Things come in threes. Regular Top Chef, Top Chef Junior, and now, Top Chef: Masters, debuting spring 2009. Sounds like a fusion of the Iron and Top Chefs. "Award-winning, widely-renowned" cheftestants compete, not dudes you don't recognize (but eventually learn to love deeply). Do the celeb chefs have time for television, on top of cookbook deals, blogs, and big deal kitchens? Will Bravo change its name to Top Chef-o?... More

©iStockphoto.com/Veni Remember the Real World locale guessing game? "I heard Los Angeles! No, it's totally New Orleans, stupid." The same intrigue and mystery now follows Top Chef, except sources like food blog Snack and now Grub Street have revealed that season five will in fact call New York home. Come July, you can whip out your camera phones and start stalking the wandering knife cases.... More

"I talk to Stephanie all the time, Richard just emailed me pictures of his new baby, who is so cute. Dale and I are totally cool, I've seen him four times in the last couple of weeks. Andrew and I are fine, he gives me a big hug every time I see him. It's all good." More

Tom announces that the final challenge will be simple: Create a four-course tasting menu for nine diners, starting with fish, moving to poultry, then red meat, and finishing with dessert—with three famous chefs serving as assistants. More

Do you love Top Chef, and yet sometimes find yourself ruminating, "Man, are the contestants old!" Then Top Chef Junior has your name on it. Bravo announced today the development of its new competition series, where teens will compete for the Top Chef title and accompanying prizes and fame. A docu-series is also in the works. If Jackie Warner of Workout fame gets a show about running a gym, then why shouldn't Jean-Christophe Novelli star on a show about opening a cooking school? Bravo executives think he should. With Top Chef as the number one food show on cable, Bravo is seeking to expand their food domain. Frances Berwick, the executive vice president and general manager of Bravo Media, made... More

The season finale of Top Chef: Chicago is tonight of course. If you'd like to catch up on what's gone down in previous episodes, check out Serious Eats' Top Chef coverage here, including Lisa's infamous denunciation of food bloggers "who can't even afford to eat in my restaurant, let alone know how to cook." After the jump, our predictions on who will win.... More

The Los Angeles Times profiles Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi, glossing over her past as a former model and actress who made the transition to cookbook author, and now as a judge on the popular Bravo TV series. She also drops the news that she's developing a new show where "a group of fun, eclectic people come over to her house for a dinner party; we watch her prep, get ready and guests arrive and eat; maybe someone plays music."... More

Most people are surprised that she's made it this far—the finals of this season of Top Chef—what with her back-stabbing and pettiness. Everybody seems to hate her; bloggers don't seem to be fans; commenters everywhere seem to generally despise her. Maybe Bravo's producers painted her as the villain, but when asked by the New York Daily News if she's read the reactions online, Top Chef contestant Lisa Fernandes responded: Oh no, I don't read the blogs—you couldn't pay me to read the blogs. I don't want to know what people who can't even afford to eat in my restaurant, let alone know how to cook have to say about me, and the few comments I did read on Eater.com... More

Time has passed. Fauxhawks have changed hue. Do-rags have been discarded. Hair has been shorn. Other than that, it's a remarkably familiar bunch that arrives in sunny Puerto Rico for Top Chef's penultimate competition. More

As this week's episode begins, there's just one more elimination before the remaining four chefs head to the finals in Puerto Rico. On the way to the Top Chef kitchen, the group makes a side trip to Allen Brothers, a well-known meat purveyor in the Chicago area. Here, the contestants don hair nets, gird their loins, and sharpen their knives before heading into the back to cut some steaks. More