Leia Gaccione

Fifteen of the country's best chefs arrive in Houston, Texas, ready to fight for the title of Top Chef.

The chefs are challenged in the Quickfire to put their own spin on the Tex-Mex classic queso. For the Elimination Challenge, the competition heads to the field of a high school football stadium.

The chefs head to the Gulf of Mexico in Galveston, Texas. Chef Shota Nakajima is here to present them with their next Quickfire Challenge, using the freshest gulf shellfish to create a seafood tower with one hot and one cold dish.

The chefs meet Brooke Williamson at Houston's J-Bar-M, where she tasks them with putting their own spin on a brisket dish for some of the best BBQ pitmasters in Houston and their guest judge, pitmaster Greg Gatlin.

The chefs must create salty-sweet desserts that will inspire a new flavour of Talenti gelato. In the Elimination Challenge, the chefs must draw inspiration from the lives of some of Texas' most influential women.

The competition reaches new heights as the chefs voyage to the Houston Space Center. They'll have to create a stellar new menu item that they would crave if they were on a multiyear mission to Mars.