Andy DehnartTop Chef 2 finalist Ilan Hall quit his job as a chef, according to a blog report.
Snack reports that he “has left Casa Mono, where until yesterday he was employed as a line cook.” That raises the obvious questions: “Did Hall quit because he’s the winner? And will be making a move to open his own restaurant with the $100,000 prize?”
Of course, it’d be sort of dumb to quit a week before the finale if he was the winner; why not just wait out the week to protect the results of the show, or quit earlier?
Meanwhile, one of Ilan’s fellow finalists, Sam, talks to Bravo’s Andy Cohen about–what else?–his interaction with Marcel on the show. Sam says the editors “showed me attacking him without cause. I think someone watching the show might realize that there was reason for me suddenly losing it after I’ve been below the radar.” He says that Marcel was constantly annoying, but says, “It was silly when I saw myself attack him in that episode but it was the 25th day of being sequestered with him and I had heard so many of his comments over and over and then he came to me and he accused me of cheating and I couldn’t take it.”
He also defends his participation–or lack thereof–in the Marcel-hazing incident. “I was sitting on the couch not doing anything. I didn’t know that this was going into fruition. I was just sitting watching. … When they showed me sitting on the couch saying ‘go in there’ I was saying it because I thought he was going to come back with a bat or something. I thought he should go in to see if he was ok. … At that point everybody was drinking and I wasn’t in charge or the babysitter. Not to sound crass but that’s how I saw it.”
Part one of the finale airs tonight at 10 p.m. ET on Bravo.