Top Chef Masters

Top Chef Masters is back for Season 4… and headed to Viva Las Vegas. In true Sin City fashion, the chefs will be playing a culinary card game to get their ingredients, judged by Las Vegas dealers. The chefs will then have to break into teams to create a high-end buffet on the strip, but this is no ordinary buffet, as the Masters will be feeding the performers from all of the hot shows in town.

What better way to tie the knot than with a wedding catered by Top Chef Masters? Our chefs will meet the couple, whose idea of a perfect wedding would be to feed their guests a meal as lasting and inspired as the love they share. The chefs will work to make sure that every foodie request is met, from canapés to tasting menus to the precious tiered wedding cake.

They can cook, but can they put on a show? The chefs will be split into teams of three and have their skills put on full view as they cook up a three-course meal to serve VIP guests at the most challenging of chef’s tables, a Teppanyaki. With only 30 minutes to put on a delicious and dazzling show, they’ll be serving some of our favorite Top Chef Masters along with our critics. Special guest judges include: Olympic gold medalist Brian Boitano, and acclaimed chefs May Sue Milliken, Susan Feniger, Rick Moonen, Jonathan Waxman.

This week, the chefs are tasked with taking ordinary salad bar ingredients and making them “pop” for music legends, the B-52s. Then the chefs will take a trip to the Grand Canyon for a cookout like never before. The chefs will be paired up to cook for the Hualapai tribe, using ingredients from the tribe’s sacred land.

In this week’s Quickfire Challenge, the chefs must make a dynamic duo dish for a couple of dynamic musicians -- The Indigo Girls. For the Elimination Challenge, the chefs are tasked with making  a whimsical all-you-can-eat bottomless bloodys and mimosas brunch at an upscale sexy pool party, hosted by Ms. Vegas, Holly Madison. Bikini-clad servers will serve the chefs’ creations to Holly’s friends lounging poolside. Special guest judges include The Indigo Girls and Holly Madison.

On this week’s episode, the chefs will be creating an aphrodisiac dish using known aphrodisiac ingredients. The chef whose dish really turns them on will be the winner for this challenge. Lotus of Siam is a legendary Nevada Culinary landmark that has amassed award after award. For this Elimination Challenge, our chefs will be faced with the task of creating their own Thai restaurant in the Top Chef Masters kitchen and attempting to create their own versions of classic Thai dishes. Special guest judge is Dita Von Teese.

This week the chefs will battle it out -- facing off in a boxing ring to serve our critics and boxing champ, Sugar Ray Leonard. The winner of the first match will compete against the winner from the second match in a third match for the win and $10,000. The losers from the first and second match will face off one last time to determine who will be sent packing. Special guest judge is Sugar Ray Leonard.

It’s getting down to the wire -- this week, the chefs will participate in one of the world’s greatest underground dining events: a Diner en Blanc. For our Masters to take on this Diner en Blanc, each chef will create a picnic style meal with abundant ingredients to create an epic feast and pack it up for the first ever Diner en Blanc picnic in Vegas.

In the penultimate episode, the chefs will have to cook and create their dish while simultaneously instructing a mystery guest across the divider to make the exact same dish. Then for the Elimination Challenge, the chefs will mentor aspiring culinary students and guide them through making a dish. The twist? The chefs will not be able to do any of the cooking.

It has all come down to this… for their last challenge, and the title of Top Chef Master, the final two chefs will have 24 hours and the help of their most trusted staff from their very own restaurants back home, to create a dish based on four letters -- a love letter, an apology, a thank you, and a letter to themselves. They’ll serve to a table of the culinary world’s most esteemed critics.

Top Chef Masters is back with a brand new host, new judge and a new format -- so why not start the competition off with something familiar, the most notorious of all Top Chef challenges, Restaurant Wars?

The masters are in for a treat this week when two high-profile celebrities visit the top chef kitchen. Pop Star and trained chef, Kelis, drops by to judge a very meaty quickfire challenge and then Mad Men actress, Christina Hendricks and her husband, actor Geoffry Arend, enlist the help of the cheftestants in a special '60s-themed Elimination Challenge.

The chefs are forced to make a delicious dish out of some horrifying creatures.

The masters break up into three teams of three to prepare breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the cast of 'The Biggest Loser.'

The cheftestants operate a fast food drive-through.

Pop Rock group Maroon 5 drops by and challenges the chefs to create a feast fit for a rock star.

The masters help a man propose to his unsuspecting girlfriend.

Using traditional high school chemistry at a science fair, the master chefs must create their most palatable creations.

'Top Chef Masters' salutes U.S. soldiers with a celebration meal for returning service men and women composed of all their favorite dishes.

The three finalists must create a three course meal based on important memories throughout their lives and careers.

Things get steamy in the Season 2 opener when competing pro chefs Ana Sortun, Govind Armstrong, Jerry Traunfeld, Jimmy Bradley, Susan Feniger and Tony Mantuano create aphrodisiacal dinners for romantic first dates. Gail Simmons joins the judges' table for Season 2.

Meal masters Carmen Gonzalez, David Burke, Marcus Samuelsson, Monica Pope and Thierry Rautureau serve up fare for a birthday bash thrown by actor Mekhi Phifer and his pals.

Competing culinary artists Graham Elliot Bowles, Jonathan Waxman, Ludo Lefebvre, Mark Peel, Rick Moonen and Wylie Dufresne are tasked to reimagine old-school pub grub.

The chefs dabble in craft service as they prepare meals for the cast and crew of ABC's Modern Family.

The teams are challenged to cater a wedding in San Juan Capistrano -- out of mobile kitchens.

The remaining chefs must combine exotic proteins in an appealing surf-and-turf inspired duo.

It's a Quickfire with a very specific focus: the leg. Once the chefs have butchered and prepared their dishes, they must then turn their skills to an even bigger challenge, preparing a tailgate feast for college football fans.

The blind taste test returns with the "Name That Ingredient" Quickfire, and then the chefs look to Greece and the ancient gods as inspiration for their elimination dishes.

Taking inspiration from Top Chef Chicago's season four, the remaining chefs must use unusual pairings from Los Angeles' The Groundlings improv troupe to create dishes.

In the season finale of Top Chef Masters, the remaining three chefs face their final challenge.

The first group of four chefs compete tonight for one of the Champions Round slots, but they may find the stress of the kitchen is nothing as compared to the stress of competition. 

Top Chef season two's "Less is More" influences tonight's Quickfire challenge, but there won't be any Cheetos in melted chocolate bars tonight as the next four chefs are asked to create an elegant amuse-bouche from very processed ingredients. Then it's on to the elimination challenge where the show Lost acts the muse.

Tonight's quickfire challenge for the next group of four chefs comes from season two's "Seven", asking them to make a dish using color. Then they must do a twist on season one's "Blind Confusion", selling upmarket street food to amusement park visitors using offal as the base ingredients.

In the Quickfire, the four chefs take a page from season three's special "4 Star All Stars" when they find themselves manually challenged when they must cook an egg with one hand tied behind their backs- literally! Then it's on to a magically themed Elimination with Neil Patrick Harris as guest judge.

Four more chefs are asked to reinvent junk-food classics in this play on the Quickfire from season one's "Napa's Finest". Later, they must create three-course mini-meals. Jeff Lewis and Jenni Pulos of Bravo's Flipping Out guest star.

First, the chefs display their skills in a grocery store, à la season three's "Chef Overboard". Later, the Elimination Challenge hearkens back to Top Chef's season two episode "Into The Fire" when the chefs are presented with a mystery box holding the ingredients for the Elimination Challenge.

As the Champions Round starts, the six heat winning chefs are divided into two teams to take part in the Quickfire favorite "Mise En Place Relay Race", which was first performed by the contestants in the Top Chef's season three episode "Second Helping". Then the chefs prepare to cook their signature dishes, with a surprising twist- they must then recreate one of their competitors' offerings for the Critics to sample.

The five remaining chefs get ready to rumble in a battle of burgers. Then their culinary might is tested to the limit when they are told they must create an entree which is not only scrumptious, but also acceptable for a vegan who also cannot consume any soy or gluten. Guest diners include actress Zooey Deschanel and filmmaker Morgan Spurlock.

The four remaining chefs must perform their final Quickfire challenge blindfolded. Then, the chefs demonstrate their leadership skills when catering a large event without touching the food themselves.

The FINAL showdown is here and the three remaining Masters have given it their all to get to this point! For their deciding challenge, the chefs must cook a series of dishes based on their past and present career as a chef. Judging their final face-off: Tom Colicchio, Padma Lakshmi, Gail Simmons, and all 5 past winners of Top Chef. Who will most-impress these tough critics to win the grand prize of $100,000 for the charity of their choice and the ultimate title of "Top Chef Master"?