The winner of season 21 of ‘Top Chef’ speaks: ‘There were mistakes’ (Exclusive)

Warning: This article contains spoilers.

And the winner is …

Bravo’s The best chef aired the season 21 finale on Wednesday, June 19, and named a new champion: Danny Garcia!

The executive chef of New York’s Saga Hospitality Group, which includes nearly impossible-to-get-booked restaurants like Saga, Crown Shy and Overstory, founded by the late chef James Kent, beat out fellow finalists Dan Jacobs and Savannah Miller in a intense party at the end.

Season 21 was primarily filmed in Wisconsin, but the final two episodes took place on a Caribbean cruise. Former The best chef Champion Kristin Kish joined the judging panel as a new host (following Padma Lakshmi’s departure) alongside veterans Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons.

In typical The best chef In its final form, the chefs were tasked with cooking “the best four-course meal of their lives,” as Kish explained. “The opportunity to cook whatever you want.”

But the finalists didn’t have to face the multi-course meal alone. Garcia, Jacobs and Miller were each able to choose a previously eliminated cheftestant and selected Manny Barella, Amanda Turner and Michelle Wallace, respectively.

Kish, Colicchio and Simmons were joined by guest judges, celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse, Canada’s best chef judge David Zilber, Bricia López of Guelaguetza restaurant, Justin Pichetrungsi of Anajak Thai and Carrie Nahabedian of Brindille.

García drew inspiration from her Dominican and Puerto Rican family by serving scallops and leche de tigre with habanero, smoked mussels with plantains and cabbage, lobster with matcha sauce and pumpkin, and her version of “piragua con leche” with melon sorbet and avocado yogurt. for dessert.

His dishes were praised, but not without some hiccups. “I was proud of the food I made and happy with how things were turning out,” Garcia told PEOPLE during 2024. Food and wine Classic in Aspen. He admitted that he didn’t believe he had “hit a home run.” There were mistakes, but I think he was able to pivot.”

The judges were pleased with the creativity of Garcia’s dishes and how they all worked together. “It’s the perfect ending to his progression,” Kish said after eating his dessert plate.

Jacobs’ four dishes were also highly praised, but Garcia prevailed. The two were neck and neck throughout the season.

“I think he and I have been at the top together many times,” Garcia said of Jacobs.

Even their similar names added tension as they waited for a winner to be crowned. “You always hear, ‘And Dan—’ and you’re like, ‘Oh shit, it’s Dan.’ Or it’s like, ‘Oh, it’s DanNY.’ That’s why the name announcement was always stressful,” he added.

The $250,000 prize will go to the “brownstone fund” of Garcia and his wife Sumaiya Bangee, Garcia said. “We want to buy a house and really settle into a place.” Otherwise, he plans to take advantage of the momentum of his The best chef wins for his new New York seafood restaurant, Time and Tide.

“This restaurant is my son right now. It’s being there for my team, it’s supporting my team. And then once we can figure this out and make it perfect and it can work without me, then I’ll think, I can do this and I can do that. But for me this is the most important thing,” he stated.

“It’s about taking a classic New York steakhouse and thinking about it through the lens of a seafood restaurant,” he revealed of the concept. “Finding seafood from around the world, finding sustainable seafood, finding seasonal seafood and giving New Yorkers something they haven’t seen or tried before and just being a seafood restaurant of my generation.”

Of course, Time and Tide will also draw inspiration from its era. The best chef.

Simplicity was one of the biggest takeaways Garcia took from the program, he said. “The way I was able to cook food on the show is that you put five ingredients in the dish and you take away two and you’re okay with that dish being good with three ingredients or even less. “I want to cook food where I can display the fish and you don’t have to put all that frilly shit on top of it to make it delicious because it’s delicious just the way it is.”

Time and Tide will be his focus after his win, so don’t let him continue on the culinary competition circuit just yet.

“For me, it’s not just saying, ‘Okay, great. I want to skip to season 22 of The best chef or do I want to continue Defeat Bobby Flay,‘” he said. “But I’m not going to be the chef who hunkers down in my restaurant and you don’t see me or hear anything from me. I think working with other chefs and the community is important.”