Tonight was the premiere of Top Chef Masters. Top Chef Masters brings together 24 world renown chefs competing for the title of Top Chef Master and a prize of $100,000 to be donated to a charity of their choice. For the next few weeks we will see six rounds of competition with 4 chefs each. Each week one chef will emerge as the winner and they advance to the championship round where 6 finalists will battle for Top Chef Master.

These are some of the best chefs in the United States and abroad. Some of these chefs have served as guest judges on Top Chef and now the tables have been turned. This week’s cheftestants are:

Michael Schlow, named Best Chef in the Northeast in 2000 by the James Beard Foundation. In addition Food & Wine magazine named his restaurant, Radius, “Best New Restaurant”. Michael attended the Academy of Culinary Arts in New Jersey after giving up a career in baseball with a 92 mph pitching arm.

Michael is raising money for the Cam Neely Foundation.

Hubert Keller has been a guest chef on Top Chef several times. Of French descent, Kelly is one of the best chefs here in the United States. His restaurants, Fleur de Lys in San Francisco, the Burger Bar in Las Vegas, St. Louis and San Francisco and his newest restaurant, the SLeek Steakhouse and Ultra Lounge to be opening in St. Louis.  He has one several awards, notably the James Beard Foundation lifetime achievement award.

Huber’s charity is the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Tim Love, chef owner of The Lonesome Dove Western Bistro  and The Love Shack in Forth Worth, TX. When he opened his restaurant in 2000, his place has consistently achieved one of the highest Zagat ratings of any restaurant in the Dallas/Forth Worth area.

Tim is competing for the March of Dimes.

Christopher Lee is our fouth contestant this evening. A graduate of the California Culinary Academy, he had worked with renown chefs like Jean-Georges and Daniel, Oceana, The Striped Bass, Gilt and is now at Aureoloe in New York. He earned two Michelin Starts while at Gilt. Christoper is competing for Autism Speaks.

First up is our Quickfire Challenge. Each week, they will be picking a notable Quickfire Challege from the first 5 seasons of Top Chef. One of the most hardest competitions in a quickfire is Dessert. After moans and groans from our chefs, they learn they have 1 hour to come up with a dessert dish suitable for their guest judges, 4 Girl Scouts!

Everyone looks like they are stressing out, but Michael is the one who looks like he is sweating bullets. Hubert seems calm as does Tim. Chris comes next with Michael constantly wiping his forehead of sweat. Michael had problems getting his cake to cook and his ice cream wouldn’t firm up. Is Michael going to lose this one? In the end, he presents a plate, but not what he wanted.

Michael’s Dessert: Milk Chocolate Cake, Peanut Butter Chocolate Candies & Honey Almond Cream

Tim made a trio of Strawberry desserts: A Strawberry Shake, Fried Chicken Strawberry Tender with a Chocolate Dipping Sauce and ending with a Chocolate Dipped Strawberry.

Hubert’s dessert was by far the best in presentation in my opinion. He made a chocolate Mousse Swan, Whipped Cream Mouse and Fruit with an Orange Sabayon.

Christoper’s dessert was French Toast with Caramelized Banana, Orange Sauce & Maple Syrup Fluff

Boy these girls were rough! They held nothing back and that was so sweet. There was this one scout that was so critical that the chefs said she was going to grow up to be a New York Times Critic! Haha. After the girls scored the desserts, Michael came in with 2.5 stars for his “cake”; Christopher and Tim tied for 3.5 stars and Hubert wins the Quickfire with a perfect 5 stars!

So now we come to our Elimination Round. Kelly Choi, our hostess with the mostest, reveals that they will be cooking a 3 course meal at Pomona College but they only have a microwave, a toaster oven and one hot plate to work with. They will have a budget of $150 each and will a very limited pantry at the college. They will shop today and the next day they will have 2 hours to prep and serve their food.

After a mad dash to the local Whole Foods, it’s kinda funny seeing them running around looking a bit lost. Most of these chefs don’t shop at a grocery store, much less to it themselves! They get back to the Top Chef kitchen and put their food away for the evening. The next morning, the chefs start packing up and Tim Love discovers that he put his food in the freezer and not the fridge. When he took his bags out of the “fridge” everything was frozen. While his meats would be ok, the vegetables are the items that will have suffered the most damage. He will have the hardest task of making a 3 course meal out of fresh, now frozen vegetables.

They get to Pomona College and find that they are cooking their meals in dorm rooms!! No way! They get there and find themselves in 4 separate dorm rooms equipped with a microwave, toaster over, a hot plate, some pots and pans, prep bowls and lots of Gladware. They start their prep as they have 2 hours to get everything ready on on the table for the critics and students.

Everyone is running around as much as they could in their cramp quarters, but the munniest scene is when Hubert Keller cooks some pasta but needs a place to drain and cool down the pasta. So what does he do? He heads to the bathroom and walks into the shower and uses it to cool down his pasta. But he doesn’t just use the shower, he takes the hand held showerhead and sticks it into the bowl of pasta! Yes, into the bowl of pasta. Ewwww…..who knows where that showerhead has been. GROSS!

The chefs complete their dishes and have the following to present to the critics and judges.

Tim Love: Scallop Carpaccio with Lime and Chili;Squash & Corn Pozole; Skirt Steak & Braised Kale

Michael Schlow: Salmon Crudo with Cucumber Mint, Red Chiles & Kumquat;Cabbage Soup with Smoked Bacon, Fennel & White Beans; Pork a la Apicius with Broccolini & Mushrooms

Christopher Lee: Red Snapper Ceviche with Citrus Juices, Avocado & Popcorn; Creamy Risotto with Prosciutto, Sage and Parmigiane-Reggiano; Prok Chop with Pipérade, Crushed Potatoes, Mache & Fennel Seed

Hubert Keller: Fresh Scottish Salmon Mi Cuit over Creamy Whole Grain Mustard; Hearty Carrot & Petite Pea Soup with Cinnamon Croutons; Creamy Mac & Cheese with Prawns, Mushrooms and Fresh Herbs

Our critics for this round are Jay Rayner, Restaurant Critic for The Observer; Gael Greene, renown New York Restaurant Critic; and James Oseland, editor-in-chief of Saveur Magazine.

When all the tasting was done, our students scored the food and the critics headed over to the Critics Table. The scores from the students and the critics will be added to the Quickfire Elimination points. The chef with the most points at the end of the evening will be our winner.

Michael Schlow started with 2.5 stars. After the critics chimed in he ended up with 13.5 stars. Tim Love started with 3 stars. Critics brough him up to 14.5 stars. Michael is sent to the kitchen to pack his knives.

Next up is Christopher Lee who started with 3.5 stars. After the critics and students chimed in he ends up with a score of 19. Tim is sent back to the kitchen. This leaves us with Christopher and Hubert.

Hubert Keller started with 5 stars and ends up with 20.5 stars. Christopher is sent home and Hubert Keller is the winner of this round and advances to the Champions Round for the $100,000 grand prize. For this win his charity earned a $10,000 donation to his charity. The other three chef’s charities also received a donation that was not disclosed.

I really enjoyed this version of Top Chef. It was nice to see well-seasoned (haha) chefs battle it out against each other. There is a certain camaraderie that exists amongst them that also is very endearing to me. I am always in awe of anything Hubert Keller makes, but please pull that hairback when cooking! I always fear I will find hair in my food! Christopher Lee is very cute in my opinion.

So next week we have four new chefs. What quickfire challenge will they get and who moves to the Champions Round.