This article contains spoilers for Bravo’s Top Chef Season 23.Â
Only three cheftestants remained to battle it out in the ultimate culinary showdown to determine who would be named the winner of Top Chef Season 23.
Following weeks of trials and tribulations in the Carolinas, the last three chefs standing in the Season 23 finale were Sherry Cardoso, Laurence Louie, and Rhoda Magbitang. Their final Elimination Challenge? “We want you to create the best four-course progressive meal of your lives,” host Kristen Kish explained. “Some of your best dishes really came from taking inspiration from parts of your life, and that’s what we want you to do here. Each course of your meal must be a toast to someone or something that has impacted your life.”
At the final Judges’ Table of Season 23, Tom Colicchio declared that Sherry, Laurence, and Rhoda were all winners, because they “really found who they are” throughout the course of the entire competition. As he told the trio directly, “Chefs, it’s been an absolute pleasure watching the three of you cook all season long, and you put your heart and soul into every single dish. Unfortunately, only one of you, though, can be Top Chef.”
Who was the Top Chef Season 23 winner?
“It’s wild. I can’t even fathom it,” Rhoda gushed in a confessional while reacting to her Season 23 win. “It makes my heart swell how proud… Yeah, how proud everyone would be.” Later, the executive chef at Hawaii’s CanoeHouse triumphantly proclaimed, “I am Rhoda Magbitang, and I am… I am Top Chef.”
RELATED: Who Was Eliminated From Last Chance Kitchen for Top Chef Season 23?
As confetti rained down on the set, she also tearfully told the judges, her fellow cheftestants, and some of their loved ones, “Top Chef has brought out so much out of me. You know, anything worth doing is worth doing well, and if you just put your heart into it, you can make it happen. And you’re proof it.”
Kristen, meanwhile, raised a glass to Rhoda, remarking, “You served us a great meal of toasts. Watching you through this entire competition has been a complete honor. We couldn’t be more proud of you, and, truly, a toast to you, the newest Top Chef, Season 23. Congratulations. Welcome to the club, my dear.”
What was the grand prize on Top Chef Season 23?
Kristen revealed in Top Chef‘s June 8 finale episode that Rhoda would be walking away with the grand prize of a quarter of a million dollars, a feature in Food & Wine magazine, an appearance at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, her own exclusive dinner at the historic James Beard House in New York, and the title of Top Chef.
RELATED: Top Chef Producers Reveal Behind the Scenes Filming Secrets, Including What Happens “Off-Camera”
Details on Rhoda’s final meal in the Top Chef Season 23 finale
As Rhoda explained prior to serving the first course of her finale meal, “My overall menu today, it’s a toast to all the things and people and places that really put a stamp in my memory as to why I’m here.”
With an assist from her sous chef and recently eliminated cheftestant Sieger Bayer, Rhoda prepared four courses, consisting of sweet potato and uni; lugaw; and a grilled eggplant omelet with lap cheong XO and pork belly. She ultimately decided to forego a dessert, in order to honor her father with her final course of kaldereta with short rib.
During the judging phase, Kristen commented that Rhoda’s progression “made a lot of sense” to her, while Gail Simmons named her sweet potato and sea urchin as “possibly the most delicious dish of the night.” After James Beard Award-winning chef Brandon Jew chimed in that she “cooked proteins the strongest out of all three of them,” Tom added that Rhoda’s dishes had been “exceptional.”
Now that the winner of Season 23 has been revealed, revisit Rhoda and her fellow competitor’s Top Chef casting tapes.
