Wednesday night, Bravo will unveil its 5th season of their hit cooking competition, Top Chef. This season will take place in New York with 17 talented chefs coming together to compete for the ultimate grand prize. The winner of Top Chef will receive a spread in Food and Wine magazine, an appearance at the Food and Wine Classic in Aspen, and $100,000 courtesy of Glad products.  Prior to the season airing, Bravo sent out screeners of the premiere episode.  While I can't let you know the outcomes of any challenges, I can tell you that, based on the season premiere, this looks like one of the best Top Chef seasons to date!

When the 17 chefs arrive in New York City, they are immediately greeted by Padma and Tom who throw a curveball at them. There may be 17 of them, but only 16 chef coats are waiting back for them at the Top Chef kitchen. In order to earn a coat, they’ll have to survive a quickfire challenge right then and there. In the first round, the chefs must peel 15 apples using a knife, not a peeler. The first 9 to complete this task, to Tom’s satisfaction, will move on. After that, the remaining 8 chefs had to brunoise the apples, which is a very thin dice. Only 4 would move on from there. Finally, the remaining 4 chefs were given just 20 minutes to prepare a dish using the apples. As promised, after tasting the dishes, Tom and Padma eliminated a chef, immediately sending them home before officially stepping foot in the competition.

The 16 chefs who will compete this season head to the kitchen where they are immediately faced with their first elimination challenge. They will face off in a cooking competition where they must prepare a dish inspired by a cultural region of New York City including Long Island City, Little Italy, Brighton Beach, and Chinatown. The guest judge in the challenge is Jean-Georges Vongerichten, one of the best chefs in the country. He currently owns restaurants all over the world, in New York, Paris, London, and Shanghai. Jean-Georges is also the author of four cookbooks. New judge Toby Young was inexplicably missing from the first panel of judges.

The premiere episode got me excited for the entire season. New York is my favorite city, full of culture and art, and is the perfect setting for a show like Top Chef. The chefs on the show are full of personality and should be people that fans remember long after the season is over. Both challenges in the premiere were interesting and exciting, leaving me wondering what else is in store for these contestants this season.


- Gina Scarpa, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of Bravo)