The Final Table
| The Final Table | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Cooking show |
| Directed by | Russell Norman |
| Presented by | Andrew Knowlton |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 10 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Robin Ashbrook and Yasmin Shackleton |
| Cinematography | Ramy Romany |
| Running time | 53–59 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | Netflix |
| Release | November 20, 2018 |
The Final Table is an American cooking competition and reality television series hosted by food writer and critic Andrew Knowlton, and filmed in Los Angeles, California for Netflix. The first season was released on November 20, 2018.[1] It features twelve international teams of two professional chefs each competing to create elevated dishes based on the country chosen for each episode.[2] The first round is judged by a three-person panel—a food critic, and two culturally significant citizens, all representing the episode's country—assessing each team's interpretation of their chosen nationally significant dish. Interspersed among the cooking activities are video packages featuring the culinary biographies of the contestants.
The second round of each episode is The Final Plate Challenge. A chef, who already has an honorary seat at The Final Table, picks an ingredient representing their country's cooking culture, and then judges each team's dish highlighting that ingredient, eliminating one or two teams.[3] In the first seven episodes, the bottom three teams are up for elimination in the second round, in the eighth and ninth episodes, only one team is not up for elimination.
For the finale, the nine chef judges from each episode return, and are featured at The Final Table along with signature dishes they had each created that changed the food world. The final two competing chef teams break up and compete as individuals. Each of the four contestants must prepare a signature dish that defines them as a chef, and will “cause ripples around the culinary world”.
Chefs
[edit]Each chef was paired with a fellow chef that they knew from their personal or professional life before the event. The 12 teams were:
 Benjamin Bensoussan Manuel Berganza |  Mark Best Shane Osborn |  Aaron Bludorn Graham Campbell |  Collin Brown Colibri Jimenez |
 Monique Fiso Amninder Sandhu |  Rafa Gil Esdras Ochoa | Alex Haupt Ash Heeger | Timothy Hollingsworth Darren MacLean |
Ronald Hsu Shin Takagi | James Knappett Angel Vazquez | Jessica Lorigo Johnny Spero | Charles Michel Rodrigo Pacheco |
Episodes
[edit]Season 1
[edit]| No. | Title | First Round Judges | The Final Plate Judge | National Dish | Final Plate Ingredient |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Mexico" |
| Enrique Olvera | Taco | Opuntia |
| 2 | "Spain" | Andoni Aduriz | Paella | Octopus | |
| 3 | "United Kingdom" | Clare Smyth | English breakfast | English pea | |
| 4 | "Brazil" | Helena Rizzo | Feijoada | Cassava | |
| 5 | "India" | Vineet Bhatia | Vegetarian murgh makhani (butter chicken) | Coconut | |
| 6 | "USA" | Grant Achatz | Thanksgiving dinner | Pumpkin | |
| 7 | "Italy" | Carlo Cracco | Pasta | Artichoke | |
| 8 | "Japan" |