When a third-generation French pastry chef from Nice walks into your kitchen and chooses Napoleon, you have already lost. You just haven't been told yet.
Francois Payard's grandfather ran a patisserie on the Riviera. His father ran one after that. He came to New York, won the James Beard Pastry Chef of the Year in 1995, and has spent thirty years putting puff pastry into people's mouths. Napoleon — millefeuille — is the dish that exposes whether your puff has the 729 layers it's supposed to have or whether you cheated with shortcut dough.
Bobby chose to compete on Payard's specific lifelong subject. The result was the result.