Top Chef Masters

Top Chef Masters is a competition style reality TV show on Bravo. It is a spin off of the successful Top Chef series that features new personalities and a different vibe from the original.

The Top Chef franchise is popular.

While this show is similar to the Top Chef series, the main difference is that the contestants are already world-renowned chefs. In the regular Top Chef series, the contestants are not as well known in the culinary field.

The format itself is also a bit different. Rather than the 24 competing chefs facing off against each other each week, the competition is broken down. During the first six weeks, four different chefs appear in each episode, and the winner moves on. The other three contestants each week are all eliminated.

During the last four episodes the six winning chefs from the first half of the season return to compete against each other. One or more chefs are eliminated each week. Winners of each challenge get cash prizes that are donated to the charities of their choice. The ultimate winner gets a $100,000 donation to his or her charity.

This show uses the familiar challenges that you may have seen on the original Top Chef program. The first is called the Quickfire Challenge, in which the chefs must create an original dish out of unusual or uncommon ingredients. The contestants are judged by a taste test where the judges use a classic five-star rating system.

The second challenge is the Elimination Challenge, and is exactly as the name implies. The winning chef gets to move on in the competition while the others are eliminated. This challenge is much more involved than the Quickfire, and can include almost any type of culinary challenge you can think of.

The Elimination challenges are judged by a panel that includes the regular judges as well as guest judges or groups.

The host of Top Chef Masters is Kelly Choi. Choi is a respected food journalist and host of the television show Eat Out NY, which she also created and produces. She also hosts the Emmy-winning syndicated show Secrets of New York.

Choi is a former model who has recently completed work on her first book, The 20 Most Delicious Dishes in New York. She has appeared as a judge on the popular Food Network program Iron Chef. Choi was born in Seoul, Korea, and grew up in Virginia.

The 24 chefs competing, including the restaurants they work in, are:

• Art Smith - Table Fifty-Two, Chicago, Illinois
• Suzanne Tracht - Jar, Los Angeles, California
• Michael Chiarello – Bottega Restaurant, Yountville, California
• Rick Bayless – Frontera Grill, Chicago, Illinois
• Anita Lo – Annisa, New York City, New York
• Hubert Keller – Fleur de Lys, San Francisco, California
• Tim Love – The Lonesome Dove Western Bistro, Fort Worth, Texas
• Christopher Lee – Aureole, New York City, New York
• Cindy Pawlcyn – Mustards Grill, Napa Valley, California
• Rick Moonen – Rick Moonen's RM Seafood at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, Nevada
• Michael Cimarusti – Providence, Los Angeles, California
• Elizabeth Falkner – Orson, San Francisco, California
• Wylie Dufresne – WD-50, New York City, New York
• Mark Peel – Campanile, Los Angeles, California
• Roy Yamaguchi – Roy's Restaurants, Honolulu, Hawaii
• Graham Elliot Bowles – Graham Elliot Restaurant, Chicago, Illinois
• Wilo Benet – Pikayo, San Juan, Puerto Rico
• Michael Schlow – Radius Restaurant, Boston, Massachusetts
• Lachlan MacKinnon Patterson – Frasca Food and Wine, Boulder, Colorado
• Nils Noren – French Culinary Institute, New York City, New York
• Jonathan Waxman – Barbuto, New York City, New York
• Ludo Lefebvre – Ludo Bites, Los Angeles, California
• John Besh – Restaurant August, New Orleans, Louisiana
• Douglas Rodriguez – Alma de Cuba, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The judges are:

• Gael Greene
• Jay Raynor
• James Oseland
• Gail Simmons

Gail Simmons and James Oseland alternate appearances, so there are three judges per episode.

To learn more about the show and see video clips of every episode, visit the official site at BravoTV.com.

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