That’s the question on food lovers’ minds everywhere (well, those who missed out on the second-season finale of Top Chef Masters, anyway). Drum roll, please…

The winner of the second season of Top Chef Masters is Marcus Samuelsson!

The final challenge consisted of creating a meal that celebrated each contestant’s journey becoming a chef. The first dish was supposed to be representative of their first food memory, while the second dish was to be inspired by the dish that made each contestant want to become a chef. Finally, the third dish was supposed to be representative of each contestant, overall, as a chef.

Marcus’ dishes included smoked char with sweet horseradish shellfish broth and mashed root vegetables, salt-cured duck with foie gras ganache, sour tomato jam and aged balsamic; and hamachi meatballs, sea urchin frothe and procini couscous.

And yes, I can only pronounce some of the words in the above paragraph—I’m not embarrassed about it, either! But I’m sure it was tasty, because it won Marcus the title of Top Chef!

I have to say, though, that I was rooting for Rick Moonen. He seemed like such a great guy, and I loved his personality—and his food didn’t look all that shabby either. Which chef were you rooting for?