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Top Chef: Who's Laughing About Being Sent Home?

Find out what happened when the All-Stars cheftestants had to cook for...Jimmy Fallon!

By Marc Malkin Feb 10, 2011 4:47 PMTags
Top Chef, Jimmy FallonBravo; Brian Ach/WireImage.com

Jimmy Fallon brought the funny to Top Chef: All-Stars last night. The late night talk show host was the guest judge for the elimination challenge that had the cheftestants preparing their take on his favorite dishes for his birthday.

Who was told to pack their knives? Was it Carla Hall for her chicken pot pie? How about Angelo Sosa's pulled pork or Tiffany Derry's chicken and dumplings? Fabio Viviani made a hamburger with fries while Dale Talde prepared the yummiest looking dish—cheesesteak on soft pretzel rolls...

Sadly, Fabio was given the boot after the judges complained that his dish was more like a dry meatloaf than a juicy hamburger. But is the Italy-born, L.A.-based chef complaining? Heck no!

In your exit interview and on your blog you said you were laughing about losing? Really?
I really was. I got kicked off by Jimmy Fallon for doing a freaking American burger...It's OK. If Richard Blais went home he would have hanged himself. They take it so friggin' seriously. It doesn't matter to me. I'm a very happy guy. What you want me to do, cry my eyes out because I didn't win Top Chef: All Stars? Big deal. I don't care.

But you did want to win, didn't you?
Don't get me wrong, you hope to win. But guys let's be realistic...every week you got to get lucky. You have to have a challenge that's something you're comfortable with. I don't do hamburgers for a living. I really was laughing.

The winner gets to do a cooking segment on Jimmy's show. I'm sure Carla's chicken pot pie was great, but do you think she also won because of her personality?
I hope everything is based on food, but on the other hand it's stupid not to think about it for television....You do this for your public, for your fans. Of course you want personality...Carla is TV gold. She freaks out. She's like a chicken without a head. She's jumping around. Honestly, it freaks me out that I have to change the channel.

Yeah, she seemed a bit too overexcited that she got to cook chicken pot pie.
If that was anybody else in Hollywood that would have cost her three months in rehab. I say this in the most gracious way because Carla is great—but she sounds like a crazy turkey.

Will you ever watch Jimmy Fallon's show again?
Of course I'm going to watch...I will be on his show one day! I know that. I am going to make him get on his knees and beg for forgiveness.

So I have to ask, how do you think the Jersey Shore stars are going to do when they film in Italy?
I think they're going to be miserable. I think they think every guy has camel toe pants and a tight t-shirt and a gold necklace and a freakin' pack of cigarettes rolled up in their sleeves. It ain't going to work like that. They're going to chew them up and spit them out...But I think I say that because I'm just jealous because The Situation shows off his six-pack and he makes more in a month than what I make in a year. So I think I'm just speaking out of jealousy.