Top Chef: New York, the fifth season of the long-running Bravo cooking competition show, kicked off in November 2008 and concluded in March 2009. Chef-testant Carla Hall immediately stood out amongst her fellow competitors for her eccentric personality and charmingly positive attitude -- but not so much for her cooking.
But as the season rolled on, the quirky, lovable Hall found her groove and began impressing the judges, winning challenges and making it clear to her competitors that she was a force to be reckoned with. Finalist Stefan Richter even commented at one point that he had completely underestimated Carla early on. Between her habitual meditating in the shared living quarters and her surprisingly calm demeanor in the kitchen -- compared to many who are typically frazzled and rushing -- Carla began to come off as a quietly dangerous dark horse about midway in the competition.
As she gained confidence in her craft, Carla hit a stride as her competition dropped off one by one each week in the elimination challenges, and she eventually made it to the season's final four alongside Stefan Richter, Hosea Rosenberg and Fabio Viviani. The chef quartet then traveled to New Orleans for their final elimination challenge and for the Season 5 Top Chef winner to be crowned. The fan-favorite Fabio was the next to be eliminated, leaving Carla to duke it out with Hosea and Stefan in the finale.
Carla started out strong in the final episode of the season, proving that she had a real shot at winning the title, especially as Stefan and Hosea were more distracted by their own machismo and obsession with one-upping each other. This left a lane wide open for Carla to focus and blow past them for the win, but ultimately Carla's apprehension toward confrontation and speaking her mind -- a trend that viewers saw more than once during the season -- led to her downfall.
As the three chefs prepared for the finale, they were allowed to draw knives to determine the order in which they would choose their sous chefs for their three-course finale meal. The options were Marcel Vigneron (Season 2), Casey Thompson (Season 3) and Richard Blais (Season 4). As Carla had won the previous challenge, she got to draw her knife first but drew number three. After Hosea and Stefan chose their sous chefs, Carla was left to work with Casey.
This in and of itself was not an issue as Casey is an excellent chef; a runner-up in her season. But Carla's refusal to stand up for herself allowed Casey to steamroll some of her ideas. The two portions of Carla's three-course meal that kept her from winning Season 5 of Top Chef were the two portions that Casey suggested and pushed for. The first was a sous-vide New York strip steak in Carla's second course that came out tough and difficult to eat. Carla had never used the sous-vide method before and was uncomfortable about it, but Casey convinced her that it would turn out great -- it didn't. The second was a bleu cheese soufflé in Carla's third course -- instead of the tart she intended to make -- which she ultimately couldn't serve because they boiled and curdled when she forgot to turn the oven down. This left a massive void in the course as it was lacking a main component.
At Judges' Table, Carla began to cry quietly, no longer able to keep her cool as she knew she was out of the running for the title of Top Chef due to these mistakes. Stefan sweetly comforted her, which was out of character for the notoriously cold and cocky chef, but made the moment that much more impactful. After much deliberation, Padma Lakshmi made the announcement: Hosea was Top Chef and Carla and Stefan were runners up.