Top Chef debuted in March of 2006 as a competitive culinary reality television program, and was met with critical and ratings success. The show earned the title of the highest rated food show on cable among Adults 18-49 and 25-54. Katie Lee Joel, the wife of famed musician Billy Joel, served as the host of the first season, but will not be returning for Season Two. She has been replaced by Actress and Award-wining writer Padma Lakshmi, and famed chef Tom Colicchio returns once again to serve as Head Chef, mentor and judge. Gail Simmons of Food and Wine magazine returns as a regular judge. There has not been a reason given for Katie Joel's absence during Season Two.



Bravo will be introducing Top Chef's viewing audience to fifteen of the country's most impressive rising culinary professionals, all who wish to claim the title of Top Chef won last season by Harold Dieterle. Dieterle has made effective use of his win on the reality program, and is now opening his Manhattan restaurant, Perilla, sometime in late 2006, early 2007.

New host Lakshmi, known as the first Indian supermodel, will be introducing the challenges to the contestants and also sitting at the judge's table each week. Lakshmi has culinary credentials in the world of cookbooks, and is currently completing her second cookbook for Miramax Books. She also has hosting experience, serving as the lead role on “Padma's Passport” on The Food Network and also on the documentary series “Planet Food” for the Discovery Channel.

Tom Colicchio will be guiding the judges through the cooking and service challenges, offering advice and critiques to the contestants. Each episode will also feature a guest judge, all well known figures in the food industry. The new season of Top Chef takes place in the city of Los Angeles, and the contestants will be serving up cuisine in some of the city's finest restaurants. As with most competitive reality shows, one contestant will be eliminated each week based upon his or her cooking and service skills (lack thereof) and one will be declared the winner. The finalists will face off in a grand finale and the winning chef will receive 100,000 in seed money to start their culinary career, be featured in Food and Wine magazine and appear at the Food and Wine Class in Aspen in 2007.

The range of ages for this season's top chef hopefuls is 23-46, and hail from the states of NJ, CA, FL and NY, among others.