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This post contains spoilers about last night's Top Chef.
We were initially excited when we heard Dale Levitski was going to be a contestant, but once we started watching this season, we became kind of blah on the guy. 
Despite his numerous — and infuriating — blunders, he soldiered on, inexplicably making it to the final five. In last night's challenge, he again pulled an amateur move, forgetting to put the honey sauce on his duet of chicken. And when it looked like he would be down for the count, it was the Jamaican cheesemaker Sara who ended up getting the ax. The final four contestants who will head to Aspen to compete for the Top Chef title are Dale, Brian, Casey and Hung. Our countdown to the October 3, live-from-Chicago finale has begun. Let's take a look at who's left:
Dale
Hometown hero Dale takes the most risks of the final four. When he made dumplings out of potato buds, the other contestants mocked him, but that dish ended up being one of the judges' favorites. Where Dale gets in trouble is when classic dishes with excellent technical skills are called for. A self-taught chef, he lacks some of the basic skills the other, professionally trained chefs have. As much as we him to go all the way, we don't see him making it to the final two.
Our thoughts on the other three contestants after the jump ...
Brian
Dude's last name is Malarkey. For us, that pretty much says everything. Like Dale, we can't quite figure out how he made it into the finals. A seafood specialist, Brian barely hung on after the "Chef Overboard" episode. Also, he lost his cool in the restaurant wars series. We find him a likable enough character, but again, don't put money on him making it to the final two.
Hung
Meet your first of the final two. For us, there wasn't really any doubt that Marcel's protege/best bud would make it to the finals; his training from the C.I.A. has served well this season. Like Marcel, Hung's interest lies in a merging of newer techniques and trends (hello, foam!) with more classic components. Last night's butter-poached chicken with the crispy rendered skin on top is a perfect example of this approach. And while Hung has a decent shot at it, we think a combination of Hung's bravado, combined with an inability to really put himself into the dishes he cooks (it sounds nasty, but you know what we mean), will make him runner-up. Which leaves us with ...
Casey
Meet your Season 3 winner. We have to hand it Casey; she seemed sort of peripheral for the first half of the competition but managed to get it together to come on super strong for the second half. The past three weeks have seen her perform exceptionally well; the carpaccio on the boat cruise, veal on the airplane, and then, last night, coq au vin, were either elimination-challenge winners or runners up. She's hot, she's marketable, and in the past four or five episodes, we've wished we had a TV from the future in which you could somehow get the food on your TV instantaneously delivered to your couch. Her abysmal knife skills put aside, our money is on Casey to walk away with the 100k.
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Not that I watch the show, or any other shows for that matter, but I was about to call "Race"
when I read they got ride of the Jamaican Sista
for the white boy! But then I read the Cheese part!
What's up with that? How come she wasn't making jerk wings or curried goat!
I can't defend the whole Cheese thing, I mean I like it Cheese, But a Jamaican making cheese
its like a polish person making Gumbo!
you were gonna call 'race' on a show you don't watch? i'm assuming you're joking about that
are you guys censoring comments now? taking them out when they don't follow the rules? only removing posts from people signed in as 'guest'? i suppose i'll get a teenaged answer like 'it's your site; you can do what you want'. but, and i'm just speaking for myself, one of the big draws was reading the comments. getting a better angle on the idea or just reading other (sometimes even cited!) facts about the posting is nice. are you tired of people telling you your writing is questionable? are you tired of people not registering and removing their comments to get em to register? when i started reading the site i had no problem with the writing. but then it started getting really condescending and cocky 'since we're cool and we know what's cool we'll risk losing our cred to give you some cred by sharing this nugget of chicago gold with you known only by us. hipster meow meow hipster,' even though your game was old and not really that cool in the first place (kinda maybe like one of the more normal theatre kids, but still a theatre kid). i like reading about stuff happening in chicago that i don't know through coolkid osmosis. then it got really really bad, but that was kind of counteracted by the amusing posts and the debates within, not to mention the corrections posted by randoms that made the story make sense. now, it just makes no sense. and by 'it' i mean everything. the stories AND the comments. when you look at the comments, it's like listening to a cell phone conversation. you know how it's rally irritating to listen to a cell phone conversation, or any phone conversation, really, because you only hear half of it? yeah. it's like that. wtf?
Go Casey go!
How much fun to watch her come in to her own on this show.
And I love how this season they've really gotten talented chefs, and nice people. They all like each other, respect each other (besides Hung maybe, but you always need a antagonist), but they're all really talented and kind, not much yelling go on this season.
CASEY!
OMFG, I want to do Casey. A hot chick who's also a brilliant chef. Yes, please.
#3, did you think about clicking on "show guest comments"?
(Of course, if you can't see guest comments then you can't read this, so I don't know WTF I'm doing)
I hope Hung wins. Unlike Marcel, who was an arrogant, confrontational prick with skills, Hung is a very self confident chef with the skills to merit his belief. The fact that, unlike the entitled Marcel, he's an immigrant who's worked diligently to get where he is lets me understand his tenacity and root for him to win.
In any case, Hung and Casey are definitely the only two remaining who deserve to get to the final. Far more distinguished contestants than Dale and Brian have been dismissed over the last few weeks, like CJ and Tre.
Guest 3
Actually I think Chicagoist on-whole uses the censure ship key pretty sparingly. But if you're speaking about what happened yesterday with Chicagoist Writer Justin Son"Wack", you are totally right! That was crazy!
Hey Guest 2
I wish folks would quit asking me if I'm kidding, because being the honest Spook I am, I have to tell the truth and what fun is that?
But come on would you rather have a Jamacain make you some erk wings and curried goat or some freak'n Cheese? I Dam@ sure know where I get Italian food from and its not a Mexican.
P.s Boycott Justin SonWack!