Haven't seen anyone else post about this so I thought it would be fun to share! Sara and Buddha both "appeared" on the Pack Your Knives podcast and shared some fun things about the finale. Summary below (I'm sure I'm missing some things, so any other listeners feel free to add/correct if I'm wrong!)

• For the finale, even besides what we were shown, the contestants had trouble getting ingredients. About a week before the finale, production asks the chefs to start thinking about their finale menu and they're each allowed to place a special order for 5 special ingredients. Buddha tried to import some things from the US, but was only able to get caviar (which was from France already). Gabri's grasshoppers were one of his special ingredients flown in from Mexico. Eventually, at the end of the day, they did go to this apparently amazing market but because of timing/traffic, they only had 15 minutes to shop there.
• Yes, Sara is still haunted by that liver 😩 The hosts also asked her about Tom's tweet confirming that she would have won if the liver was correctly cooked. She was super graceful about it and said she felt she got into her own head that day and lost because of that, but at the end of the day, even if she cooked 3/4 of the best dishes that day, if she served a dish that was inedible, she didn't serve the best meal.
• Sara's first choice for the protein for the fateful second course wasn't sweetbreads! Her first choice was foie (a much more forgiving meat) and it was a pretty different dish than liver and onions (it still had cookie butter though). However, in France, to get whole loaves of foie (which she would've needed for the dish), you have to go to a special store, which she didn't have access to. She considered other options but ultimately couldn't find enough of a protein to serve 13 people so she settled for liver and then kind of got stuck in that.
• Contrary to popular belief, Buddha's finale meal was conceptualized around the episode before the finale meal. Part of this is because he says throughout the seasons (especially the two consecutive seasons), the list of tricks and dishes repertoire gets slimmed down as you use them for challenges since you don't want to be too repetitive. Buddha said it started to get "slim pickings by the end of it" which I thought was interesting! Buddha ideally wanted to a Wellington for the finale, but he had just did three so he didn't think that would be a good idea.
• Buddha used 3 molds in the finale meal.
• There was an equipment fail that affected all three of the finalists. The freezer they put their Pacojet ("Ninja creamy-type thing" according to Sara), never froze their cannisters (it might have actually been a refrigerator) didn't freeze their things overnight, so they had to put their stuff in Cuisinart churners. Sara and Buddha both got theirs in immediately and let them set in time, but Gabri struggled with the time and didn't get his ice cream base in until later. Sara said that there are a lot of equipment failures on Top Chef we don't see.
• In regard to picking sous chefs, Sara said since her season and she had first knife draw (I'm not sure which episode this is, it's been a long time) and got a bad pick, she didn't want first pick, but she ended up with it. She picked Amar because their styles were the most cohesive and he had the most Top Chef experience similar to hers. She also felt that Buddha wanted Ali and Gabri wanted Tom and she wanted everyone to cook their best meal. Buddha said he would've been happy with any of them and that you just need to know how to play to their strengths and yours (e.g. he did the pastry instead of Ali).
• Sara and Buddha would both love to come back as guest judges, especially for restaurant wars episode. Sara likes the challenges that have a bunch of constraints on them.
• Buddha would compete in an all all stars season, if he was asked 😂 but he doesn't think that will happen (his reasoning being that if there were other winners who were interested in competing again, they would have competed on this season)
• The hosts asked Sara and Buddha what they would say to potential season 21 chefs and what's one thing they should know about the judges. Buddha said (and Sara agreed) that with Tom, you have to nail whatever you say is the main component of the dish. You can kind of get away with the garnishes not being as great, but you have to nail the main component. Sara also said that Tom loves big flavors, "aggressively seasoned," and delicious food, that also includes technique. She said that Gail likes when you're emotionally connected to the story/food.

It was really cool to listen to Sara and Buddha on the podcast and I'd definitely recommend checking it out, even if you don't usually listen to Pack Your Knives. Sara and Buddha come on at around ~35 minutes in, I believe, if you just want to skip to that part! Again, apologies for any errors/things I left out but I thought this was some interesting behind the scenes stuff. I definitely can't wait to see either/both of them as guest judges!

ETA:

Other things I just remembered:

• When asked what they're going to do next, Buddha says he's going to work on his restaurant and getting a bigger space (apparently his current space only has an induction and an oven?). And going for that Michelin!!!!
• Sara's seeing where things go but she's working on a cookbook! She might open another restaurant in the future, but right now she's investing in herself and current restaurant. She loves Paducah and having a restaurant there.