Hung, Casey and Dale return for the final challenge. They can use all the goodies they brought with them AND they each receive a celebrity sous chef to assist them during the first day of prep work. After choosing knives, Hung is paired up with Rocco DiSpirito, Casey works with Michelle Bernstein and Dale gets Todd English.

Each chef had to come up with their own menu. Chef Tom Colicchio told them to “wow us.” The celebrity chefs were just an extra pair of hands – they were not allowed to give advice. Hung and Dale seemed to have a clear handle on what they were doing. Rocco admitted he didn’t know where Hung was going with his menu. Todd felt Dale was using too many ingredients, some of which may not match well together. As for Michelle, she was inspired by Casey, but thought that she was taking an unnecessary chance with the pork bellies.

The following day, the chefs had to finish cooking their three-course meals. Mid-way into the action, Tom interrupted the final three and told them they needed to add a fourth surprise course. Casey seemed to be the most upset by this. She was already having such difficulty with the altitude – the burners weren’t really working well for anyone – and her agitation was a bit of a precursor to the meal to come.

To help (or perhaps hurt) the chefs, Howie, Sara M and CJ appeared to assist with the remainder of the meal. Hung and Sara M worked well together, making a chocolate cake. The dessert was a bold move, but one that didn’t seem to fit well with Hung’s Asian-inspired meal. CJ and Dale created a great scallop dish that the judges adored. Casey gave Howie credit for a great deal of work as well as his ‘creative’ plating and addition of roe on several of her courses.

During the meal, Brian Malarkey returned with the celebrity chefs and the four judges – Tom, Padma, Gail Simmons and Ted Allen. Comments abounded. It was agreed by all – albeit reluctantly – that Casey’s meal failed to impress. Hung needed “more acid” on several of his dishes and Dale’s food was a great treat except for his ‘lobster mess’ which Chef Tom said was “inedible.”

In judging panel, the chefs were given some high points and low points. For Casey, there were mostly lows and she gave a lot of excuses back. She appeared to be having a rough time of it. Hung kept smiling, which was odd. He took the criticism in stride and was thrilled with the feedback, overall. Dale had moments of agony and ecstasy. However, the three showed their solidarity by walking out together, arm in arm.

It was nice to see the final three support each other and genuinely respect each other especially after last season’s hate-fest between Marcel and everyone else.

Padma, Tom, Gail and Ted agreed that Hung won two of the four courses and Dale took the other two. Casey, who had been so strong throughout the competition, failed to impress when it counted the most. In the end, Hung was announced the winner of Top Chef and, we must admit, that any one of these final three deserved it.