Mmm… Singapore hawker markets

Welcome to the finale! This season we get the first ever international finale of Top Chef as the cheftestants head to Singapore. All of the chefs are excited to be there, but early on Angelo stakes this out as his home turf. What will be interesting to see is whether this actually works to his benefit. Sure, he’s got a level of familiarity with the ingredients and techniques that gives him a bit of an advantage. But, on the other hand, there’s a lot of pressure that comes from cooking amidst the culture that inspires you back home, and there’s also the temptation to underestimate your competition and assume you’ve got a win in the bag.

We first meet up with the chefs as they wander through a hawker center full of tiny food stalls cranking out street food that mixes the flavors of nearly every Asian cuisine. The chefs are guided from stall to stall by Singapore street food expert KF Seetoh. The chefs taste their way through the hawker center and end their trip at one last food stall: an empty one. And in front of it is Padma. So pretty much anyone can guess what this means: the chefs will be competing in a Quickfire challenge that has them making street food. All of that sort of seemed predictable.