Top Chef Masters

"Top Chef Masters," the spin-off series of the Emmy and James Beard Award-winning No. 1 food show on cable, "Top Chef," flips the judges' table to find out who can handle the heat. "Top Chef Masters" will pit 24 world-renowned chefs against each other, four in each of episode, to win $100,000 for the charity of their choice. Hubert Keller (Fleur de Lys), Christopher Lee (Aureole), Michael Schlow (Radius Restaurant), and Tim Love (The Lonesome Dove Western Bistro) are the first to draw knives and kick off a whole new level of culinary competition.

Operating on an extremely tight budget, the chefs must create the perfect amuse bouche using only what they can find in a vending machine. Master Wylie Dufresne (wd~50), Suzanne Tracht (Jar), Graham Elliot Bowles (Graham Elliot Restaurant), and Elizabeth Falkner (Orson) find themselves "lost" as they are challenged to make a meal inspired by the hit TV show, using ingredients such as fish, wild boar, fresh fruits, and other island specialties.

The chefs take their skills to the street. Rick Bayless (Frontera Grill), Cindy Pawlcyn (Mustards Grill), Wilo Benet (Pikayo), and Ludo Lefebvre (Ludo Bites) set out to cook the most appealing treat for Los Angeles pedestrians using the unique ingredients provided them.

Top Chef Masters brings together distinguished chefs Anita Lo (Annisa), Douglas Rodriguez (Alma de Cuba), John Besh (Restaurant August) and Mark Peel (Campanile). The Masters find their hands tied in the quickfire challenge as they must cook an egg with one hand tied behind their back (All Stars Challenge, season three of "Top Chef"), and then must create culinary magic to awe their high-profile guests which include Neil Patrick Harris. One chef moves on to the Champions Round.

The final four chefs face a food group they typically avoid for this week's quickfire: junkfood. Michael Chiarello (Bottega Restaurant), Rick Moonen (Rick Moonen's RM Seafood at Mandalay Bay), Nils Noren (French Culinary Institute) and Lachlan McKinnon Patterson (Frasca Food & Wine) are then put on the spot as they are pushed to make the perfect 3 course mini meal.

Knives are drawn and the display of extraordinary talent begins in the most ordinary of places - a grocery store. Master chefs Roy Yamaguchi (Roy's Restaurants), Art Smith (Table Fifty-Two), Michael Cimarusti (Providence), and Jonathan Waxman (Barbuto) pass the quickfire round and are faced with a mystery box from which they must concoct their elimination challenge meals.

The top six chefs have advanced to the finals and now must face-off for the ultimate title of Top Chef Master. Each is asked to produce their signature dish, only to find they must then re-create their competitor's unique dish.

It's a battle of the burgers as the five remaining chefs strive to create an American classic. In the elimination challenge, the Masters must prepare the perfect meal for an exclusive celebrity lunch thrown by actress and singer-song-writer Zooey Deschanel.

In a decisive testing of the palate, the final four chefs enter their last quickfire challenge blindfolded. The elimination round presents the Chefs with the goal of catering a large event - only they are not allowed to touch the food. Each Master must use his or her leadership, teaching, and directing skills to accomplish their vision at arm's length.

In the climactic finale of "Top Chef Masters," three accomplished chefs stand to face their final challenge - the creation of a four-course meal. Sounds simple enough, but each course must be inspired by a certain memory from their past.