Chris Consentino, The World's Most Competitive Chef, Wins 'Top Chef Masters'
The bottom line for all of this is that last night the Michael J. Fox Foundation was awarded $141,000 during the finale of Top Chef Masters. As the season's winner Chris Cosentino welled up at the end of the telecast, it was clear that competing for this not-insignificant sum was a major reason he was competing on the show.
But also, Cosentino likes to compete. Like no other chef we've ever met. As he told us in May, he used to race mountain bikes competitively, sometimes riding for 24 hours straight:
Montezuma's Revenge in Keystone Summit, Colorado was my most-intense race. I was the first single speeder to ever finish the 24-hour time period. I did seven loops and equaled the gain, and descent, of the elevation of Mt. Everest. I crossed the Continental Divide seven times. At one point I climbed [the course] with a bike strapped to my back in the middle of the night. That's part of the race. The course is unmarked and you have to find your own way and you have to be able to negotiate it all.
In winning Top Chef Masters, Cosentino joins Rick Bayless (season 1), Food Republic co-founder Marcus Samuelsson (season 2) and Floyd Cardoz (season 3) in taking home the ultimate food-reality-show prize.
But what does this mean for the San Francisco chef? Will we finally get to make the TV show he's been waiting for? Only time, and 2,394 Burbank focus groups, will tell.
Read more about Chris Cosentino on Food Republic: