Kristen Kish

With the top eight chefs remaining, it's time for the perennial favorite - Restaurant Wars. This year, the chefs are split into teams and tasked with creating a Chef's Table restaurant concept where they will serve a seven course high-end tasting menu to the judges and All-Star panel.  Gregory Gourdet and Kristen Kish join Padma, Tom and Gail at the judges' table.

"Top Chef" kicks off as 21 chefs from around the country enter the kitchens of our judges - Tom Colicchio, Emeril Lagasse, Hugh Acheson and the newest addition, Wolfgang Puck. Each judge tests their group of chef'testants in their own real-world challenge.

This ain't your mama's chicken and dumplings! In this week's Quickfire, the chefs must make different varieties of dumplings from all over the world. In the Elimination Challenge, Tom and Emeril don their chef coats and take to the kitchen to lead teams in an epic Thanksgiving battle. No Turkey Day would be complete without a family fight, and the Top Chef family is no different. Guest judge and Food & Wine Editor-in-Chief Dana Cowin joins Emeril Lagasse, head judge Tom Colicchio and host Padma Lakshmi.

There are 15 chefs that make it to Seattle, with their sights set on the Top Chef title. As a surprising twist changes the course of the competition, one chef cranks up the heat her own way, and one turn of the Seattle Space Needle determines who will go home. Famed Seattle chef and restaurateur Tom Douglas joins Gail Simmons, Emeril Lagasse, head judge Tom Colicchio and host Padma Lakshmi.

Butchery is king as two giant slabs of beef on meat hooks await the chefs for this week's Quickfire. For the Elimination Challenge, the Chefs go back in time as they're tasked with re-creating an original 1950's menu from one of the best restaurants in the country. Push comes to shove in the kitchen, as the chefs serve up the classics while trying to save themselves from a double elimination. Emeril Lagasse and Hugh Acheson join head judge Tom Colicchio and host Padma Lakshmi.