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Did Tournament of Champions 3’s winner make history?

Did Tournament of Champions 3’s winner make history?
Tournament of Champions season 3 semi-finalists Tobias Dorzon & Tiffani Faison, and Jet Tila & Brooke Williamson. (Photos by Food Network)

The question going into Tournament of Champions season 3’s finale on Food Network: Would Brooke Williamson become the second winner in the show’s three-season history? Or would Tobias Dorzon, Tiffani Faison, or Jet Tila take the win and the $100,000 prize?

The finale had three battles, with the final battle taking place the day after the semifinals (in past seasons, the final battle was filmed on the same day as the semi-final competitions, as I reported about in my behind-the-scenes piece).

It also added a fourth judge, Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto, which meant the final two chefs had to cook an extra plate of food. The Randomizer’s produce wheel was also replaced with a mystery ingredient.

Top Chef Tournament of Champions host Guy Fieri, and semi-final judges Nancy Silverton, Scott Conant, and Cat Cora
Top Chef Tournament of Champions host Guy Fieri, and semi-final judges Nancy Silverton, Scott Conant, and Cat Cora.

Even though TOC3 had double the amount of chefs, it was just eight episodes, one more than last season, and all of them move really swiftly, which is one of the show’s many charms.

While I would love more, I also think its limited nature makes it special; I don’t need it to turn into another Chopped.

When Tournament of Champions began three years ago, in the early days of the pandemic, it felt new and different, thanks to its caliber of chefs; the simple but effective competition structure; and its judging.

Throughout all three seasons, Brooke Williamson has absolutely dominated, going into the finale with a tournament-best 10 wins, and making it into the finals for the third year in a row. Meanwhile, Jet Tila was in the semi-finals for the second year in a row.

Even though some of the same chefs have returned, the talent and competition have increased.

Now there are rematches, like Tiffani Faison versus Amanda Freitag, and Michael Voltaggio versus Brooke Williamson, and Brooke Williamson versus Jet Tila.

(While I like those rematches, I’d be up for the show discarding the east versus west conceit in order to mix up the returning chefs in future seasons.)

I was going to refer to Michael vs. Brooke as a “grudge match”—she’s now beat him every season—but that doesn’t fit what’s happening here, because while Michael certainly wanted to win, they’re all very collegial.

Whether the chefs are friends, strangers, or have met before on TOC, they’re effectively competing against themselves, trying to earn as many points as possible from the judges.

Tournament of Champions 3’s winner

Tournament of Champions 3 finalist Tiffani Faison during the final episode
Tournament of Champions 3 finalist Tiffani Faison during the final episode (Photo by Food Network)

TOC’s season-three finale had three-match-ups. First, the semi-finals:

  • #1 Brooke Williamson vs. #1 Jet Tila
  • #7 Tobias Dorzon vs. #3 Tiffani Faison

In two highly unscientific polls I conducted, Brooke was the clear favorite to win, while in terms of who people wanted to win, Brooke, Jet, and Tiffani were pretty evenly split, with Tobias—who’s far less well-known—not far behind.

The finale had multiple possibilities for records.

For the first time, there were two men in the final four. Would a male chef win? Top Chef, the gold standard of cooking competitions, has had male winners in two-thirds of its seasons, but it is not judged blind like TOC is. Hmm.

Would Brooke become the first two-time winner? Would Tiffani Faison overcome her second-place finishes that go all the way back to Top Chef season 1 in 2006?

In the first round, Brooke and Jet had to use both blowfish tails and salsify, and use a combi oven and quenelle as the style.

Brooke scored 84 and Jet scored 82. “You cooked the better dish,” he told her.

Next, Tobias and Tiffani had to use goose and bergamot, while using liquid nitrogen to make a “velvety” dish.

Tobias scored 84 and Tiffani scored 91.

That led to a final battle between two Top Chef alumni. “Oh come on! Really?!” Tiffani said when she found out she’d be facing Brooke.

TOC 3 comes down to Tiffani Faison vs. Brooke Williamson

Tournament of Champions season 3's finalist Brooke Williamson during the final episode
Tournament of Champions season 3’s finalist Brooke Williamson during the final episode (Photo by Food Network)

The randomizer chose rabbit and nattō for the final battle, and Tiffani and Brooke had to use an anti-griddle and cooking one ingredient three ways, with 60 minutes.

“This is a very difficult judgment,” Morimoto said after tasting both Brooke and Tiffani’s plates.

In the end, it came down to two points: 90 vs. 92. Tiffani beat Brooke with one point in taste and one point in use of the randomizer.

“I have this inability to break through,” Tiffani told the camera, in addition to talking about her professional and personal challenges, including divorcing her wife. “I’ve taken second a lot.”

Tiffani made TOC history as its third winner, and made her own history by winning a competition—and a big one at that.

Three very different chefs have now won Tournament of Champions, and that’s made for three thrilling finales and also makes for even more-exciting future seasons and rematches.

This really is Food Network’s best competition, the Super Bowl of cooking competitions, drawing people who’ve competed on, judged, and even hosted a wide variety of cooking reality TV shows, and I can’t wait for next year’s edition.

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About the author

  • Andy Dehnart

    Andy Dehnart is the creator of reality blurred and a writer and teacher who obsessively and critically covers reality TV and unscripted entertainment, focusing on how it’s made and what it means.

Discussion: your turn

I think of writing about television as the start of a conversation, and I value your contributions to that conversation. We’ve created a community that connects people through open and thoughtful conversations about the TV we’re watching and the stories about it.

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Happy discussing!

Evette

Sunday 12th of February 2023

Seriously people this is a cooking competition part of the reason they use the randomizer is to stop accusations of it being fixed. Yes maybe a judge may think they know the chef who prepared the dish but there is more than one judge. Also any chef who has competed is qualified to judge A dish. And Tiffany beating Brooke isn't because of her sob story. #1 She's competed numerous times and ends up in the FINALS numerous times. #2 You do realize Tiffani has 7 restaurants in Boston right? Also part of having new chefs in the competition reduces the amount of so called "Grudge Matches". Besides even a home chef can tell you you can make a dish that you have made numerous times but anything can go wrong. A lot of chefs seem to have a chip on their shoulder and frankly with good reason. Finally just because you've never heard of a particular chef doesn't mean they're an unknown. There are several food related events that make that chef known to many different venues. There is more to qualifying for TOC than being on Chopped, Top Chef or being noticed by The James Beard Association. So obviously they have been noticed by the right people. And finally we are watching from home, we aren't tasting these dishes so none of us can comment on either dish being better than the other. We aren't told every comment that each judge may make because just like any reality show things are edited because of time restraints. So please just watch and enjoy the show and stop coming up with ridiculous reasons of why your favorite lost!

Steven

Tuesday 19th of April 2022

Nancy Silverton is a strange human being. At one point she contributed the bizarre comment that she wanted to "wear" a dish prepared by a chef. Although we don't know how individual judges voted, I hope Nancy's votes weren't outlier votes.

Janice E

Monday 18th of April 2022

2 times during the competition I noticed Brooke broke the cardinal rule of contamination. First, she bit a piece of bacon and threw the rest of the piece back in the pan. Second, she took a spoon full of sauce, put it in her mouth and then proceeded to put the rest back in the pot and hit the spoon on the pot to put the excess back in. Yuk, if many more people noticed this, her restaurants may be in jeopardy. I like Brooke a lot better until I saw those things.

They need to watch to chefs better. They don’t get away with that on Chopped.

Colleen

Monday 18th of April 2022

If Brooke lost the belt to maneet at the end of season 1 why does she still carry the belt in season 3? I thought you lost the competition you lost the belt.

Jeffrey Pilus

Sunday 19th of February 2023

@Colleen, actually I think Brooke should have all three.

Colleen

Tuesday 19th of April 2022

@Melissa, Thx for the info 😊

Melissa

Tuesday 19th of April 2022

@Colleen, It looks like there's a new belt every year. I noticed Brooke's had 2020 on the side. Maneet carried hers this year too. I bet they make them.

Dave

Monday 18th of April 2022

@Colleen, different belt each season.

Marti

Monday 18th of April 2022

Can’t watch any more shows with Guy & his man-child hunter. This was not for the “greatest chef in the world”. Just another promo for Guy et al. Just got rid of cable so there are thousands of other options besides Fieri.