A collection of the country's best Chefs converge in Los Angeles for the toughest season of Top Chef yet, where they will hit the road and compete in six cities across the Golden State. To get their feet wet, the Chefs face off in a fan favorite Quickfire challenge - the Mise En Place race. Then, under the glamour of the Hollywood sign, the Chefs must make dishes that stand out for a group of top food critics and reporters in order to survive the first elimination. Legendary chef Emeril Lagasse rounds out the judging panel alongside Tom Colicchio, Padma Lakshmi and ...

To better introduce the Chefs to the city of Los Angeles, Padma challenges them to create and open four distinct pop-up restaurants reflecting the culture of the respective neighborhoods they land in. Tom, Padma, Gail and guest judge and Pop-Up King Ludo Lefebvre eat their way through Mexican, Persian, Korean and even Vegan cuisine to pick the best dish that celebrates LA's mosaic of cultures.

The "Top Chef" California Road Trip embarks to its first destination: Santa Barbara. Stopping at the Harbor, the Chefs pick up fresh sea urchin to use in their first Sudden Death Quickfire Challenge. For the Elimination Challenge, the Chefs go from friends to enemies when "surf and turf" becomes "surf versus turf" as they serve to a daunting table of celebrated chefs and judges.

The chefs four-wheel into their second destination of their California Road Trip -- Palm Springs. In the heart of the desert, world-renowned chef Jose Andres tasks the cheftestants to use solar powered stoves for one hot Quickfire. Then, the Chefs must avoid culinary sand traps when they cook on a world-famous golf course. Chefs John Besh and Mary Sue Milliken join Tom Collichio, Padma Lakshmi and Richard Blais on the course.

Supermodel Chrissy Teigen entices the Chefs to make their best Quickfire "date" dishes. And in a Top Chef first, the Chefs cater a wedding for twenty five gay couples in an Elimination Challenge.

The chefs continue their California road trip and head south to San Diego where they cook-up the best high-end fish taco for renowned Mexican Chef Javier Plascencia. Things get extra spicy when another Sudden Death Quickfire threatens to send one of the chefs packing. Then Padma Lakshmi, Tom Colicchio, Richard Blais and Emeril Lagasse offer a toast with a twist to the remaining chefs with their own hand-crafted microbrews. For the Elimination Challenge at Blais' Juniper and Ivy, the chefs must serve up a mouthwatering dish to complement their ale.

The Chefs arrive back in Los Angeles to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Top Chef. First they compete in a restrictive Quickfire limiting them to 10 ingredients they all must share. Then, in the Elimination Challenge, the Chefs must transport themselves back in time and create a dish that tells the story of who they were 10 years ago. To continue the walk down memory lane, Top Chef alums Michael Voltaggio, Antonia Lofaso and Mei Lin Hua join Nancy Silverton and the rest of the judges to decide which Chef should be eliminated from the competition.

Instagram star Chef Jacques La Merde tasks the chefs with the ultimate plating challenge where they must create the most visually appealing food porn using only snack food. In an unprecedented twist, the winner of the Quickfire challenge was determined solely by the number of likes each dish received on Bravo's Instagram account. Then, Chef Neal Fraser tasks the chefs to cook for a black-tie bacchanal event called Beefsteak where the diners forgo silverware and eat with their hands. Colin Hanks, Max Silvestri, and Matt Selman are among the Hollywood elite who roll up ...

The iconic Restaurant Wars is back and bigger than ever. For the first time in Top Chef history, the Chefs are opening their restaurants for both lunch and dinner services. No one is safe as each chef must run front of house or act as the executive chef in one of the services. The pressure is on as two services means twice the drama.

After a busy day prepping and conducting a full lunch service, the Chefs must clean up and do it all over again for dinner. Never before have the Chefs taken on such a huge challenge, and the judges are looking at everything from concept and food, to service and consistency, so no one is safe in the most daunting Restaurant War to date.

After landing in the Bay Area, the Chefs head to Oakland to channel their inner rapper as they prepare a dish for Oakland native MC Hammer. He will decide which funky fresh dishes are too legit to quit. Then, Top Chef Master Jonathan Waxman enlightens the Cheftestants with a history lesson, asking them to step into a culinary time machine and cook from significant and influential international food eras.

The remaining chefs travel through San Francisco's legendary Chinatown and end up at World-Famous chef Martin Yan's M.Y. China to cook off using woks for a sizzling quickfire challenge. Then Umami Burger Restaurateur Adam Fleischman tasks the chefs to create their own Fast-Casual Restaurant Concept for hungry diners and investors.

In San Francisco, the five remaining Chefs face the ultimate Sudden Death Quickfire cooking for Top Chef Master Traci Des Jardins. Then, in the elimination challenge, the Chefs cook where Top Chef first began, at Hubert Keller's legendary restaurant Fleur de Lys, and are tasked to prepare a Fleur-inspired dish for the incomparable Keller, the judges and San Francisco culinary elite.

The three remaining chefs head to the finals in Las Vegas and are joined by the reigning champion of "Last Chance Kitchen" who returns to the competition to battle it out in a high stakes challenge of cards and cuisine. While the winner of the first challenge gets whisked to the finale, the other three move on to cook for the Master of Illusion, Sin City's headliner David Copperfield. The chefs must pull a winning dish out of their hats in order to secure the last spot in the finale.

It all comes down to this final faceoff. The last two Chefs must make the meal of their lives with help from their culinary mentors and fallen comrades to impress a room full of judges and important diners including Emeril Lagasse, Dominique Crenn, Jonathan Beno, Hubert Keller, Charlie Palmer, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and the Chefs' families.