SPOILER ALERT!! TOP CHEF

An article was posted on Food and Wine's website but was quickly taken down. Why? Because it's a full-on interview with the Top Chef winner, Ilan Hall. Oh, don't act like you didn't already know. This industrious reader caught and copied the article before it disappeared; here are some tasty excerpts: I discerned that the long, hard road to culinary dominance begins with a dish made from poached snails, peanuts and American cheese. That the 24-year-old Ilan Hall was able to turn those odd-couple ingredients into appetizing escargots with cheese sauce probably should have been a sign that he was destined to win the Top Chef title.

Ilan believes that too many expensive restaurants operate without a soul. "The seasoning can be right, the preparation fine, but a robot could have made the food. It’s cafeteria food for wealthy people."

So why did Ilan come out on top? Turns out he had a mantra, one that should serve him well in the real-life competition of the restaurant business: "Make the food too delicious for them to send you home." Even if that food is someone else's recipe, it's a good mantra. It took Hall to the end, and he smugly accepted his reward. Of course, if anyone looked at his MySpace page (with volume up), it would've been perfectly clear weeks ago. Oh and just to bring a little Los Angeles back into the fray, word on the street is that Badabing Betty (along with two other returning chefs) help Ilan win that title in the final episode.

LA Eater