‘Top Chef: World All-Stars’: Can Gabri Rodriguez, aka El Gato, defy the odds and win the global season?

Season 20 of “Top Chef” has been a roller coaster for Gabri Rodriguez, with arguably more downs than ups. The “Top Chef Mexico” champion has struggled with consistency, but he has escaped culinary demise so many times his fellow contestants have taken to calling him “El Gato.” Can he still win the whole season, though? He made the finale, so he’s only one meal away from claiming the first ever “World All-Stars” championship.

No one in the competition, including those who have already packed their knives and gone, has been on the bottom more often than Rodriguez in Elimination Challenges. It started in the very first challenge of the season, “London Calling,” when his charred dish left a burnt taste in the mouth and he forgot to add his chicken emulsion entirely. He struggled again in the “Spurred Lines” challenge with his friends and teammates Begoña Rodrigo and Luciana Berry; after losing two rounds, the three of them had to compete against each other for survival, and again Rodriguez was one of the chefs who stuck around.

Low again in “Holiday Vacation” when his emotions got the better of him and he burned his mole. Low in “Restaurant Wars” when his team’s theme failed to come through to the judges. Low in “Thali Time” when he burned two batches of beans. And low once more in “Champions in Paris,” when his mushroom dish tasted a little too much of chicken. But you don’t have to have the best dish every week. You just have to not have the worst dish in any given week, and Rodriguez never did.

What’s more, he proved his mettle with strong performances in other challenges. His mole was the class of the field in “Rice, Rice Baby.” His interpretation of bangers and mash in “Cheeky Pints and Pub Bites” got high marks. And he finally won a challenge when he teamed up with Buddha Lo in “Battle of the Wellingtons,” arguably the toughest challenge of the season. He’s the only finalist who didn’t win an individual Elimination Challenge during the season, but if you can only win one, then make it the last one. Can he do just that against fellow finalists Lo and Sara Bradley, or has El Gato run out of extra lives?

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