Top Chef, Season 18

"Top Chef" is back with 15 of the country's best chefs ready to compete in Portland, Oregon.  For their first Quickfire Challenge, the cheftestants are immediately thrown into teams and tasked with combining their favorite ingredients together in one cohesive dish for Padma and Portland local Gregory Gourdet.  For their Elimination Challenge, the chefs will try not to "quack" under pressure as they're asked to create a dish featuring one of Portland's iconic local birds.  Their dishes will be served in a blind tasting for the judges and the new dining panel of "Top Chef" all-star winners, finalists and favorites.  Season 17 winner Melissa King joins Padma, Tom and Gail at the judges' table to help decide who will be the first chef to pack their knives and go.

The Chefs are in for a rude awakening when they enter the kitchen to find Padma and seven hungry all-star chefs - Amar Santana, Melissa King, Kwame Onwuachi, Dale Talde, Gregory Gourdet, Carrie Baird and Richard Blais.  In this Quickfire the chefs will have just 30 minutes to serve eight plates of breakfast.

The pressure is laid on the chefs in the Quickfire Challenge as they are tasked to make a layered dessert.  Carrie Baird joins Padma to pick the winner, who will get their dish turned into a Talenti gelato to be sold nationwide.

For the Quickfire Challenge, the chefs must create a dish featuring Campbell's Soup for Padma and guest judge Dale Talde.

Amar Santana joins Padma for this week's Quickfire Challenge honoring Mother's Day and one of Portland's nicknames "City of Roses."  The chefs are tasked to create a dish featuring roses or rose products inspired by the mother figure in their lives.

The chefs are transported into a magical kitchen forest with their prep tables gone and replaced by stumps for this week's Quickfire Challenge where they must make a dish featuring Tom's favorite ingredient - mushrooms.

The winner of the first part of Last Chance Kitchen rejoins the competition just in time for their "second chance" Quickfire Challenge where the Chefs are tasked with redoing a past failed dish for guest judge Melissa King.

With the top eight chefs remaining, it's time for the perennial favorite - Restaurant Wars. This year, the chefs are split into teams and tasked with creating a Chef's Table restaurant concept where they will serve a seven course high-end tasting menu to the judges and All-Star panel.

For this week's Quickfire Challenge, Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein from the hit comedy series "Portlandia" task the chefs with creating a dish using hipster ingredients using only old vintage appliances and equipment.

Tom, Gail and Richard Blais join Padma for the Quickfire Challenge where the chefs must go head-to-head to satisfy the judges' cravings with a dish featuring Chipotle's 53 real ingredients.

This week's Quickfire Challenge takes inspiration from "Top Chef" France's infamous Black Box challenge. In teams of two, the chefs each take a turn entering the box where they blindly taste a dish created by guest judge Gabriel Rucker and then must try to recreate it.

As the final four chefs near the end of their journey in Portland, Padma is joined by Vitaly Paley and Gregory Gourdet to introduce an old school Quickfire Challenge paying homage to the Oregon Trail.

The remaining chefs get an early wake-up call from Padma to go meet guest judge Brooke Williamson and dig for clams for their Quickfire Challenge.

After 13 grueling weeks of competition, the chefs must create the best four-course meal of their lives for their final challenge at Willamette Valley Vineyards.