Top Chef Masters Season 2, Episode 9: Improv

First Date Dinner

The chefs are tasked with using aphrodisiac ingredients while creating dinners that would be appropriate for a first date.

It's My Party

The chefs cater a celebrity birthday party. This time it’s Mekhi Phifer and he’s requesting a soul food-themed feast for his birthday party. The chef’testants up to bat tonight are David Burke, Marcus Samuelsson, Monica Pope, Thierry Rautureau and Carmen Gonzalez.

Pub Food

Convincing high-brow clients of pub grub's merits is tonight's seemingly impossible challenge for the chefs as they try to show that flair and flavor can be found in other than haute cuisine. Competing chefs, Graham Elliot Bowles, Jonathan Waxman, Ludo Lefebvre, Mark Peel, Rick Moonen and Wylie Dufresne are tasked to reimagine old-school pub grub.

Cast and Crew Meal

op Chef Masters Season Two there are only five chefs left to compete in the first level for the final two spots in the champion round. Susur Lee, Rick Tramanto, Maria Hines, Debbie Gold, and Jody Adams. All but Susur have been awarded a James Beard. The chefs dabble in craft service as they prepare meals for the cast and crew of ABC's Modern Family.

Wedding Wars

Top Chef's brutal tag team relay begins the first champions round Quickfire, followed by the dreaded wedding elimination challenge—the first time the master chefs have seen this particular trial—and this time there's no cheats: the person with the lowest score packs their knives, so everyone must put his or her best dish forward… even if it is a wedding cake.

Scary Surf & Turf

The chefs are asked to create Quickfire dishes inspired by Simpsons characters who then judge them, and then they must turn their skills toward making offal tasty in a surf & turf presentation.

Tailgating

It's a Quickfire with a very specific focus: the leg. Once the chefs have butchered and prepared their dishes, they must then turn their skills to an even bigger challenge, preparing a tailgate feast for college football fans.

60 min

Food of the Gods

The Masters are challenged to create a divine dish inspired by a Greek God. The blind taste test returns with the "Name That Ingredient" Quickfire, and then the chefs look to Greece and the ancient gods as inspiration for their elimination dishes.

60 min

Top Chef Master

The remaining three chefs face their final challenge.

60 min