''The Final Table'' is an American cooking competition and

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

series hosted by food writer and critic

Andrew Knowlton Andrew Knowlton was the Restaurant Editor at ''Bon Appétit'' magazine, where he worked for 18 years, starting in 2000. He has also been the host of several cooking competition shows, including ''The Final Table''. Early life Knowlton was born in ...

, and filmed in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

for

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

. The first season was released on November 20, 2018. It features twelve international teams of two professional chefs each competing to create elevated dishes based on the country chosen for each episode. 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 Culinary arts are the cuisine arts of outline of food preparation, food preparation, cooking and food presentation, presentation of food, usually in the form of meals. People working in this field – especially in establishments such as res ...

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. 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 renowned 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

Each chef was paired with a fellow chef that they knew from their personal or professional life before the event. The 12 teams were:

Episodes

Season 1

Contestants' progress

: The contestants cooked the best dishes in the challenge. : The contestants were nominated, but cooked the best dish of the final plate round. : The contestants were nominated, but they weren't eliminated and they didn't cook the best dish of the final plate round. : The contestants were eliminated in the final plate round. : The contestants were safe. : The winner was part of the team. : The contestants were finalists, but did not win. : The contestants were already eliminated in previous episodes.

Notes

Reception

Critical response

Upon release, the show received a mixed response from critics. On review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the series holds a 50% approval rating based on 6 reviews, with an average rating of 4.67 out of 10. In a review for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', critic

Lucy Mangan Lucy Katherine Mangan''England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916–2007'' (born 1974) is a British journalist and author. She is a columnist, features writer and TV critic for ''The Guardian''. A major part of her writing is related t ...

described the show as "bombastic and barely watchable", giving the show two out of five stars. In a more positive review, David Sexton wrote in the ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'' that fans of

MasterChef ''MasterChef'' is a competitive cooking show television format created by Franc Roddam, which originated with the UK version in July 1990. The format was revived and updated for the BBC in February 2005 by executive producers Roddam and John ...

will "love this". David Levesley of '' GQ'' noted the high and low points of the show, writing that it contained "the perfect blend of trash and intellect".

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Final Table 2018 American television series debuts 2018 American television series endings 2010s American cooking television series English-language Netflix original programming American cooking television series Food reality television series Reality competition television series Television shows filmed in Los Angeles