I'm going to try to avoid huge spoilers (such as the winner), but I'm sure I'll end up revealing who was in the final 2, so if you haven't watched that far, you might want to skip this.
I absolutely LOVE Whitney. She is extremely attractive, humble, intelligent, and just looks "perfect". I expect to see much more of her in the future, not necessarily in cooking. She has a stage presence, a "girl next door" appeal, and that southern drawl.
However, what constantly gets me about her, is how she seems so "down to earth country", and then does such interesting things with food. I look at her dishes and often think "I could have done that", but 1) I wouldn't have thought to and 2) the judges make it quite evident that I may have been able to make the dish, but in no way could I have "done that".
I was disappointed in the final, as the "rules" seemed to change. One contestant made a souffle', but the judges went into the "restaurant" and were served the three courses individually, with some amount of time between each. During a previous elimination, the judges said that a souffle' had something like 90 seconds before it started deflating. I think that had the contestant known the format change for judging, a souffle' would have not been considered (though in the end, it seems like that contestant managed to skirt the issue of it being a deflated souffle'.
Finally, making a big deal out of the 7 minute chicken breast I thought was a bit over the top. I also felt like maybe the format had been changed to allow more "resting" time for that chicken breast, which would seem unfair to the other competitor.
In the end, I'm very happy for the winner. My daughter was cheering so much, I felt like I was at a bar where some "fan" is cheering/yelling at the TV. Good, quality time with my daughter though.
