New ‘Top Chef’ Spinoff Features Already Top Chefs

Bravo has just announced the premiere of a next-level Top Chef spinoff, Top Chef Masters, featuring already-famous chefs in a Top-Chef-style competition. Can they get mileage out of a concept or what?

Our favorite twist: The judges will include a host of TV writers, producers, and actors, including lovable self-parody Neil Patrick Harris.

San Francisco has a few dogs in this fight, including Elizabeth Falkner (Citizen Cake, Orson), and Hubert Keller (Fleur De Lys). The Bay Area also represents with Cindy Pawlcyn, of Mustards Grill, in Napa.

Check out the full list of cheftestants after the jump.

- Rick Bayless – Frontera Grill, Chicago, Ill.

- Wilo Benet – Pikayo, San Juan, Puerto Rico

- John Besh – Restaurant August, New Orleans, LA

- Graham Elliot Bowles – Graham Elliot Restaurant, Chicago, Ill.

- Michael Chiarello – Bottega Restaurant, Yountville, Calif.

- Michael Cimarusti – Providence, Los Angeles, Calif.

- Wylie Dufresne – wd~50, New York, N.Y.

- Elizabeth Falkner – Orson, San Francisco, Calif.

- Hubert Keller – Fleur de Lys, San Francisco, Calif.

- Christopher Lee – Aureole, New York, N.Y.

- Ludo Lefebvre – Ludo Bites, Los Angeles, Calif.

- Anita Lo – Annisa, New York, N.Y.

- Tim Love – The Lonesome Dove Western Bistro, Fort Worth, Texas

- Rick Moonen – Rick Moonen’s RM Seafood at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, Nev.

- Nils Noren – French Culinary Institute, New York, N.Y.

- Lachlan McKinnon Patterson – Frasca Food & Wine, Boulder, Colo.

- Cindy Pawlcyn – Mustards Grill, Napa Valley, Calif.

- Mark Peel – Campanile, Los Angeles, Calif.

- Douglas Rodriguez – Alma de Cuba, Philadelphia, PA

- Michael Schlow – Radius Restaurant, Boston, Mass.

- Art Smith – Table Fifty-Two, Chicago, Ill.

- Suzanne Tracht – Jar, Los Angeles, Calif.

- Jonathan Waxman – Barbuto, New York, N.Y.

- Roy Yamaguchi – Roy’s Restaurants, San Diego, Calif.

[Photo: Elizabeth Falkner, via Bravo]

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New ‘Top Chef’ Spinoff Features Already Top Chefs