Lee Anne Wong

Fifteen of the competition's fiercest challengers return to face-off in the toughest season yet! A mise-en-place challenge set at the historic Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles kicks off the intense battle, where the Chefs immediately size each other up to see how everyone has progressed since last competing. Then, the first elimination challenge takes the Chefs to the beach to cook a seafood meal -- however, their only heat source will be fire. No electricity, no special appliances. Back to basics. It's going to be a true slug-match to see who has the skills and who has the drive to take the one thing that has eluded them all... the title of Top Chef! Padma Lakshmi, Tom Colicchio, and Gail Simmons return as judges and joining them as the first guest judge of the season is legendary Chef, Jeremiah Tower. Marcus Samuelsson, Nancy Silverton, Michael Cimarusti, Josiah Citrin, Suzanne Goin, Caroline Styne share the table for the high-powered, high-stress beach-side meal.

Guy Fieri kicks off year five of the biggest and toughest competition in the culinary world. From the biggest names in past seasons to new chefs with the potential to go all the way, they'll all face off to win the belt, the coveted title and $150,000!

It's Restaurant Wars and this season Padma takes all the limitations off the table as the chefs can make as much food as they want and shop wherever they choose. The two winning chefs from last week's concept challenge are given 48 hours to pick their teams and make the restaurants they pitched come to life.

​Guy Fieri challenges the final culinary titans with two epic semifinal battles, and the two chefs left standing will face a championship showdown. Their dishes will be judged by five culinary legends, but only one chef will earn the belt and $150,000.

Kelly Clarkson drops into the Top Chef kitchen for a Quickfire based on her new movie, Trolls: World Tour, where the chefs are tasked with combining colorful ingredients from six different musical 'lands' to make one delicious dish. For the Elimination Challenge, the chefs are split into two teams to create a cohesive, progressive vegetarian meal for Padma, Tom, Gail and James Beard nominated guest judge Jeremy Fox. The catch is they won't know what ingredients they'll be working with until the morning of the challenge when they shop exclusively at the Santa Monica Farmers Market.