Returning: Top Chef Masters

Top Chef Masters returns to Arena this week for season 5 with 13 new award-winning chefs ready to compete for bragging rights.

Aussie  chef Curtis Stone is back as series host joined by new head critic Gail Simmons, with returning judges James Oseland, Ruth Reichl, and Francis Lam, and new judge, food and dining editor Lesley Suter.

This season celebrity guest judges include Kathie Lee Gifford, Stone’s wife Lindsay Price and the cast of Days Of our Lives.

In the fifth season the stakes are higher and there even are more dishes to serve up. In a new twist, each Master will have his or her sous chef compete in an online competition, “Battle of the Sous Chefs,” hosted by Hugh Acheson. These online episodes will screen exclusively at www.arenatv.com.au

This time it’s on the sous chefs to serve up the best plate. The results of each online episode directly impacts the Masters, awarding them advantages, such as immunity and sometimes, disadvantages, depending on their sous chef’s performance.

Every online episode of “Battle of the Sous Chefs” leads up to the next television episode of Top Chef Masters, and explores the uniquely interdependent relationship between a Master chef and his or her sous chef.

In this season, the Master chefs face off in some of the most difficult and unique challenges seen thus far and they’re serving up food for some top entertainers and celebrity guest judges including, Busy Philipps, Kathie Lee Gifford, Lindsay Price, the cast of Days Of our Lives and Ali Larter.

The series pits 13 world-renowned chefs against each other to see how well they fare in fierce culinary competition. Each week will whittle down the chefs until the finale where one winner is crowned “Top Chef Master” and receives the grand prize of $100,000 for their charity.

Friday August 23 at 8.30pm on Arena.