With only six chefs remaining, the challenges get even more difficult; pastry super-chef Sherry Yard awaits the all stars for a dreaded dessert Quickfire; chefs endure a blindfolded taste test to pick their ingredients.

Tom makes his final decision from "Last Chance Kitchen" on who should return to the competition; the chefs take off in a Quickfire with Padma and Jonathan Waxman making a two-course business class dish for an airline.

The final five travel to Italy, where the chefs must make an aperitivo for 30 locals from the town of Lucca that pairs perfectly with a Peroni beer; then, they hunt the elusive white truffle which they must use in a dish for a Tuscan food festival.

The chefs are treated to a culinary dream trip to Parma, the legendary home of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and Prosciutto di Parma ham. The chefs must feature the ingredients in two courses and serve their dishes to a table of 16 Michelin stars.

The final three all stars face off in an epic Italian showdown. They have to cook the meal of their lives in an effort to take home the ultimate title and prize.

Fifteen of the country's best chefs compete in Portland, Ore.; for their first challenge, chefs combine their favourite ingredients into one cohesive dish; contestants must create a dish featuring one of Portland's iconic local birds.

The chefs enter the kitchen to find Padma and seven hungry all-star chefs -- Amar Santana, Melissa King, Kwame Onwuachi, Dale Talde, Gregory Gourdet, Carrie Baird and Richard Blais -- and find they have 30 minutes to serve eight plates of breakfast.

The pressure is laid on the chefs in the Quickfire Challenge as they are tasked to make a layered dessert; Gregory and Kwame take the chefs on a tour of restaurants that feature food from the African diaspora.

The chefs must create a dish featuring Campbell's soup for Padma and Dale Talde; the cheftestants get thrown for a loop when they find out they won't be shopping for their Elimination Challenge.

The chefs are tasked to create a dish featuring roses or rose products, inspired by the mother figure in their lives; the chefs will go head-to-head at the first-ever Top Chef Drive-In where each team must create dishes based on popular movie genres.

The chefs are transported into a magical kitchen forest for the Quickfire Challenge where they make a dish featuring mushrooms; the cheftestants are paired up to create a surf and turf dish featuring local fish and game.