The fifth season of American reality television series Top Chef was filmed first in New York City, New York, and concluded in New Orleans, Louisiana. The first episode premiered on November 12, 2008 on Bravo.
Judges, guest judges and special appearances
Permanent judges
- Tom Colicchio (Head Judge)
- Padma Lakshmi (Host)
- Gail Simmons (Judge) (for the first half of the season and the finale)
- Toby Young (Judge) (for the second half of the season and the finale)
Guest judges
- Jean-Georges Vongerichten (Ep. 1 Elimination)
- Donatella Arpaia (Ep. 2 Quickfire and Elimination)
- Grant Achatz (Ep. 3 Quickfire and Elimination)
- Rocco DiSpirito (Ep. 4 Quickfire and Elimination and Ep. 14)
- Dana Cowin (Ep. 5 Elimination)
- Martha Stewart (Ep. 6 Quickfire)
- Natasha Richardson (Ep. 6 Elimination)
- Michelle Bernstein (Ep. 6 Elimination (filling in for Gail Simmons))
- Jean-Christophe Novelli (Ep. 7 Quickfire and Elimination)
- Hung Huynh (Ep. 8 Quickfire)
- Dan Barber (Ep. 8 Elimination)
- Stephen Starr (Ep. 9 Quickfire and Elimination)
- Scott Conant (Ep. 10 Quickfire and Elimination)
- Eric Ripert (Ep. 11 Quickfire and Elimination)
- Wylie Dufresne (Ep. 12 Quickfire and Elimination)
- Jacques Pépin (Ep. 12 Elimination)
- Lidia Bastianich (Ep. 12 Elimination)
- Marcus Samuelsson (Ep. 12 Elimination)
- Susan Ungaro (Ep. 12 Elimination)
- Emeril Lagasse (Ep. 13 Quickfire and Elimination)
- Hubert Keller (Ep. 14)
- Branford Marsalis (Ep. 14)
- Susan Spicer (Ep. 14)
- John Besh (Ep. 14)
- Tory McPhail (Ep. 14)
- Ti Martin (Ep. 14)
Special appearances
- The Foo Fighters
- Hosts from the Today Show, including Hoda Kotb, Meredith Vieira, Kathie Lee Gifford and Natalie Morales
- The Harlem Gospel Choir
- VIPs at the amfAR Fundraiser, including Miss Universe 2008 Dayana Mendoza, Designer Kenneth Cole, Broadway Actor Cheyenne Jackson, Model Maggie Rizer, and amfAR Founder Dr. Mathilde Krim
- Head Farmers at the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, including Craig Haney, and Jack and Shannon Algiere
Contestants
There were 17 chefs competing in Season 5. Names, ages, and hometowns below are from the Bravo website. In elimination order, the contestants were:
- Lauren Hope, 24 — Resides in: Savannah, GA (Hometown: Cincinnati, OH)
- Patrick Dunlea, 21 — Resides in: Hyde Park, NY (Hometown: Quincy, MA)
- Jill Snyder, 28 — Resides in: Baltimore, MD (Hometown: Latrobe, PA)
- Richard Sweeney, 27 — Resides in: San Diego, CA (Hometown: Sayville, NY)
- Alex Eusebio, 33 — Resides in: Los Angeles, CA (Hometown: New York, NY)
- Danny Gagnon, 26 — Resides in: New Hyde Park, NY (Hometown: New Hyde Park, NY)
- Melissa Harrison, 28 — Resides in: Boulder, CO (Hometown: Sparks, MD)
- Eugene "Gene" Villiatora, 33 — Resides in: Las Vegas, NV (Hometown: Whitmore Village, HI)
- Ariane Duarte, 41 — Resides in: Verona, NJ (Hometown: Verona, NJ)
- Radhika Desai, 28 — Resides in: Chicago, IL (Hometown: Chicago, IL)
- Jamie Lauren, 30 — Resides in: San Francisco, CA (Hometown: New York, NY)
- Leah Cohen, 26 — Resides in: New York, NY (Hometown: Scarsdale, NY)
- Jeff McInnis, 30 — Resides in: Miami, FL (Hometown: Niceville, FL)
- Fabio Viviani, 30 — Resides in: Moorpark, CA (Hometown: Florence, Italy) --Fan Favorite
- Carla Hall, 44 — Resides in: Washington, D.C. (Hometown: Nashville, TN) --Runner-Up
- Stefan Richter, 35 — Resides in: Santa Monica, CA (Hometown: Tampere, Finland) --Runner-Up
- Hosea Rosenberg, 34 —Resides in: Boulder, CO (Hometown: Taos, NM) --Winner
Credit Order: Alex, Jill, Daniel, Ariane, Patrick, Melissa, Hosea, Leah, Fabio, Radhika, Stefan, Jamie, Richard, Lauren, Eugene, Carla, Jeff
Contestant progress
- Note 1: Lauren was immediately eliminated by placing last in the Quickfire Challenge.
- Note 2: Team Sexy Pants was proclaimed the winning team on the show, but Verizon Wireless V CAST revealed that there were two individual winners: Radhika and Hosea. However, Bravotv.com states that all chefs from the winning team won the elimination challenge.
- Note 3: Due to a refrigerator malfunction which spoiled some of the chefs' ingredients during the Elimination Challenge, no one was eliminated. On air, the judges said they wouldn't eliminate any of the contestants as a "holiday gift" because they admired the way they had all helped the affected chefs when the refrigerator failed, and because they had all performed below expectations.
- Note 4: Because no one was eliminated in Episode 6 (see Note 3), two contestants were eliminated in this episode.
- Note 5: Leah, Jamie, and Jeff (the three most recently eliminated contestants) were brought back to the competition to compete in a Quickfire Challenge. The winner would compete in the subsequent Elimination Challenge, but could only move on to the Final Challenge if they won this challenge. Jeff won the Quickfire, and the judges picked him as one of their favorites in the Elimination Challenge, but did not select him to win. Consequently, he was eliminated automatically.
Episodes
Each episode includes two challenges. The Quickfire Challenge is a short, simple challenge with a varying reward each week; in the initial episodes of the season, it usually guarantees the winner immunity from being sent home that week. The Elimination Challenge is a more complex challenge that determines who goes home. One or more guest judges join the show each week to evaluate both the Quickfire and Elimination challenges. Each week's elimination is announced in a segment called "Judges' Table."
Episode 1: Melting Pot
- Quickfire Challenge: The chefs are welcomed to the Big Apple by host Padma Lakshmi and head judge Tom Colicchio with a signature ingredient: apples. The challenge is a skills tournament in three rounds. The chef who finishes first in the Quickfire Challenge will win immunity in the next challenge, while the chef who finishes last will leave the show "right and now."
- Round One: The chefs must peel 15 apples, using paring knives only, as quickly as possible. The first nine to finish will be safe. The remaining eight must go on to Round Two. Finishing order: Stefan, Fabio, Hosea, Ariane, Jeff, Melissa, Carla, Richard, Jamie. Stefan wins immunity for the next challenge.
- Round Two: The chefs must then brunoise the apples (dice them very finely) until they fill up two cups. The first four to finish will be safe. The remaining four must go on to Round Three. Finishing order: Danny, Alex, Eugene, Jill.
- Round Three: The remaining chefs (Lauren, Patrick, Radhika and Leah) are each given 20 minutes to "cook something that will convince that should stay here for this challenge in New York". They are given a burner, a saute pan, a choice of proteins and spices, and the apples they have prepared. After tasting, Tom chooses Leah and Radhika as the top two; both are safe from elimination. Lauren and Patrick, who knew each other as friends from culinary school, end up in the bottom two. Patrick's dish is chosen over Lauren's, so she is asked to pack her knives and go to the waiting ferry.
- WINNER: Stefan
- ELIMINATED: Lauren
- Elimination Challenge: Each of the chefs draws a knife from the knife block marked with one of eight New York City neighborhoods. The chefs teams must cook dishes which represent the ethnic cuisines of those neighborhoods: Astoria (Greek), Brighton Beach (Russian), Long Island City (Middle Eastern), Ozone Park (Latin), Jamaica (Jamaican), Little Italy (Italian), Chinatown (Chinese), Little India/Curry Hill (Indian). The two dishes from each neighborhood will be judged head-to-head. Chefs of winning dishes will be safe; chefs of losing dishes will be up for elimination.
- Pairs of Winners vs. Losers (in the order they presented their dishes), followed by the type of dish they were to make. The name of the winning chef for each dish is italicized .
- #1: Ariane vs. Stefan (Middle Eastern)
- #2: Richard vs. Jamie (Greek)
- #3: Jill vs. Radhika (Jamaican)
- #4: Fabio vs. Jeff (Latin)
- #5: Hosea vs. Carla (Russian)
- #6: Leah vs. Melissa (Italian)
- #7: Danny vs. Patrick (Chinese)
- #8: Alex vs. Eugene (Indian)
- At Judges' Table, Eugene, Leah, and Stefan were selected as the judges' favorites out of the eight winners.
- At Judges' Table, Ariane and Patrick were selected as the judges' l
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