Top Chef Crowns a New Winner: 'It Was Always Win or Nothing'
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Warning: This article includes spoilers for Top Chef season 19.
Buddha Lo ... you are Top Chef!
The Australian-Chinese chef was crowned the season 19 Top Chef winner on Thursday night's finale of the Bravo cooking competition series. Lo wowed the judges with a four-course meal inspired by his family members.
Along with Lo, finalists Evelyn Garcia and Sarah Welch were tasked with making "the best four-course progressive meal of your life," as explained by host Padma Lakshmi, while competing in Tucson.
Lo spoke with PEOPLE ahead of his big win about how he crafted his winning menu.
"There were so many things I hadn't really shown, but you can only pick four," says the executive chef at HŪSO, a fine-dining restaurant inside Marky's Caviar in New York City. "So I thought, okay, strip it back, think about the words that they said. They said the best meal of your life. That's impossible — hopefully I live longer than the finale, you know? So maybe the best meal in my life will be different when I'm 50.
"So what's something that won't change and you will look back no matter what the result? Well, the best people in my life aren't going to change. My mom's still going to be my favorite person. Same with my dad. Same with brother."
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Lo ultimately made a hamachi with caviar dedicated to his brother, lobster laksa for his mother, and Mongolian lamb for his late father, who died from cancer.
His final course, a pumpkin mille-feuille, was an ode to his new home in America.
"I wasn't born here. I wasn't raised here. And the fact that I was able to come from Australia to America and actually make it onto the competition within four years, I'm very thankful that I've had the opportunity to be here," Lo tells PEOPLE.
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Dishes rooted in family have served Lo well throughout the season, which was primarily shot in Houston. His "marry me pasta" inspired by his wife Rebekah was praised by all the judges earlier in the season.
Lakshmi, judges Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons, along with guest judges Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard and three-star Michelin chef Eric Ripert ultimately decided his final meal was worthy of the Top Chef title.
Lo plans to use the $250,000 cash prize that comes with the title to plan a trip, but more importantly, he says, "It's probably going to be able to help me live a little more comfortably. I've never had this much money in my life, nor did I think that I would."
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Fans of the show can taste Lo's winning food in a special Top Chef-themed tasting menu at HŪSO taking place from June 22 through Sept. 24. He will serve three of his finale dishes and what Lakshmi called the "best bread" and "best dessert" served on Top Chef.
"It is definitely worth going to that's for sure," he says.
Looking towards the future, Lo has big plans. "The next restaurant that I open, I want to try and get a lot of accolades from it. I'm even hoping to get three Michelin stars one day out of it.
"I set this goal a long time ago to win Top Chef. I never entered in it just to come second, or third, or participate," he continues. "It was always win or nothing. So, I'm now putting that out there."
