Top Chef Master!!!

I am a HUGE fan of Top Chef on Bravo so when I first heard about Top Chef Master months ago (I actually found it on accident reading the Wikipedia page of Kelly Choi, random I know) I was very excited. Then I did not hear anything about it...until now.

On the LATimes Show Tracker page on Wednesday, they provided some great details about the new show featuring "world-renowned chefs" hosted by Kelly Choi (yay for more good looking Asian people on television). New York Magazine food critic Gael Greene, Saveur magazine Editor in Chief James Oseland and British food critic Jay Rayner will be the judges.

The show will premiere on June 10 at 10pm. Guest judges slated to appear are Neil Patrick Harris, Zooey Deschanel, "Lost" writers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, "Flipping Out's" Jeff Lewis, all of the previous "Top Chef" winners, and of course, Tom Colicchio, Padma Lakshmi and Gail Simmons.

There are a lot of competitors on this show so the producers have changed some things from the original series.Bravo's press release states:

In each episode, money will be at stake for the chefs, with the winners of eliminations being awarded cash donations for their charities. The first six episodes will consist of four chefs competing against each other to name one winner. The six winners of each episode will then meet up for the final four weeks when one person will get eliminated each episode until the finale where one winner is crowned Top Chef Master. The winning chef will receive $100,000 for the charity of his or her choice.

Some competing chefs that I am excited to see: Rick Bayless, Michael Chiarello, Wylie Dufresne, Elizabeth Falkner, Hubert Keller, Christopher Lee, Anita Lo, Art Smith, and Roy Yamaguchi. I was actually hoping David Chang would be competing, but maybe he needs more years to be considered "world renowned."

It's going to be interesting to see these chefs compete since most of them have appeared as guest judges on the show before. I can't wait!

[image via bravotv.com]