Watch the Trailer for Season 16 of “Top Chef”

Elisabeth Sherman
Elisabeth Sherman
Elisabeth Sherman is a food and culture writer living in Jersey City.
updated Jun 7, 2019
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The latest season of Top Chef brings our beloved judges, Padma Lakshmi, Tom Colicchio, and Graham Elliot (Gail Simmons was on maternity leave during filming), to Kentucky for what looks like a whiskey-soaked battle for kitchen supremacy.

As the newly released trailer for the show seems to suggest, the Top Chef kitchen is as high pressure as ever: Tempers flare, the chefs scramble to complete the challenges, and ingredients are lost in the rush. This is the kind of drama we expect from Top Chef.

Yet this season has a lighter side, too: We also catch a glimpse of Christmas sweaters, a ’20s-era flapper-style celebration, and a summer day spent swimming at the lake. The chefs will even be whisked away to Macau for part of the season. No one knows how to party better than a chef, after all.

This season the chefs hail from a diverse set of backgrounds, including Brooklyn, Miami Beach, Iowa, and Minnesota. Here is the full list of participants, according to Eater.

  • Sara Bradley (Paducah, Kentucky)
  • Eric Adjepong (Washington, D.C.)
  • Kelsey Barnard Clark (Dothan, Alabama)
  • Edmund “Eddie” Konrad (Philadelphia)
  • Pablo Lamon (Miami Beach)
  • Natalie Maronski (Philadelphia)
  • Michelle Minori (San Francisco)
  • Nini Nguyen (Brooklyn, New York City)
  • Brandon Rosen (San Mateo, California)
  • Kevin Scharpf (Dubuque, Iowa)
  • Caitlin Steininger (Cincinnati, Ohio)
  • Justin Sutherland (St. Paul, Minnesota)
  • David Viana (Old Bridge, New Jersey)
  • Adrienne Wright (Boston)
  • Brian Young (Boston)

As usual, the winner will take home a check for $125,000 and be featured in a spread in Food & Wine magazine.

Fans will also be treated to a few special guests: Culinary superstars Emeril Lagasse and Eric Ripert, country singer Hunter Hayes, boxer Laila Ali, and Master of None breakout star Lena Waithe will all serve as guest judges. Former Food & Wine editor-in-chief, Nilou Motamed, will take over Simmons’ judging duties.

The new season of Top Chef premieres on December 6 at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.

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