Hosea Rosenberg Speaks on Top Chef Victory

Congratulations, Hosea Rosenberg!

The new Top Chef champion spoke on his victory with Entertainment Weekly. Here are excerpts from the interview:

A lot of the viewers weren’t fans of Toby this season. What did you think about him? Compared to the other chefs?
I thought he was hilarious. He was cracking me up a lot. He definitely made fun of me, made fun of everybody, made fun of himself. It was refreshing to see a new attitude on the judges’ table. I didn’t always agree with what he was saying. But I think overall, he was funny. I didn’t have any problems with him.

What was the hardest challenge for you?
The hardest challenge, but probably one of the most exciting challenges, I think was Le Bernardin. I loved being there, even though I didn’t [prepare] my monkfish perfectly. I really was just honored and felt happy. It was something special to be cooking in [Eric Ripert’s] kitchen, cooking his food. But that was also one of the hardest. I felt intimidated, and [was] under a severe amount of stress.

How did it feel to watch the show last night?
Oh, it was so fun. We did a big viewing party at a restaurant. [The show] was [playing] on the big screen and there were hundreds of people there, and people [were] holding up signs with my name on it and just cheering every time the judges said something nice to me.

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.