Today, Bravo released all the official info about the new season of Top Chef, which will premiere November 7. It’s the tenth season, and this year, the competition is headed to Seattle — Quick: Will fish-throwing at Pike Place Market happen in the first episode, or will they make us wait a few weeks? — and if you’ve seen any of the previous nine seasons, it sounds like you know what to expect.
Per a release, the full text of which you can read below, “The “Top Chef: Seattle” chef’testants will be pared down week by week as they compete to out-flavor, out-cook and out-do their competition.” There are 21 chefs competing this year, so there had better be some double- and triple-elimination episodes in the cards, or this thing’s going to stretch on until next spring. Tom, Padma, and Gail are back, of course, as are Hugh Acheson and Emeril Lagasse, and the release notes that Wolfgang Puck will be popping in from time to time as well.
Also returning this year: that online series where losing chefs cook-off in hopes of making it back onto the real show.
There will no doubt be some twists along the way (it’s Top Chef; there are always twists), but all in all, it appears as though things are par for the course — with a zillion other cooking competitions on the air, we can’t be the only ones wishing that Top Chef’s producers would use the occasion of the show’s tenth season to shake up the formula a tad.
“Top Chef: Seattle” Premieres Wednesday, November 7 at 10 PM ET/PT and Wolfgang Puck Joins as Judge
Emmy-Nominated Digital Video Series “Last Chance Kitchen” Returns
NEW YORK - September 19, 2012 -Bravo Media premieres “Top Chef: Seattle,” the tenth season of the Emmy and James Beard Award-winning series, on Wednesday, November 7 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Famed chef and restaurant mogul Wolfgang Puck joins as a judge this season, alongside Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons, Hugh Acheson and Emeril Lagasse with Padma Lakshmi returning as host, as 21 chef’testants compete for the top crown. For more information, visit www.BravoTV.com. Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BravoPR.
The franchise has catapulted nine “Top Chef” winners’ careers, and this season the competition goes back to the basics, with culinary challenges that require a mastery of the primary skills of a chef. The “Top Chef: Seattle” chef’testants will be pared down week by week as they compete to out-flavor, out-cook and out-do their competition. The winning chef will receive $125,000 furnished by Healthy Choice, a feature in Food & Wine magazine, a showcase at the Annual Food & Wine Classic in Aspen and will earn the title of “Top Chef.” The Emmy Award-winning Magical Elves return to produce “Top Chef: Seattle.” Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz serve as executive producers.
Following are the 21 “Top Chef: Seattle” hopefuls:
- Lizzie Binder, 37 - Napa, California
- Tina Bourbeau, 42 - New York, New York
- Chrissy Camba, 30 - Chicago, Illinois
- Stephanie Cmar, 27 - Boston, Massachusetts
- Micah Fields, 28 - Los Angeles, California
- Eliza Gavin, 38 - Telluride, Colorado
- Anthony Gray, 35 - Macon, Georgia
- Jeffrey Jew, 34 - Washington, DC
- Gina Keatley, 32 - New York, New York
- Kristen Kish, 28 - Boston, Massachusetts
- Danyele McPherson, 31 - Dallas, Texas
- Daniel O’Brien, 32 - Washington, DC
- Carla Pellegrino, 43 - Las Vegas, Nevada
- Jorel Pierce, 28 - Denver, Colorado
- Sheldon Simeon, 30 - Lahaina, Hawaii
- John Tesar, 54 - Dallas, Texas
- Joshua Valentine, 32 - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Bart Vandaele, 41 - Washington, DC
- Tyler Wiard, 41 - Denver, Colorado
- Brooke Williamson, 33 - Los Angeles, California
- Kuniko Yagi, 35 - Los Angeles, California
Emmy-nominated “Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen,” the groundbreaking digital video series hosted by Tom Colicchio, returns for its second season. Each week, two eliminated chef’testants face-off to compete for the ultimate prize - a spot in the “Top Chef: Seattle” finale. Fans can follow the “Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen” challenges and vote in each week’s Tweet Battle on www.BravoTV.com, as well as join in the social conversation and see what the chef’testants have to say during the competition by following @bravotopchef on Twitter or liking the Top Chef Facebook fan page. The series can be seen on desktop, mobile and tablet at www.BravoTV.com, m.BravoTV.com, on BravoNow iPhone, iPad and Android apps, as well as iTunes, Amazon, VOD, Xbox, Hulu, Playstation, Connected TVs and wireless carriers.
Bravo is a program service of NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment, a division of NBCUniversal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. Bravo has been an NBCUniversal cable network since December 2002 and was the first television service dedicated to film and the performing arts when it launched in December 1980. For more information, visit www.BravoTV.com. Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BravoPR.
