecuador.svg Rodrigo Pacheco

Episodes

Season 1

No.TitleFirst Round JudgesThe Final Plate JudgeNational DishFinal Plate Ingredient
1"Mexico"
 Enrique Olvera Taco Opuntia
2"Spain"
 Andoni Aduriz Paella Octopus
3"United Kingdom"
 Clare Smyth English breakfast English pea
4"Brazil"
 Helena Rizzo Feijoada Cassava
5"India"
 Vineet Bhatia Vegetarian murgh makhani (butter chicken) Coconut
6"USA"
 Grant Achatz Thanksgiving dinner Pumpkin
7"Italy"
 Carlo Cracco Pasta Artichoke
8"Japan"
 Yoshihiro Narisawa Kaiseki Sea urchin
9"France"
 Anne-Sophie Pic Hare à la royale Egg
10"The Finale"N/AAll the Final Table chefsN/AN/A

Contestants' progress

PlacementContestantsMexicoSpainUKBrazilIndiaUSAItalyJapanFranceThe Finale
1Darren MacLean (Canada) and Timothy Hollingsworth (United States) [a]
2Shane Osborn (Australia) and Mark Best (Australia)
3Charles Michel (Colombia & France) and Rodrigo Pacheco (Ecuador)
4Esdras Ochoa (Mexico) and Rafa Gil (Brazil)
5Aaron Bludorn (United States) and Graham Campbell (Scotland, United Kingdom)
6Manuel Berganza (Spain & Singapore) and Benjamin Bensoussan (France)
7Monique Fiso (New Zealand) and Amninder Sandhu (India)
8Alex Haupt (Australia & Germany) and Ash Heeger (South Africa)
9Jessica Lorigo (Spain) and Johnny Spero (United States)
10Shin Takagi (Japan) and Ronald Hsu (United States)
11Collin Brown (Jamaica) and Collibri Jimenez (Mexico)
12James Knappett (United Kingdom) and Angel Vazquez (Mexico)
  The contestants cooked the best dishes in the challenge.
  The contestants were nominated, but cooked the best dish of the final plate round.
  The contestants were nominated, but they weren't eliminated and they didn't cook the best dish of the final plate round.
  The contestants were eliminated in the final plate round.
  The contestants were safe.
  The winner was part of the team.
  The contestants were finalists, but did not win.
  The contestants were already eliminated in previous episodes.

Notes

  1. ↑ Only Timothy Hollingsworth won, Darren MacLean was a runner-up along with Shane Osborn and Mark Best.

Reception

Critical response

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]

Awards and nominations

YearAwardCategoryRecipientResult
2019 71st Directors Guild of America Awards Outstanding Directing – Reality Programs "Japan"
Russell Norman		Won

References

  1. ↑ "The Final Table: Has Netflix reinvented the recipe for food programmes?" . The Independent. November 16, 2018. Archived from the original on June 18, 2022. 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 (November 28, 2018). "Netflix's latest cooking show is the perfect blend of trash and intellect". British GQ. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
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