And a rather obvious observation came to me.

Lisa finally was able to do her thing and she looked just as good, if not better than the other top chefs on the show. But except for one or two times in the previous 13 episodes she was never really impressive as a chef. She was often in the bottom two or three but was obviously lucky in that she was never as bad as some. But when she was finally able to cook her food, her way? She did well.

So the question in my mind is: could/would all 'great' chefs do well at the various challenges that Top Chef presents?. Every season we see good chefs like Sam, Tre, and Dale ousted before their time. What's to say that Tom or Eric Rippert or Thomas Keller would excel at those same challanges?

I guess at the end of the day, the argument is that if you have solid basic cooking skills (decent butchery, knife work, strong palette, creativity/imagination, and seasoning) you would likely go far. I realize the challenges are essential to the format of the show, but it still makes me wonder how a heavily awarded chef would fare on the show. Would chefs who have a more versatile or expansive cuisine do better than one who focuses on one particular region or another?

Thoughts?