The third season of American
reality television series Top Chef (also advertised as
Top Chef Miami) began airing on
Bravo on
June 13, 2007.
[1] Padma Lakshmi returned with
Tom Colicchio,
Gail Simmons and new judge
Ted Allen, who will switch off with Simmons throughout the season. First season contestant
Lee Anne Wong was brought in as a food consultant and assisted in planning the challenges. Production took place in April and May 2007 in
Miami Beach, Florida, with 15 contestants living, and the production activity centered, at the historic
Fontainebleau Hotel.
[1] As with Season 2, the winning recipe from each week's episode of Season 3 is featured on Bravo's
Top Chef website and prepared by Season 1 contestant
Lee Anne Wong in a web video called
The Wong Way to Cook. Another former contestant, Season 2's Carlos Fernandez, is featured on a
Yahoo!/
Telemundo blog called
Sabrosazon in which he presents recipes and writes about Season 3 in Spanish, as well as a Bravo blog called
Miami Spice in which he presents recipes in English.
As of this season, Simmons and Allen will alternate episodes beginning with the preview episode "Four-Star All Stars," which features a cookoff between teams of four top chefs from the first two seasons.[2]
The contestants for Season 3 were announced on May 9, 2007.[1] [3] In elimination order they are
Ages listed are at the time of Top Chef 3 taping in April-May, 2007. Locations are according to contestants' official Bravo biographies.
