Top Chef: New York - Season 5

Product Description

The world-class culinary competition only gets hotter in TOP CHEF: NEW YORK - the No. 1 food show on cable - as 17 new cheftestants head to the Big Apple to test their skills and compete for culinary stardom.

Featuring some of the biggest names in food and entertainment, including Martha Stewart, Foo Fighters, Jean-Georges, and Rocco DiSpirito, the fifth season of this Emmy®-award winning series welcomes newbie Toby Young (How to Lose Friends and Alienate People) to the judges' table alongside host Padma Lakshmi, head judge and celebrity chef Tom Colicchio, and Gail Simmons. Each episode features two challenges for the chefs: a Quickfire test of basic abilities and an Elimination Challenge designed to test versatility and inventiveness as the chefs take on unique culinary trials, such as working with unusual and exotic foods or catering for a range of demanding clients.

In the most challenging season yet, the cheftestants battle to prove they have what it takes to be crowned the next Top Chef.

Special Features

• Exclusive Cookbook
• Never-Aired Stew Room Footage
• Extended Interviews
• Cooking Demonstrations
• PC Game Demo

DISC ONE: Melting Pot / Show Your Craft / Foo Fighters Thanksgiving / Today Show / Bonus
DISC TWO: Gail's Bridal Shower / 12 Days of Christmas / Focus Group / Down on the Farm / Bonus
DISC THREE: Restaurant Wars / Super Bowl Chef Showdown / Le Bernadin / The Last Supper / Bonus
DISC FOUR: Finale Part 1 / Finale Part 2 / Watch What Happens / Bonus

Each episode consists of a quickfire challenge and an elimination challenge. The quickfire challenges test the chefs' culinary techniques and palates as well as their ability to think on their feet and create winning dishes with very little time and some particularly odd ingredients. The elimination challenges give the chefs more time but test their versatility and creativity, requiring them to cater to groups such as rock's Foo Fighters and other Top Chef contestants and highly regarded food legends; to cook in specific styles that may lead them far from their comfort zones; to employ highly exotic ingredients; to make do with severely limited kitchens; or to engage in the highly competitive restaurant wars at the very last moment, among other trials.

Just as entertaining as the food challenges are the unpredictable interactions between contestants, which range from unlikely friendships to romantic liaisons and ugly shouting matches. This fifth season gives rise to several burning questions: can a person get voted out for serving deviled eggs or s'mores in a cooking contest? Is making an ostrich egg omelet original enough to keep a contestant in the competition? Is the Top Chef competition all about food, or does service count, too--and if so, how much does it count? Is this purely a cutthroat competition between chefs, or is there room for compassion and maybe even a little holiday spirit? Bonus features include footage and interviews from inside the eliminated cast house, extended interviews with the top four chefs, some pretty amusing stew room footage, and cooking demonstrations of selected contestants' dishes on "The Wong Way to Cook." The DVD also comes with a cookbook insert that features five recipes from past Top Chef seasons. --Tami Horiuchi