Top Chef is an Emmy and James Beard Award winning Bravo reality show where 17 chefs compete in a weekly series of challenges. Each show features an initial "Quickfire Challenge," which is a test of basic cooking skills and provides the winning chef with either immunity from elimination for the week or an advantage going into the week's "Elimination Challenge," which makes up the show's second half and tests the chefs versatility and inventiveness. Besides cooking skills, they are also judged on their customer service, management, and teamwork abilities.

They are judged by a panel of professional chefs, including Padma Lakshmi, Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons, and food and wine industry celebrities, which this season have included Wolfgang Puck, Todd English, Natalie Portman, Daniel Boulud, Penn & Teller, Hubert Keller, Laurent Tourondel, Tim Love, Michelle Bernstein, Tyler Florence, Charlie Palmer, Paul Bartolotta, Nigella Lawson and Jerome Bocuse. http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/season-6/about At the end of each show, one chef is eliminated; at the end of the series, one chef is named Top Chef.

This season the chefs take on Las Vegas Past seasons have taken place in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami Beach, Chicago and New York City.

Michael Voltaggio

The episode began, not with a quickfire challenge, but by having the three remaining contestants team up with elimiated chefs. The challenge was to develop a three course meal. The next day, the three remaining chefs were greated by their moms and told to create a fourth Mom-inspired dish.

While Kevin did well in the first course, he lost ground later on. But all three chefs were really judged on a combination of the performance in the final challenge and on their overall body of work.

Michael was named Season 6's Top Chef and will receive an editorial feature in Food & Wine Magazine, $125,000 furnished by Glad, a suite of Kenmore kitchen appliances by Sears, $100,000 in merchandise by Macy's, a culinary tour of the French Alps provided by Evian, and the opportunity to appear at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, CO.

1. Season 1: Harold Dieterle
2. Season 2: lan Hall
3. Season 3: Hung Huynh
4. Season 4: Stephanie Izard
5. Season 5: Hosea Rosenberg

Padma Lakshmi is an model, actress, chef, and cookbook author. At 16, her modeling career began when she was discovered by a modeling agent while in Spain. Since then, she has modeled for Helmut Newton, a world famous photographer. She has also appeared in Vogue, Elle, In Style, and other top magazines. As a runway model, she has walked for a number of famous designers, including Ralph Lauren, Alberta Ferretti, Herve Leger, Valentino, and others. http://www.lakshmifilms.com/padma_lakshmi.htm One Her more recent modeling choices has been to pose nude for Allure magazine back in May 2009.

She has appeared in a number of Hollywood and Bollywood films and television shows, besides her time on Top Chef. Her other roles include http://www.lakshmifilms.com/padma_lakshmi.htm:

Sharpe's Challenge (2006) (TV) as Madhuvanthi

The Ten Commandments (2006) (TV) as Princess Bithia

The Mistress of Spices (2005) as Geeta

Boom (2003) as Shiela Bardez

Enterprise (2002) episode "Precious Cargo" as Kaitaama

Glitter (2001) as Sylk

As an author, Padma has written several cookbooks including Tangy, Tart, Hot and Sweet: A World of Recipes for Everyday (2007), Low Fat Recipes from Around the World (2000), and has co-authored several Top Chef books with Tom Colicchio http://www.lakshmifilms.com/padma_lakshmi.htm

Tom Colicchio is a chef and cookbook author who taught himself to cook using Jacques Pépin's illustrated manuals on French cooking, [[La Technique and La Méthode]]. At 17, he was cooking at his first restaurant in Elizabeth, N.J. After that, he cooked at some very famous restaurants in New York, including The Quilted Giraffe, Gotham Bar & Grill, Rakel, and Mondrian. In 1994, he opened his first restaurant in Gramercy Park, called Gramercy Tavern. He won the James Beard award in 2000 for Best Chef - New York.

His cooking books include 'wichcraft: Craft a Sandwich into a Meal and a Meal into a Sandwich (2009), Think Like a Chef (2007), Notes and Recipies from a Restaurant Kitchen (2003), along with several books from Top Chef.

Gail Simmons is a Special Projects Manager from Food & Wine magazine. She joined the magazine back in 2004. As projects manager, she oversees the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, CO., which is where the winner of Top Chef gets to showcase his or her talents. Prior to joining the magazine, she wrote food articles for Toronto Life and Canada's National Newspaper, the National Post. She also trained as a food critic under Jeffrey Steingarten at Vogue and apprenticed Le Cirque 2000 and Vong http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/bio/gail-simmons restaurants. She has contributed to several cookbooks including the Top Chef books.