Just when I was starting to cringe at what the summer television lineup had to offer, Bravo came to the rescue with "Top Chef Masters." A spin-off of the network's extremely successful Top Chef franchise, Master's is 24-chef tournament that pits some of the best and brightest cooking stars from across the country against one another to see whose kitchen prowess is truly top of the line.

For those who are familiar with the "Top Chef" format, "Masters" maintains the show's Quickfire and Elimination challenges, but the scoring and setup is a little different. Each of the first six episodes will feature four chefs, with one winner moving on to the final round.

In last night's episode we met the first four contestants: Hubert Keller, Christopher Lee, Tim Love, and Michael Schlow. Keller, well known for his renowned Fleur de Lys restaurants in San Francisco and Las Vegas, narrowly beat out Lee to advance to the final round.

Enough recapping! Let's get to some thoughts on the "Top Chef" Masters season premiere:

Image © Bravo

-Where are Tom Colicchio and Padma Lakshmi? There's no doubt I'm really excited about this "Top Chef" spin-off, but it doesn't feel the same without two of my favorite TV personalities. Hopefully, they're busy filming another season of the regular "Top Chef" (fingers crossed!).

-That said, who is this new host and why is she relevant to a food show? A quick look at Kelly Choi's bio reveals that she is an acclaimed food journalist and is also the producer/host of a weekly television show in New York called "Eat Out NY." OK, fine, she sounds qualified (and used to be a model, just like Padma), but I still the two regulars.

- I love that "Masters" kept the Quickfire and Elimination challenges. I was apprehensive that Masters would stray too far from what has made "Top Chef" so popular, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

-At first glance, I had never heard of the first four chefs. Hubert Keller, however, has been a guest judge on "Top Chef" before, so he must be really legit. It's too bad that Masters couldn't get some of the über-chefs like Thomas Keller (no relation to Hubert), Eric Ripert, Mario Batali, Masaharu Morimoto, Colicchio (that would've been the greatest thing ever), Gordon Ramsay, and so on. How awesome would it have been to see these guys with huge egos get torn apart at the judges table?!

-I'm sure Tim Love is great at what he does and he's clearly very successful, but it didn't seem like he had a chance against the three other classically trained chefs. His food looked amateur compared to the other dishes.

-The judges - Gael Greene, Jay Rayner, and James Oseland - seem like they're going to be great. They handed out a lot of criticism but were also very complimentary when it was well deserved. I'm excited to see if any of the contestants will receive a five-star rating during any of the Elimination challenges this season.

-Where are the patented sound effects from "Top Chef?" My personal favorite, which I've dubbed "The Open Window Noise," was nowhere to be found!

That's all for now, but keep checking in to throughout the season to see what's going on with "Top Chef Masters."

Story by Phil McRae

Starpulse contributing writer

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