How the final chefs stack up on Top Chef: World All-Stars

If Top Chef took cues from and added a fan-favorite Miss Congeniality category to the competition, Gabri—a true amuse bouche of a human—would take it hands down. He brings equal parts heart and humor to each episode, but his cheery chaotic energy unfortunately errs on the side of chaos. His physical stumbles in the kitchen (his linoleum wipe-out in the street-food battle of episode eight was particularly gnarly) have been matched only by his stumbles on the plate. His cooking lacks the consistency of the remaining chefs and, in terms of episode stats, he doesn’t have any QuickFire or Elimination wins on the board, and he’s been more often in the bottom than he hasn’t (six out of 10 challenges). At this point in the game, Gabri has flirted too closely with elimination too many times—we wouldn’t put money down on him surviving this week’s double dismissal.

Our resident German is in slightly steadier standing than Gabri, with one Quickfire and one Elimination win to his name. But he’s also found himself in the bottom three plenty (twice in the former and thrice in the latter) and is the only one in the cast to not have won or been runner-up of his individual season. Tom has the haute-cuisine bonafides of a stronger competitor, like his buddy Buddha, but his execution hasn’t always lived up to those lofty concepts. (R.I.P. that ginger-turmeric mousse.) He’s also been on the receiving end of the so-called “villain edit,” a reality-show staple that has frequently cast the chef as less than willing to follow the brief or be a true team player. Does that spell trouble for Tommy boy?

This is where things get tricky, because while Southern-fried fan-favorite Sara has serious Top Three Energy™, she only has one on-the-books challenge victory, a Quickfire win she shared with teammate Dale McKay back in the very first episode. She has, however, made consistent showing throughout the competition, with four top-three appearances during Elimination challenges, though several of those have been in team comps. Her flavor profiles are regularly on point and she’s a beast in terms of knife skills (remember how freakin’ fast she Frenched that rack of lamb during the mise en place race?), but she’s not as finessed or forward-thinking as Ali or Buddha.

At the start of Top Chef: World All-Stars, we wouldn’t necessarily have put Amar in the top 10, let alone the top three, what with such bold-faced names dominating in the cast. But the easy-going Dominican chef has become the sleeper-hit of season 20, winning his first Elimination challenge in episode five and really hitting his competitive stride when he became the first chef this season to win an entire episode, both the Quickfire and Elimination, five eps later in “.” His attitude in the kitchen is laid-back and confident and, despite having more bottom-three appearances than Sarah, his adaptability and adeptness in multiple cuisines gives him an edge over his Kentucky-based competitor.

This might be a controversial one, because on paper, Buddha is the one to beat: He has the most challenge wins of any of the chefs this season, with a pair each in Quickfire and Elimination comps. The prowess is clearly there—Buddha’s an extremely intellectual cook who is able to employ tweezer-food meticulousness even during the quickest of Quickfires and has wowed guest judges as varied as Clare Smyth and Asma Khan. But he has the disadvantage of being the most recent victor in Top Chef history, having just won the Houston season last year, which means that all of his fancy tuiles techniques and his many, many molds are already fresh in the minds of Bravo viewers and thus a bit dulled in their novelty. Plus, the idea of a back-to-back winner isn’t the most exciting from a TV standpoint, especially given all of the global characters we have this season.

While Buddha is a serious threat, Ali’s own considerable kitchen credentials—two Elimination wins, one Quickfire win, and five top-three appearances throughout the season, off the strength of his thoughtfully conceived and elegantly rendered cooks—are given a crucial production boost: His talking heads have been at turns heartfelt and humble, with the chef regularly and effusively showing love for his home country of Jordan, its culinary traditions, and the people who have influenced his cooking. That kind of hero’s edit gives Ali a personal edge and an emotional arc throughout the season that seems naturally suited to a big win. And, given that this is World All-Stars after all, having a victor from a non-American Top Chef seems all too fitting. Habibi FTW!