The final episode of Top Chef Houston hit all the familiar notes of the show's previous finales. From the chefs selecting one of their former competitors as a sous chef to the judges cooking a pre-finale dinner for the cheftestants, Season 19’s conclusion played out exactly as fans of the show have come to expect.

That feels true for the result, too. In the end, a season that’s been notable for its complete absence of drama between the contestants produced a winner that viewers could have seen coming from episode one. Buddha Lo, a Top Chef super fan, won the $250,000 and the career-making title.

“A 15-year old boy in regional Australia has lived his dream,” Buddha said after learning of his victory. “I didn’t dream to be an astronaut. I didn’t dream of anything else. I dreamt to be right here.”

The finale is notable for its complete lack of gimmicks or distractions. Each competitor has $1,500 and plenty of time to create the best four-course meal of their careers. Even if it felt likely that this result would occur, all three finalists rose to the challenge.

Buddha took inspiration from his family members and his life in America to create a menu that balanced his impressive techniques with enough emotion to give the meal heft. He started with hamachi with caviar (for his brother), continued with panang curry with lobster and crab (for his mother), reached a high with Mongolian lamb with smoked eggplant (for his father), and concluded with pumpkin pie mille-feuille with maple caramel (a nod to Thanksgiving and life in America). Each course featured a precisely cut tuile that ended with stunning-looking leaves made from pumpkin.

In the end, the worst criticism any of the judges made came from Eric Ripert, chef-owner of New York’s celebrated, three-star Michelin seafood restaurant Le Bernardin, who noted that Buddha’s techniques reminded him of dishes from the ’80s and ’90s. “He loves mastering those techniques,” Padma Lakshmi replied. “To him, that is play.” That observation settled the debate.

Not that he didn’t have stiff competition in the finale from Evelyn Garcia. Over the course of the season, she surpassed Buddha with four Elimination Challenge wins to his three, including in the penultimate episode. She certainly had every opportunity to win, and she delivered a meal that the judges enjoyed from start to finish.

Her meal began with scallop crudo with prickly pear and citrus broth and continued with shrimp and corn crystal dumplings. Then, she served braised goat in “curry mole” and concluded with a bunelo and panna cotta.

The editing implied that Evelyn might have triumphed if she had added another sprinkle of salt to the scallops in her crudo, cooked her goat in that intriguing-sounding curry mole, and had a softer panna cotta, but those hints seem like the editors trying to add a little drama. Buddha’s focus, commitment, and sheer will pushed his meal over the top.

Chef Sarah Welch served a meal inspired by her interests in reducing food waste and whole animal cooking. A series of small errors, including a rabbit ballotine that was either overcooked or undercooked depending on the slice, put her behind the other two competitors, but her self-deprecating humor added an important amount of levity to the episode.

At judges’ table, it becomes clear(ish) that they preferred Buddha’s first and third courses to his competitors’ efforts. Evelyn took the second course with her dumplings. All three desserts achieved such a high level of excellence that the judges essentially declared the course a tie.

“If you are the future of our industry, we are in really good hands,” head judge Tom Colicchio told all three finalists.

Despite not winning, chef Evelyn achieved a lot by appearing on the show. She represented Houston well throughout the season, and her time on the show has sparked important changes to her culinary perspective. Dishes she served on the show — for example, her curry brisket from the barbecue challenge or the nopal relleno with shrimp purée from last week's episode — could become the sort of career-defining creations that bring diners to the door of her future restaurant.

Like fellow Houstonian and Top Chef Season 18 finalist Dawn Burrell, she joined the elite club of cheftestants who never hear Padma tell them to pack their knives and go. Expect to see her make guest appearances in future seasons. And, more importantly, to make a mark on dining in Houston for years to come.

“Coming this far and seeing myself evolve and change, I can walk away saying I gave it my all every single time. That I’m proud of,” Evelyn said through tears.

We are, too, chef. Houston can’t wait to see what you do next.

The three finalists smile before service.

Photo by David Moir/Bravo

The three finalists smile before service.

This week Top Chef delivered one of its strongest episodes of the season. No gimmicky sponsored challenges or goofy product tie-ins — just the season’s four best cooks using their intelligence and experience to create magical dishes that delight the judges. In the end, subtle differences in execution send one of the chefs packing.

The episode begins with our four finalists visiting El Charro, described as the oldest family-owned Mexican restaurant in America, where proprietor Carlotta Flores introduces them to carne seca. For their final Quickfire Challenge, the cheftestants must used the air-dried beef to create a dish.

Houstonian Evelyn Garcia knows the ingredient well. Rather than recreate a dish from her childhood, she goes with a more offbeat preparation by pairing the carne seca with creamy grits and a chayote relish. Chef Sarah, who compares the ingredient to the deer jerky she made with her fiancee, wins the Quickfire by creating a carne seca gravy with polenta, morel mushrooms, and blackberries. She earns an extra 30 minutes in the Elimination Challenge.

“I want my chefs to taste it,” Flores gushes about Sarah’s creation.

Chefs Buddha and Damarr serve less successful dishes. The fried tortilla in Buddha’s inverted tostada is criticized for being too greasy, while Damarr’s grilled avocado with carne seca is faulted for its lack of texture.

For the Elimination Challenge, the chefs have three hours to create two dishes, one sweet and one savory, that utilize two of Tucson’s signature ingredients: cactus and the chiltepin pepper. They’re taken to a garden where Top Chef: Portland contestant and Tucson resident Maria Mazon introduces them to all of their options. While three of the cheftestants are encountering these ingredients for the first time, chef Evelyn knows them well.

“It’s crazy to think this challenge boils down to two ingredients that I grew up eating,” she says. “That’s what stands between me and the finale.”

All four chefs create standout dishes that have the judges raving. Any of them would make a worthy winner.

Buddha makes a Thai-style tom yum with turnip wrapped dumplings, calamari noodles and prawns that utilizes chiltepin instead of the usual Thai chiles. He follows it with a cactus cake with cactus seed ice cream and prickly pear snow.

Sarah serves lamb with chiltepin vinaigrette and chiltepin chimichurri, grape salad, and smoked yogurt followed by a cactus tart with saguaro flower ice cream and cactus caramel.

Evelyn channels her childhood with a nopal relleno with shrimp purée, raw nopal, and marigold. Her dessert is a sour orange and sweet lime curd with saguaro pod meringue, prickly pear granita, basil flowers, and quince.

Finally, Damarr offers a pork shoulder glazed in chiltepin and prickly pear bbq sauce, pikliz with chiltepin, grilled nopales, and red bean purée. For dessert, he serves a prickly pear cake glazed with prickly pear topped with buttermilk cheese, saguaro and frozen mango.

“It’s the silence of really good food,” Tom Colicchio says as the group samples Buddha’s and Sarah’s savory dishes. “No one’s talking. Everyone’s eating. These dishes are extraordinary.”

The raves continue throughout the meal. The assorted guests, including Top Chef season 10 winner Kristen Kish, praising the chefs for the dishes flavors and colorful presentations.

Ultimately, the judges select Evelyn as the week’s winner. “I would eat that dish again and again,” Colicchio says about her relleno.

Sadly, it’s the end of the road for Damarr. The judges fault his pork shoulder for lacking chiltepin flavor. It seems like a small error, but that’s all it takes at this stage in the competition.

Heading into the final, all three chefs have shown enough culinary brilliance that any of them could win. Buddha feels like a slight favorite, but it would be fitting for a Houstonian to finally earn the Top Chef title.

Evelyn Garcia will compete for the Top Chef title.

Photo by David Moir/Bravo

Evelyn Garcia will compete for the Top Chef title.

This week’s episode of Top Chef marks the end of the show’s time in Houston, but it went out with a bang by giving us the Gulf Coast seafood challenge the season needed.

Instead of a Quickfire, the chefs go fishing in the Gulf of Mexico to collect the proteins for a seafood-themed Elimination Challenge with guest judges Daniel Boulud and Top Chef Chicago winner Stephanie Izard. Tasked with creating two different preparations for a table of seven diners in only two-and-a-half hours, some of the cheftestants rise to the occasion while two of the season’s strongest competitors wilt under the pressure.

Ultimately, one of this season's breakout stars packs his knives, and the show moves on to the finale episodes in Tucson, Arizona.

Let’s break down the show from a Houston perspective by highlighting the local people and places who appeared in the episode. Then we’ll check in on the progress of local cheftestant Evelyn Garcia and keep track of the overall competition.

Featured Houstonians
Top Chef didn’t feature much of Galveston’s food world in episode 11, but the show makes up for that this week. After fishing, the cheftestants visit local institution Katie’s Seafood Market to prepare their fish and supplement their catch with some additional ingredients such as farm-raised redfish and snapper.

Even better, the five remaining chefs return to Houston to prepare, cook, and serve their meals at Bludorn where chef-owner Aaron Bludorn joins the table. It’s the show’s first visit to a Houston restaurant since Brennan’s in episode six, and the first Houston chef (other than Top Chef alum Dawn Burrell) to appear on the show since ChòpnBlọk’s Ope Amosu in episode seven.

Seated with his mentor Daniel Boulud, Bludorn provides insightful commentary on each competitor’s strengths and weaknesses. The restaurant impresses the judges, too, with Tom Colicchio describing it as “very handsome” and Padma Lakshmi calling it “beautiful.”

Dawn’s back, too, for both the fishing expedition and the Elimination Challenge meal. As always, she’s a confident, articulate presence at the table who can relate to how the contestants are feeling in this moment.

How did Evelyn Garcia do
Our local cheftestant gets a much needed wake-up call in this week’s episode. Although she doesn’t make any errors in preparing her two dishes — caldo de pescado with poached redfish and taco al pastor with roasted redfish — the judges fault her for a lack of ambition that’s required at this stage of the competition. She advances to the finals in Tucson, but not before getting a warning to step it up in the future.

“I think you gave us two good dishes, but I think you played it really safe today,” Padma tells her. “I know you can make a taco in your sleep. My fish was cooked fine, but it was too much tortilla and not enough fish and not enough taco.”

Who wins
Chef Sarah Welch seemed to struggle in her return to the competition last week — keep in mind she had been eliminated in episode four, which means it had been weeks since she'd been part of it — but she finds her footing here. Her “Pseudo Crudo” of pickled Gulf snapper with silken tofu, fermented greens and kraut broth and a pastrami-spiced smoked red drum with carrot butter and Parisian gnocchi takes the win for its creative preparations and bold flavors. In particular, Colicchio hails her pastrami fish as "perfectly cooked," and judge Gail Simmons thinks she's created a new signature dish.

Chef Sarah's self-deprecating humor has provided some necessary levity in a season that's been defined, at least in part, by its complete lack of drama between the cheftestants. Also, credit her for recognizing the significance of what she achieves this week. "I just cooked for two of the most impressive chefs in the world," she declares after serving the judges.

Considering the epic run through Last Chance Kitchen it took for her to make it back into the main competition, she has to be viewed as a serious contender for the title.

Who goes home
Chef Nick Wallace earned the title of “The Baker” for his ability to make bread, i.e., earn money, in the show’s various competitions, but this week's seafood challenge proves his undoing. He struggles with time management, overcooking the fish in his taco and forgetting to prepare a binder for his fish cake. In an emotional goodbye, he thanks the judges for the opportunity and celebrates the bond he formed with fellow cheftestant Damarr Brown. While his presence will be missed, at least he's leaving with $35,000 in winnings.

Who exceeds expectations
Chef Buddha Lo can’t quite make it three Elimination Challenge wins in a row, but he still looks like the overall favorite to be the next Top Chef. He pays homage to one of Daniel Boulud’s signature dishes with his pastry-wrapped fried flounder (a nod that Bludorn recognizes). His ginger-scallion steamed bull redfish (red drum) with shrimp farce earns universal praise from the judges.

Chef Sarah Welch addresses the judges.

Photo by David Moir/Bravo

Chef Sarah Welch addresses the judges.