No. of episodes 17 No. of contestants 24 Air date November 7, 2012 Host Padma Lakshmi | Original network Bravo Winner Kristen Kish Number of episodes 17 Country of origin United States of America | |
 | ||
Original release November 7, 2012 (2012-11-07) – February 27, 2013 (2013-02-27) Judges Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons, Emeril Lagasse, Hugh Acheson, Wolfgang Puck Winner Kristen Kish | ||
Top Chef: Seattle is the tenth season of the American reality television series Top Chef. The season was announced on September 19, 2012, and premiered on November 7, 2012. The competition was initially filmed in Seattle, Washington before moving to Juneau, Alaska for three episodes, and then concluding in Los Angeles, California. Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen, the web series introduced in the previous season which puts the eliminated contestants against each other in head-to-head challenges to battle for a chance to re-enter the main competition, also returned. The winner continued to compete in the season finale. In addition, viewers could vote each week for chefs eliminated from the Last Chance Kitchen to move on in the "Save a Chef" competition. The winner of the final vote was "saved", and earned a spot in the final round of the Last Chance Kitchen. In the season finale, Kristen Kish was declared the Top Chef, defeating Brooke Williamson. Sheldon Simeon received the Fan Favorite Award.
Contents
Contestants
The cast of the tenth season of Top Chef initially consisted of 21 contestants. After the qualifying challenges in the first episode, the pool of chefs was narrowed down to 15. Former Top Chef competitors Josie Smith-Malave (Top Chef: Los Angeles), Chris "CJ" Jacobson (Top Chef: Miami), and Stefan Richter (Top Chef: New York) joined the competition during the second episode. Brooke Williamson, Sheldon Simeon, and John Tesar later returned to compete in Top Chef: Charleston. All three made it to the final part of the season, where Tesar finished in fourth, Simeon finished third, and Williamson was the season's winner.
Contestant progress
^Note 1 : The chef(s) did not receive immunity.
^Note 2 : Due to the qualifying rounds, the show did not use its traditional elimination format until the second episode.
^Note 3 : Former contestants CJ, Josie, and Stefan entered the competition following the Quickfire Challenge.
^Note 4 : Due to the poor quality of the dishes served in the Elimination Challenge, no winner was declared.
^Note 5 : Kristen won Last Chance Kitchen and returned to the competition.
Last Chance Kitchen
The Last Chance Kitchen is a web series featuring challenges (available for viewing on BravoTV.com) in which the ousted chefs compete for a chance to get back into the competition. Each week, two or more chefs compete against each other in the Top Chef kitchen, with the results judged solely by Tom Colicchio. The winner of each week moves on to face the next eliminated Top Chef contestant(s), while the loser is eliminated from the competition for good. However, the winner of "Save a Chef", a competition in which fans vote to save their favorite chef eliminated from the Last Chance Kitchen, automatically advances to the final round. The champion of the Last Chance Kitchen is allowed to re-enter the main competition and compete for the grand prize.