Rick Moonen

"Top Chef Masters," the spin-off series of the Emmy and James Beard Award-winning No. 1 food show on cable, "Top Chef," flips the judges’ table to find out who can handle the heat. "Top Chef Masters" will pit 24 world-renowned chefs against each other, four in each of episode, to win $100,000 for the charity of their choice. Hubert Keller (Fleur de Lys), Christopher Lee (Aureole), Michael Schlow (Radius Restaurant), and Tim Love (The Lonesome Dove Western Bistro) are the first to draw knives and kick off a whole new level of culinary competition.

The final four chefs face a food group they typically avoid for this week'’s quickfire: junkfood. Michael Chiarello (Bottega Restaurant), Rick Moonen (Rick Moonen'’s RM Seafood at Mandalay Bay), Nils Noren (French Culinary Institute) and Lachlan McKinnon Patterson (Frasca Food & Wine) are then put on the spot as they are pushed to make the perfect 3 course mini meal.

Week three brings the chefs to the cramped kitchen of Tom Bergin’s Tavern on Fairfax, the oldest Irish establishment in LA, where they must re-invent traditional pub dishes ranging from bangers and mash to fish ‘n’ chips. Graham Elliot Bowles (Graham Elliot Restaurant), Jonathan Waxman (Barbuto), Ludo Lefebvre (Ludo Bites), Mark Peel (Campanile), Rick Moonen (Rick Moonen’s RM Seafood at Mandalay Bay) and Wylie Dufresne (wd~50) go head- to- head in a rousing attempt to satisfy the venue's clientele with old-school tastes and skeptical attitudes towards ‘modern’ pub food.

In the climactic finale of "Top Chef Masters," three accomplished chefs stand to face their final challenge and only one chef is crowned Top Chef Master.

The kitchen heats up as the top eight chefs advance to the Champions round and face-off for the ultimate title of Top Chef Master. In a quickfire repeat from season 6 of "Top Chef," the Masters are split into two teams for a blindfolded relay race to be judged by restaurant critic Jay Rayner. The atmosphere turns festive during the elimination round as the same teams are challenged to cater a wedding in San Juan Capistrano -- out of mobile kitchens.