Tournament of Champions is an American reality cooking competition series broadcast by Food Network. Created and hosted by Guy Fieri, the series features alumni of other Food Network competition series competing in a single-elimination tournament for a grand prize in a blind-judged competition.
The competition has been unique in that as of 2025 it has been won exclusively by women chefs. The result has been attributed to various factors such as the blind tasting and speculation about women being socialized to multitask. Winners have been Brooke Williamson, Maneet Chauhan, Tiffani Faison, Mei Lin, and Antonia Lofaso.
Format
The competition is a single-elimination tournament consisting primarily of alumni or champions of other cooking competition series (particularly, those aired by Food Network).[1] In each match, the two participating chefs must cook a dish with parameters determined by "the Randomizer"—a slot machine-like board with five reels that are spun by Fieri to determine the key factors of each match, which have included required protein and produce ingredients, required equipment, cooking style, the time limit, and "Wild Card" elements (such as additional styles or ingredients, re-spinning selected reels, etc.). When time expires, the completed dishes are judged and scored blind by a panel of judges (usually three) to determine the winner.[2]
For the sixth season, the geographic divisions were eliminated,[3] and all four previous season winners exited the competition to take on other roles in the production. Tiffani Faison became a sideline reporter and Maneet Chauhan, Brooke Williamson, and Mei Lin became judges.[4]
Analysis of results
The competition has been called remarkable for the domination by women chefs, which is not common in American televised cooking competitions. According to AP News, it is "the only cooking competition series that includes people of all genders where no man has ever won, let alone made it as a top-two finalist."[5] It speculated that the reason had to do with the blind tasting; judges not only do not know whose dish they are judging in a given round but also don't even know the competition's roster, which allows for no subconscious bias.[5] Results in other American televised cooking competitions tend to favor male chefs; 71% of the winners of Top Chef and 60% of the winners of Chopped, both of which use non-blind judging, have been men.[5]Maneet Chauhan, who won the competition twice, believes the format requires the ability to multitask, a skill she believes women are socialized to develop.[5]
Justin Warner and Simon Majumdar act as the sideline reporters, delivering real-time play-by-play to the live audience, and presenting and explaining the dishes to the judges during the blind tasting.
Justin Warner and Simon Majumdar return as the sideline reporters, delivering real-time play-by-play to the live audience, and presenting and explaining the dishes to the judges during the blind tasting.
Note: In their first quarterfinal match, Tila and Lofaso tied with 93 and with identical distributions of scores, so they competed again with a new set of randomizer ingredients.
Justin Warner and Simon Majumdar return as the sideline reporters, delivering real-time play-by-play to the live audience, and presenting and explaining the dishes to the judges during the blind tasting.
Justin Warner and Simon Majumdar return as the sideline reporters, delivering real-time play-by-play to the live audience, and presenting and explaining the dishes to the judges during the blind tasting. Hunter Fieri joins as backstage reporter, interviewing the winning chefs of their reactions.
Justin Warner and Simon Majumdar returned as the sideline reporters, delivering real-time play-by-play to the live audience, and presenting and explaining the dishes to the judges during the blind tasting. Hunter Fieri returned as backstage reporter, interviewing the winning chefs of their reactions.
The Season 5 champion was Maneet Chauhan, the first repeat winner of the competition.[7]
Justin Warner returned, with Season 3 champion Tiffani Faison joining him as sideline reporters, delivering real-time play-by-play to the live audience, and presenting & explaining the dishes to the judges during the blind tasting. Hunter Fieri returned as backstage reporter, interviewing the winning chefs of their reactions. Simon Majumdar took on a new role as the judges' correspondent, getting reviews from judges as to why a dish received a win or a loss.
For the final battle, a fourth judge--Martha Stewart--was brought in to decide the winner and Season 6 champion, Antonia Lofaso.[9]
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