Tonight Christopher Lee of Aureole in New York will battle 3 other chefs, Hubert Keller, Tim Love and Michael Schlow in Bravo's Top Chef Masters, a spin off of the hit series Top Chef. They will be battling to win money for their charities but more important they will be fighting for bragging rights to be called Top Chef Master.
The format of the show will be very similar to to Top Chef. There will be a quick-fire round, tonight's will involve desserts in some way, and then there will be an elimination competition. The quick-fire will showcase the chefs basic skills where the elimination round will highlight more of the chefs talent.
Chef Christopher Lee broke into the culinary world at the early age of fifteen. After working at various restaurants throughout college, Lee moved to San Francisco and attended the California Culinary Academy. After graduation, Lee relocated to the east coast where he worked at New York’s Jean-Georges and Daniel, and also served as chef de cuisine at Oceana under Neil Gallagher. At Philadelphia’s The Striped Bass, he acted as chef de cuisine under Alfred Portale and later became executive chef. Upon his return to New York City, Lee spent two years at Gilt where he earned the restaurant two Michelin stars. Chef Lee currently runs the kitchen at Aureole in New York, where his cuisine fuses high-concept thought and flavor pairing with a respect for purity and seasonality, always with the diner in mind.
The first six rounds of competition will each only have one winner and they will move on to the finals of Top Chef Masters. Then the winners will compete head-to-head to find out who is the Top Chef Master. Christopher Lee hopes to win because the winner get $100,000 donated to the charity of their choice. Christopher Lee will be playing for Autism Speaks.
