The Glad Family (of Products)

Warning: In the paragraphs that follow, I reveal the winner of this season of Top Chef. If that bothers you, avert thine eyes and close this tab as quickly as possible.

Of course it had to be one of the Voltaggio brothers. The rivalry was too tempting and too entertaining, and to be fair to the producers of the show, they were both talented enough to justify whittling the competition down to a Cain and Abel situation (Romulus and Remus? Bert and Ernie?). I do feel bad for Kevin, though, who would have had an entirely different experience on that show if he weren’t up against a family dynamic that was built for reality television. As soon as they hit the finale, he must have known it would be one of the brothers, and the added bonus of being stuck with Preeti as his sous chef must have felt like the last nails in his coffin.

Watching this season of Top Chef, I began to realize just how much reality television relies on the family unit as a source of drama and narrative development. Even after you throw out explicitly family-based shows (Keeping up with the Kardashians, 18 Kids and Counting, either of the Hulk Hogan shows, Little Family, Big World, The Now-Deceased Show that Must Not Be Named), the useful and always-reliable family drama pervades almost every form of reality show. It’s the backbone of the whole Real Housewives series, but it also pops up consistently on competition shows like The Amazing Race and The Biggest Loser. Even America’s Next Top Model had a season where two of the top contestants were twins. So I guess the bigger surprise is that Top Chef hadn’t found a pair of sibling contestants several seasons ago.

They lucked out with the Voltaggios, though. Michael and Bryan were both driven, consistently high-performing chefs with completely different styles, and they managed to convey pleasure in each other’s success while also fighting hard to be the winner themselves. If I were producing a reality show, I can imagine two extremely talented brothers bickering over a piece of saran wrap feeling like a gift from the television gods. Even better, the final math of three contestants but only two moms would be impossible to refuse. I do have to admit, I backed the wrong brother and was totally rooting for Bryan. His restraint and maturity were far more appealing to me. But in the end…it was Michael, and that’s all right. In what is hopefully a sign of good, brotherly appreciation, they launched a Voltaggio Brothers website yesterday. We can only hope they’ve decided they’re more entertaining and effective as a family than they would be on their own.