Every season of Top Chef Masters ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best seasons of Top Chef Masters!

In the premiere episode of "Top Chef Masters," Hubert Keller (Fleur de Lys), Christopher Lee (Aureole), Michael Schlow (Radius Restaurant), and Tim Love (The Lonesome Dove Western Bistro) are the first four chefs to draw knives and kick off a whole new level of culinary competition. The Master chefs are tasked with cooking dessert for a tough crowd of judges, Girl Scouts, and in the elimination challenge the acclaimed chefs must cook a three course meal in a college dorm room.

Masters Get Schooled

Top Chef season two's "Less is More" influences tonight's quickfire challenge, but there won't be any Cheetos in melted chocolate bars tonight as the next four chefs are asked to create an elegant amuse-bouche from vending machine fare. Then it's on to the elimination challenge where the show Lost acts the muse.

The Lost Supper

Tonight's quickfire challenge for the next group of four chefs comes from season four's "Seven", asking them to make a dish using color. Then they must sell upmarket street food using offal as the base ingredients.

Offal Tasty

In the Quickfire, the four chefs take a page from season three's special "4 Star All Stars" when they find themselves manually challenged when they must cook an egg with one hand tied behind their backs- literally! Then it's on to a magically themed Elimination with Neil Patrick Harris as guest judge.

Magic Chef

The chefs are challenged to turn classic junk food items into fine-dining cuisine. The cast of Flipping Out are the diners for this challenge. Then, the chefs are challenged to create a mini 3-course "meal" for 100 people, without any help whatsoever. The meal must be based on an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert.

Miniaturize Me

The chefs are challenged to create a dish using items found in only one aisle of the grocery store, Whole Foods, with each chef drawing knives to determine their aisle. However, they only have a budget of $20. The diners for this challenge are workers at Whole Foods. Then, the chefs are challenged to make a meal using ingredients one of their fellow chefs have chosen for them with each chef drawing knives to see who they get paired with.

Trick in a Box

The top six chefs get a surprise as they prepare to cook their signature dishes.

Champions Round Begins

The five remaining chefs engage in a battle of burgers; guests actress Zooey Deschanel and filmmaker Morgan Spurlock.

Dietary Restrictions

The four remaining chefs are challenge to identify ingredients blindfolded. Afterward, the chefs will be tested on their leadership talents and teaching skills when they cater an event.

Masters of Disaster

Top Chef Master

The chefs are tasked with using aphrodisiac ingredients while creating dinners that would be appropriate for a first date.

First Date Dinner

The chefs cater a celebrity birthday party. This time it’s Mekhi Phifer and he’s requesting a soul food-themed feast for his birthday party.  The chef’testants up to bat tonight are David Burke, Marcus Samuelsson, Monica Pope, Thierry Rautureau and Carmen Gonzalez.

It's My Party

Convincing high-brow clients of pub grub's merits is tonight's seemingly impossible challenge for the chefs as they try to show that flair and flavor can be found in other than haute cuisine. Competing chefs, Graham Elliot Bowles, Jonathan Waxman, Ludo Lefebvre, Mark Peel, Rick Moonen and Wylie Dufresne are tasked to reimagine old-school pub grub.

Pub Food

op Chef Masters Season Two there are only five chefs left to compete in the first level for the final two spots in the champion round. Susur Lee, Rick Tramanto, Maria Hines, Debbie Gold, and Jody Adams.  All but Susur have been awarded a James Beard. 

The chefs dabble in craft service as they prepare meals for the cast and crew of ABC's Modern Family.

Cast and Crew Meal

Top Chef's brutal tag team relay begins the first champions round Quickfire, followed by the dreaded wedding elimination challenge—the first time the master chefs have seen this particular trial—and this time there's no cheats: the person with the lowest score packs their knives, so everyone must put his or her best dish forward… even if it is a wedding cake.

Wedding Wars

The chefs are asked to create Quickfire dishes inspired by Simpsons characters who then judge them, and then they must turn their skills toward making offal tasty in a surf & turf presentation.

Scary Surf & Turf

It's a Quickfire with a very specific focus: the leg. Once the chefs have butchered and prepared their dishes, they must then turn their skills to an even bigger challenge, preparing a tailgate feast for college football fans.

Tailgating

The Masters are challenged to create a divine dish inspired by a Greek God.  The blind taste test returns with the "Name That Ingredient" Quickfire, and then the chefs look to Greece and the ancient gods as inspiration for their elimination dishes.

Food of the Gods

Taking inspiration from Top Chef Chicago's season four, the remaining chefs must use unusual pairings from Los Angeles' The Groundlings improv troupe to create dishes.

Improv

The remaining three chefs face their final challenge.

Top Chef Masters is back with a brand new host, new judge and a new format -- so why not start the competition off with something familiar, the most notorious of all Top Chef challenges, Restaurant Wars? These master chefs have opened their share of award-winning restaurants, but nothing could have prepared them for the pressure that’s on now. With their egos on the line, the knives come out right out of the gate.

Restaurant Wars

The masters are in for a treat this week when two high-profile celebrities visit the top chef kitchen. Pop Star and trained chef, Kelis, drops by to judge a very meaty quickfire challenge and then Mad Men actress, Christina Hendricks and her husband, actor Geoffry Arend, enlist the help of the cheftestants in a special '60s-themed Elimination Challenge.

Everything Old is New Again

Crickets, nightcrawlers and beetles, oh my! These master chefs are used to cooking with the finest ingredients, but in this week's Quickfire they’re forced to make a delicious dish out of some horrifying creatures. The Elimination Challenge however, makes it all worthwhile when the chefs compete to sell their dishes for $100 a plate at a charity fundraiser. For every plate they sell, the money they receive goes directly to their charity of choice and these chefs are in to win it.

Diners to Donors

Eating healthy is a challenge that people face every day. For this week’s Elimination Challenge, the cheftestants must prove nutritious food can still taste good. The remaining masters will be broken up into three teams of three to prepare breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the cast of The Biggest Loser, but that’s not all, all three meals, when added up, cannot exceed the daily allotment of 1500 calories a day.

Biggest Loser

Master chefs know how to work under pressure, but how well can they do fast food? This week’s Elimination Challenge puts the cheftestants to the test in a traditional Southern California eatery, the drive-through. The cheftestants will have to operate a fast food drive-through, from the grill to serving up their best meals and all in less than two minutes.

Would You Like Fries With That?

The tables are turned in this week’s Quickfire when the cheftestants become the judges and have to critique their fellow chefs. Then in the Elimination Challenge, the remaining contestants are in for a double dose of surprises. Pop Rock group Maroon 5 drops by and challenges the chefs to create a feast fit for a rock star, but it's not that easy. Once again the tables are turned and the chefs are taken out of kitchen and brought to a surprise location to prepare their meals.

I'm With the Band

In this week’s Quickfire Challenge the chefs must use each of their five senses to identify mystery ingredients -- however they can only use one of their senses at time. In the Elimination Challenge, the masters help a man propose to his unsuspecting girlfriend on her favorite show, Top Chef Masters. In a six-course meal, the chefs must create dishes that reflect different stages of the couple’s relationship, but could one bad dish

ruin the whole plan?

Date Night

The ace culinarians delve into science and technology by utilizing modern-day kitchen gadgetry to whip up breakfast. Later, they tap into old-school chemistry at a science fair to render culinary creations.

Blinded Me With Science

A Soldier's Story

My Life as a Chef

Twelve renowned chefs battle in culinary challenges in Las Vegas in the Season 4 opener. Here, the masters play a card game to score ingredients, then they create an extravagant buffet for some of Sin City's hottest performers.

The Buffet Must Go On

The meal mavens prepare cuisine for a wedding.

You May Now Feed The Bride

They can cook, but can they put on a show? The Chefs will be split into teams of 3 and have their skills put on full view as they cook up a 3-course meal to serve VIP guests at the most challenging of chef’s tables, a Teppanyaki. With only 30 minutes to put on a delicious and dazzling show, they’ll be serving some of our favorite Top Chef Masters along with our critics. Special guest judges include: Olympic gold medalist Brian Boitano and acclaimed chefs May Sue Milliken, Susan Feniger, Rick Moonen, Jonathan Waxman.

What Would Brian Boitano Eat?

This week, the Chefs are tasked with taking ordinary salad bar ingredients and making them “pop” for music legends, the B-52’s. Then the Chefs will take a trip to the Grand Canyon for a cookout like never before. The Chefs will be paired up to cook for the Hualapai tribe, using ingredients from the tribe’s sacred land.

Grand Canyon Cookout

In this week’s Quickfire challenge the Chefs must make a dynamic duo dish for a couple of dynamic musicians – The Indigo Girls. For the elimination challenge, the Chefs are tasked with making a whimsical all-you-can-eat - bottomless bloodys & mimosas brunch at an upscale sexy pool party, hosted by Ms. Vegas, Holly Madison. Bikini-clad servers will serve the chefs’ creations to Holly’s friends lounging poolside. Special guest judges include The Indigo Girls and Holly Madison.

Holly Madison's Pool Party

On this week’s episode, the chefs will be creating an aphrodisiac dish using known aphrodisiac ingredients. The chef whose dish really turns them on will be the winner for this challenge. Lotus of Siam is a legendary Nevada Culinary landmark that has amassed award after award. For this Elimination Challenge, our chefs will be faced with the task of creating their own Thai restaurant in the Top Chef Masters kitchen and attempting to create their own versions of classic Thai dishes. Special guest judge is Dita Von Teese.

Thai One On

This week the chefs will battle it out -- facing off in a boxing ring to serve our critics and boxing champ, Sugar Ray Leonard. The winner of the first match will compete against the winner from the second match in a third match for the win and $10,000. The losers from the first and second match will face off one last time to determine who will be sent packing. Special guest judge is Sugar Ray Leonard.

Culinary Knock Out

It's getting down to the wire -- this week, the chefs will participate in one of the world's greatest underground dining events: a Diner en Blanc. For our Masters to take on this Diner en Blanc, each chef will create a picnic style meal with abundant ingredients to create an epic feast and pack it up for the first ever Diner en Blanc picnic in Vegas.

Foodie Flash Mob

The ace chefs instruct a mystery guest to make a dish in the penultimate Season 4 episode. Later, they mentor culinary students.

Old School, New School

The winning chef is named in the Season 4 finale. Before that, the final two culinarians battle it out by creating a dish with the help of staffers from their own restaurants back home.

Finale

Thirteen chefs arrive in Los Angeles to participate in culinary heats in the Season 5 opener. Here, the foodies take flight by cooking outdoors for a professional skydiving team and are given the opportunity to dive from the sky themselves. In Season 5, the chefs also have sous-chefs who will compete in their own online competition.

Sous Chefs and Skydives

The chefs create classic American cuisine with an Asian spin.

Asian Night Market

Soap-opera themes inspire culinary creations. Appearing: the cast of "Days of Our Lives.

Sex, Greed and Murder

As every chef knows, curry is difficult to hurry, but the chefs are challenged with making their version of curry in 30 minutes for this week’s Quickfire Challenge. Host Curtis Stone is not easy to surprise, but the tables are turned on him this week as fiancée Lindsay Price and the chefs team up to throw Curtis a surprise engagement party he won’t forget.

Curtis Surprise Party

The epic "Restaurant Wars" challenge tasks the foodies to open eateries with a Los Angeles theme. Appearing: actress Busy Philipps and culinary editor Dana Cowin.

Mindy Kaling and Yo Gabba Gabba

Special guest judge actress Ali Larter challenges the chefs to elevate nachos for their Quickfire. Then the chefs get totally tubular as they cook up the catch of the day for Malibu locals. Divided in to pairs, they have to create a dish with a hot and cold preparation of the same fish, and hope that the critics’ response is better than lukewarm.

Catch of the Day

The winner of this week’s Battle of the Sous Chefs challenge, along with their Top Chef Master, get to create today’s Quickfire. Then, the chefs face a culinary body slam, as they create dishes with a Mexican flair for the wrestlers of Lucha Vavoom.

Lucha Vavoom

The chefs serve up their version of a burger for a surprise guest critic. Also: The culinarians pay tribute to teachers through food; and three contestants advance to the finale.

Teacher Tribute

Season 5 comes to a close with the final three master chefs creating memorable dishes from their personal and professional lives, after which the winner is revealed.

Top Chef Masters is an American reality competition series that airs on the cable television network Bravo, and premiered June 10, 2009. It is a spinoff of Bravo's hit show Top Chef. In the series, world-renowned chefs compete against each other in weekly challenges. This show is a contrast from Top Chef, which typically features younger professional cooks who are still rising in the food service industry.

The Best Seasons of Top Chef Masters

The Best Seasons of Top Chef Masters

Season 4

Season 2

Season 1

Season 3

Season 5