Bryan Voltaggio

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; two chefs are given 48 hours to pick their teams and crate the restaurants.

The chefs are challenged to a taco throwdown for Danny Trejo; for the Quickfire, the only sharp tool they can use is a machete; the only way to make it to Restaurant Wars is to survive this week's qualifying challenge.

Padma gets a real rise out of the chefs when she tasks them to make a Quickfire dish without any all-purpose flour; for the Elimination Challenge, the chefs serve Gustavo Dudamel and members of the LA Philharmonic at award-winning Otium restaurant.

Im kulinarischen Wettkampf um den Titel `Top Chef' treten professionelle Köche gegeneinander an.

Die erste Herausforderung führt die Köche an den Strand, wo sie ein Gericht mit Meeresfrüchten zubereiten müssen. Allerdings ist ihre einzige Wärmequelle das Feuer.

The chefs honor the late, great Pulitzer-Prize winning food critic Jonathan Gold; using Gold's last guide list, the chefs fan out all over Los Angeles to sample the unique food trucks, mom-and-pop cafes, and ethnic cuisine.