In the first season of Top Chef Masters, 24 world-renowned chefs competed against each other in weekly challenges. The program took place in Los Angeles. In the season finale that premiered on August 19, 2009, Rick Bayless was crowned Top Chef Master.
Judges[]
- Kelly Choi (Host)
- Gael Greene (Critic)
- James Oseland (Critic)
- Jay Rayner (Critic) (alternates with Gail Simmons)
- Gail Simmons (Critic) (alternates with Jay Rayner)
Chefs[]
See List of Top Chef Contestants
In elimination order:
- Michael Schlow — Radius Restaurant (Boston, MA)
- Tim Love — The Lonesome Dove Western Bistro (Fort Worth, TX)
- Christopher Lee — Aureole (New York, NY)
- Elizabeth Falkner — Orson (San Francisco, CA)
- Wylie Dufresne — wd~50 (New York, NY)
- Graham Elliot Bowles — Graham Elliot Restaurant (Chicago, IL)
- Cindy Pawlcyn — Mustards Grill (Napa Valley, CA)
- Ludovic Lefebvre — Ludo Bites (Los Angeles, CA)
- Wilo Benet — Pikayo (San Juan, Puerto Rico)
- John Besh — Restaurant August (New Orleans, LA)
- Douglas Rodriguez — Alma de Cuba (Philadelphia, PA)
- Mark Peel — Campanile (Los Angeles, CA)
- Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson — Frasca Food & Wine (Boulder, CO)
- Rick Moonen — RM Seafood (Las Vegas, NV)
- Nils Norén — French Culinary Institute (New York City, NY)
- Roy Yamaguchi — Roy's Restaurants (Honolulu, HI)
- Michael Cimarusti — Providence (Los Angeles, CA)
- Jonathan Waxman — Barbuto (New York, NY)
- Suzanne Tracht — Jar (Los Angeles, CA)
- Art Smith — Table Fifty-Two (Chicago, IL)
- Anita Lo — Annisa (New York, NY)
- Hubert Keller — Fleur de Lys (San Francisco, CA)
- Michael Chiarello — Bottega Restaurant (Yountville, CA)
- Rick Bayless — Frontera Grill (Chicago, IL)
Episodes Format[]
In each episode, the chefs compete to win money for their charity. The Elimination Round winners are awarded cash donations ($10,000) for their charities. For each of the first six episodes, only three chefs compete out of the twenty-four and one of the three chefs moves forward to the Champions Round.
Each episode consists of a Quickfire and an Elimination challenge. The Quickfire is a short, simple challenge that can vary from cooking, tasting or a food-related task (e.g., peeling a certain amount of apples to certain quality standard in a limited amount of time). The Elimination challenge is a more complex challenge which usually requires cooking a meal for many people with certain requirements. The chefs are scored based on how well they execute in the Elimination and Quickfire challenges.
The Quickfire is scored on a scale of one to five stars, and the Elimination challenge is scored on a scale of one to of 20 stars (five stars given by the tasters, and fifteen given by the three critics). A chef can thus win a maximum of 25 stars. The chef with the most stars at the end of both challenges is considered the winner and moves on to the Champions Round. The six total winners then meet up for the final four weeks when one person will be eliminated in each episode until the finale where one winner is crowned Top Chef Master. The winning chef receives $100,000 for his or her designated charity.
Episodes List[]
- Episode 1: Masters Get Schooled
- Episode 2: The Lost Supper
- Episode 3: Offal Tasty
- Episode 4: Magic Chefs
- Episode 5: Miniaturize Me
- Episode 6: Trick in a Box
- Episode 7: Champions Round Begins
- Episode 8: Dietary Restrictions
- Episode 9: Masters of Disaster
- Episode 10: Finale
WINNER: Rick Bayless.