Bio - Rick Moonen

From 1994 to 2005, Moonen earned 3 stars from the New York Times for his work at Oceana, Molyvos, and RM in New York City. Moonen was the executive chef at the Water Club and his passion and vocalization of sustainable seafood practices led him to publish Fish Without a Doubt in 2008. Sensitive to consumers’ home cooking needs, the cookbook is intended to serve as inspiration to chefs for their cooking choices. In February 2005, Chef Moonen opened his multi-level restaurant Rick RM Seafood at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

Bio - Cindy Pawlcyn

Cindy Pawlcyn is widely recognized as a pioneer of wine country cooking and one of the first proponents of the farm to table philosophy. Pawlcyn began cooking at the tender age of 13-years-old, and through college and self-study was able to work alongside the likes of James Beard and Julia Child. Pawlcyn is the author of four widely acclaimed cookbooks – The Fog City Diner Cookbook, Mustards Grill Napa Valley Cookbook, Big Small Plates, and her newest, Cindy Pawlcyn’s Appetizers. She is also the executive chef and owner of three Napa Valley restaurants – Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen, Go Fish, and Mustards Grill each of which uses her extensive kitchen gardens.

Bio - Christopher Lee

Chef Christopher Lee broke into the culinary world at the early age of fifteen. After working at various restaurants throughout college, Lee moved to San Francisco and attended the California Culinary Academy. After graduating, Lee relocated to the east coast where he worked at New York’s Jean-Georges and Daniel, and also served as chef de cuisine at Oceana under Neil Gallagher. At Philadelphia’s The Striped Bass, he acted as chef de cuisine under Alfred Portale and later became executive chef. Upon his return to New York City, Lee spent two years at Gilt where he earned the restaurant two Michelin stars. Chef Lee currently runs the kitchen at Aureole in New York, where his cuisine fuses high-concept thought and flavor pairing with a respect for purity and seasonality, always with the diner in mind.

Bio - Tim Love

Travel to Tim Love’s The Lonesome Dove Western Bistro in Fort Worth, Texas and you’ll find him donning a cowboy hat instead of a chef’s toque. Love is best known for his urban spin on traditional western dishes and has put Fort Worth on the national culinary map.

Bio - TC Masters Judge James Oseland

James Oseland has been the editor-in-chief of Saveur magazine since 2006. Prior to that, he was the magazine’s executive editor. He has also been an editor at Vogue, Organic Style, Sassy, and Mademoiselle. In 2006 his book, Cradle of Flavor: Home Cooking from the Spice Islands of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, was published and went on to win awards from the James Beard Foundation and the International Association of Culinary Professionals and was named one of the best books of that year by Time Asia, the New York Times, Good Morning America, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and others.

Oseland has appeared on the Today Show and as a judge on Iron Chef America, and is a regular guest on radio programs, including The Splendid Table. He has lectured on a variety of culinary topics at the Asia Society, the Abergavenny Food Festival in Wales, Slow Food Nation, and the Culinary Institute of America’s Worlds of Flavor conference. Before becoming a journalist, Oseland wrote, ghostwrote and acted in numerous films, including Guncrazy (starring Drew Barrymore).

Oseland holds a BFA and MFA in photography and film studies from the San Francisco Art Institute. A California native, he has lived in India and Indonesia and now calls Williamsburg, Brooklyn home.

Bio - TC Masters Judge Jay Rayner

Jay Rayner is a British journalist, writer and broadcaster who has written for a wide range of British newspapers and magazines such as GQ, Esquire, Cosmopolitan, The New Statesman and Granta. After graduating from Leeds University in 1988, he joined The Observer newspaper for whom he now reviews restaurants. In 2006 he was named Critic Of The Year in the British Press Awards.

His first novel, The Marble Kiss, was shortlisted for the Author's Club of Great Britain First Novel Award and his second, Day of Atonement published in 1998, for the Jewish Quarterly Prize for Fiction. He is also the author of the novels The Apologist, (known in the US as Eating Crow) and The Oyster House Siege, as well as the non-fiction work Stardust Falling. He won a Sony Radio Award in 1997 for "Papertalk," BBC Radio Five Live's magazine program about the newspaper business.

He regularly appears as one of the food critics on Masterchef, and was on the panel of critics who made up the "enemy" on the daytime cooking show Eating with the Enemy. Most recently, Rayner came out with The Man Who Ate the World, a tour of the world's greatest restaurant cities and his search for the perfect meal. The paperback edition will be published this summer.

Bio - TC Masters Judge Gael Greene

As New York Magazine's famed restaurant critic for over 30 years and the Insatiable Critic Columnist, Gael Greene has gone to great lengths to conceal her identity so that no restaurateurs can identify her. A best-selling author, Greene has written Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Ice Cream But Were Too Fat To Ask, The Mafia Guide to Dining Out and Nobody Knows the Truffles I've Seen.

Greene often documents her global travels with photographs by the professional street photographer, Steven Richter. Their work has appeared in magazines that include Travel & Leisure, Food & Wine, Diversions, Departures and Food Arts.

She co-founded Citymeals-on-Wheels with James Beard and remains a continuing force serving as board chair. Greene has made a significant impact on the city of New York through her work with the organization, rallying food world peers to make a commitment to help feed the city's homebound elderly, and devoting as many hours to fund-raising in recent years as she does to writing. Citymeals, the largest public/private partnership in the country, has raised $150 million in its twenty –four year history to help feed the city's frail elderly shut-ins. For her work with Citymeals, Greene has received numerous awards and was honored as the Humanitarian of the Year (l992) by the James Beard Foundation. She is the winner of the International Association of Cooking Professionals magazine writing award, 2000, and received a Silver Spoon from Food Arts magazine.

Greene's memoir, Insatiable, Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess, was published in April 2006. Earlier non-fiction books include Delicious Sex, A Gourmet Guide for Women and the Men Who Want to Love Them Better and BITE: A New York Restaurant Strategy. Her two novels, Blue skies, No Candy and Doctor Love were New York Times best sellers.

Bio - TC Masters Host Kelly Choi

Kelly Choi is an acclaimed food journalist and creator, producer and host of NYC TV's weekly restaurant show Eat Out NY. A former model, Choi recently finished her first book The 20 Most Delicious Dishes in New York, which is set to hit stores in spring of 2009.

As producer and host of Eat Out NY, Choi chooses every restaurant featured on the program, then ventures to the back of the house – the kitchen – to prepare a dish with the chef. She is also host of the nationally syndicated and Emmy award-winning Secrets of New York, a weekly show that reveals little-known facts and mysteries about Manhattan. Topics include secrets of the city's subway system, skyscrapers, sewers, and even jails.

Choi has been a judge on Iron Chef America, and has received multiple Emmy nominations from the New York chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for her work on NYC TV. Born in Seoul, Korea, Choi won the Elite Modeling Agency’s “Look of the Year” contest, and has been voted as "One of the Sexiest New Yorkers" by the New York Post. She has a Masters degree in magazine writing from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.

Announcing Top Chef Masters!

BRAVO DISHES PREMIERE OF
"TOP CHEF MASTERS" WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10 AT 10 PM

24 World-Renowned Competing Chefs Revealed Along
With Guest Stars Neil Patrick Harris, Zooey Deschanel, Morgan Spurlock, And For The First Time Together All "Top Chef" Winners

NEW YORK – April 7, 2009 – Calling all foodies…it's time to salivate! "Top Chef Masters," the spin-off series of the Emmy and James Beard Award-winning No. 1 food show on cable, "Top Chef," will premiere on Wednesday, June 10 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. The judges' table has finally turned – and we'll see what happens when these top chefs are now on the other side. "Top Chef Masters" will pit 24 world-renowned chefs against each other and see how well they fare in the tried and true format of "Top Chef." In each episode, money will be at stake for the chefs, with the winners of eliminations being awarded cash donations for their charities. The first six episodes will consist of four chefs competing against each other to name one winner. The six winners of each episode will then meet up for the final four weeks when one person will get eliminated each episode until the finale where one winner is crowned Top Chef Master. The winning chef will receive $100,000 for the charity of their choice.

“Top Chef Masters” will feature guest stars and judges Neil Patrick Harris, Zooey Deschanel, "Lost" writers and executive producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, “Flipping Out’s” Jeff Lewis, and for the first time, all past "Top Chef" winners will be together during an episode. The series will also showcase chef'testant fan favorites as well as appearances by “Top Chef’s” Tom Colicchio, Padma Lakshmi and Gail Simmons.

"On 'Top Chef,' the biggest names in the industry join us as guests to pass judgment on the chef'testants,” said Dan Cutforth, Executive Producer, Magical Elves. "Now we'll get to see how they handle equally tough challenges."

"We are thrilled to have such an amazing line up of celebrated chefs putting their reputations on the line for their charities,” said Jane Lipsitz, Executive Producer, Magical Elves. "'Top Chef Masters' will take the kitchen competition to the next level."

To meet the cast of "Top Chef Masters," visit www.BravoTV.com. Photography and bios are available at www.nbcumv.com.

Following are the 24 "Top Chef Masters" competing chefs:

 Rick Bayless – Frontera Grill, Chicago, Ill.
 Wilo Benet – Pikayo, San Juan, Puerto Rico
 John Besh – Restaurant August, New Orleans, LA
 Graham Elliot Bowles – Graham Elliot Restaurant, Chicago, Ill.
 Michael Chiarello – Bottega Restaurant, Yountville, Calif.
 Michael Cimarusti – Providence, Los Angeles, Calif.
 Wylie Dufresne – wd~50, New York, N.Y.
 Elizabeth Falkner – Orson, San Francisco, Calif.
 Hubert Keller – Fleur de Lys, San Francisco, Calif.
 Christopher Lee – Aureole, New York, N.Y.
 Ludo Lefebvre – Ludo Bites, Los Angeles, Calif.
 Anita Lo – Annisa, New York, N.Y.
 Tim Love – The Lonesome Dove Western Bistro, Fort Worth, Texas
 Rick Moonen – Rick Moonen’s RM Seafood at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, Nev.
 Nils Noren – French Culinary Institute, New York, N.Y.
 Lachlan McKinnon Patterson – Frasca Food & Wine, Boulder, Colo.
 Cindy Pawlcyn – Mustards Grill, Napa Valley, Calif.
 Mark Peel – Campanile, Los Angeles, Calif.
 Douglas Rodriguez – Alma de Cuba, Philadelphia, PA
 Michael Schlow – Radius Restaurant, Boston, Mass.
 Art Smith – Table Fifty-Two, Chicago, Ill.
 Suzanne Tracht – Jar, Los Angeles, Calif.
 Jonathan Waxman – Barbuto, New York, N.Y.
 Roy Yamaguchi – Roy's Restaurants, San Diego, Calif.

Kelly Choi, food journalist and creator, producer and host of NYC TV's weekly restaurant show "Eat Out NY," will host this highly competitive spin-off uniting some of the brightest stars in the world of food, showcasing the often cutthroat world of the culinary arts. A former model, Choi recently finished her book called "The 20 Most Delicious Dishes in New York," which is set to hit stores in spring of 2009.

Joining the judges' panel is Gael Greene, New York Magazine's famed restaurant critic for over 40 years, a best-selling author and co-founder of Citymeals-on-Wheels, which provides food to the homebound elderly. James Oseland, culinary expert and Editor-in-Chief of Saveur magazine, and British journalist, writer and broadcaster Jay Rayner, will also serve as regular judges for the series.

Each episode of "Top Chef Masters" holds two challenges for the chefs. The first is a twist on the classic "Top Chef" quickfire challenge which tests their basic abilities – for example in season 2 of "Top Chef" where the chef'testants had to create an amuse bouche out of items from a vending machine. Each quickfire challenge will be judged by a blind taste test and a five-star system, similar to fine dining reviews.

The second challenge is a more involved elimination challenge designed to test the versatility and invention of the chefs as they take on unique culinary trials such as working with unusual and exotic foods or catering for demanding clients. The food will be tasted and evaluated by the judges and a wide range of tasters for whom the challenge is aimed, whether it is patrons at a five-star restaurant or a room full of hungry kids – the food has to appeal to the diner as well as the critics if the chef is to survive.

This season, www.BravoTV.com will host a "Top Chef Masters" B-Hive sponsored by Stacy’s® Pita Chips where viewers can host weekly viewing parties for their fellow food-obsessed friends, including provided party kits, game ideas, and more! Fans can also visit the site weekly to find out how to make each winning dish through video demonstrations. Visitors will be able to watch interviews of the eliminated chefs and the winning chefs of each challenge. The tables turn with "Rate the Plate," where the user can determine which dishes were the best each week. Also, fans can play "Memory Match" and test their foodie and chef knowledge with our challenging — and addictive — IQ quizzes. Television Without Pity (www.televisionwithoutpity.com) will recap each episode in their signature snarky tone.

"Top Chef Masters" fans can visit m.bravotv.com from their web-enabled phone for exclusive content including trivia games, video and behind-the-scenes dish. Viewers will also be able to voice their opinion each week with live voting and later share their vote with Facebook friends on www.BravoTV.com.

"Top Chef Masters" is produced by the Emmy-nominated Magical Elves. Dan Cutforth, Jane Lipsitz and Shauna Minoprio serve as executive producers. "Top Chef" head judge, renowned culinary figure and chef/owner Craft Restaurants Tom Colicchio serves as consulting producer.

A-List Chefs

Padma and the Season Five cast of Top Chef were on the red carpet at the A-List Awards taping in Los Angeles last night. Tune in to Bravo on April 15th for the show.