Alexis Hernandez – Union City, New JerseyDoreen Fang – Los Angeles, CaliforniaDzintra Dzenis – Austin, TexasDarrell Smith – Los Angeles, CaliforniaPaul Young – Chicago, IllinoisBrianna Jenkins – Atlanta, GeorgiaSerena Palumbo – New York, New YorkBrad Sorenson – Austin, TexasAria Kagan''' – Hollywood, Florida
Camera Challenge: The finalists must present themselves on a plate, using chicken and potatoes, then do a 30-second camera demo.
*Winners: Aria and Herb
Star Challenge: The finalists are divided into two teams with Aria and Herb as captains. Each team must cater a six-course lunch for celebrity chefWolfgang Puck in the style of California cooking. Before the cooking, they film a 15-second promo for their show, to be presented at the lunch.
*Winners: Grey Team
*Winner: Aria
*Eliminated: Alexis
Original Air Date: June 6, 2010
Week 2: Sweet to Savory Carnival
Camera Challenge: Using Giada's recipe for vegetable lasagne, each contestant had one minute to demo a step to camera.
*Winner: None
Star Challenge: Using a carnival fortune telling machine, chef Duff Goldman assigns each contestant a typical carnival sweet, which they must reinterpret as a savory dish, to be served to 100 guests at a party on the Santa Monica Pier.
Camera Challenge: Each chef must create a dish inspired by a movie genre drawn from a box of popcorn and present the dish to camera.
*Winner: Aarti
Star Challenge:Guy Fieri sends each contestant down a simulated red carpet to see how they relate to the camera and fans. Later, each chef selects a "swag" bag that contains a secret ingredient. The chefs are paired based on the colors of their bags, and must prepare a dish using on their own ingredient and a collaborative dish using both ingredients, to be served at the post-Grammy party featuring Colbie Caillat.
*Winners: Brianna and Herb
*Eliminated: Dzintra
Original Air Date: June 20, 2010
Week 4: Spicy Competition
Camera Challenge: Each chef must select a different chile and cook a dish, to be presented to camera, that best presents that chile.
*Winner: Brianna
Star Challenge: Groups of three chefs are assigned to a guest chef: Susan Feniger, Jonathan Waxman or Eric Greenspan, and must compete head-to-head to most successfully reinvent the best dish their assigned chef ever ate.
*Winners: Aarti, Brad and Aria
*Eliminated: DAS
Original Air Date: June 27, 2010
Week 5: Lunch Trucks with Paula
Camera Challenge: The contestants had to make their own product to present live to an audience and to a camera in three minutes. After they made the product and before they presented, Giada De Laurentiis, told them what they should do the next day to advance and win the challenge.
*Winners: Aarti and Tom
Star Challenge: The contestants are paired up, and Paula Deen presents the challenge: develop a four-item menu to be served out of a lunch truck. The teams must select a suitable name for their truck, then open for business at lunch time along Venice Beach.
Camera Challenge: The contestants are assigned a picnic basket containing three ingredients, and assigned an event. Using the ingredients, they must make a small bite appropriate to the event.
*Winners: Brad and Tom
Star Challenge: The contestants were sent to the former Palm Springs residence of Frank Sinatra to cook and present a modernized version of a classic dish from the 1950s and 1960s.
Camera Challenge:Melissa D'Arabian joined the contestants to present an array of breakfast cereals. Each was assigned a cereal, and given 20 minutes, the timeline of a busy working mother, to create a dinner.
*Winner: Aarti
Star Challenge: As camera challenge winner, Aarti led the team as they prepared a six-course dinner for a group of foodies, including chefs and restaurant owners at "Smog Shoppe", the location for an underground supper club meeting.
Camera Challenge: Giada De Laurentiis asked each contestant to cook a dish using their point of view. She then interrupted them and asked them to incorporate their least favorite ingredient to their dish. They then brought the relatives of each contestant to hand them the ingredient.
*Winner: Aria
Star Challenge: The contestants were sent to the restaurant Beso in Hollywood. They were all assigned an emotion, and they were asked to prepare a dish to represent that emotion. Each chef had $300 to shop and one hour to prepare in the Food Star Kitchen. At Beso, they had 30 minutes before presenting. The final four move on to New York.
*Winner: Tom
*Eliminated: Brad
Original Air Date: August 1, 2010
Week 9: Iron Chef Battle
Camera Challenge: None
Star Challenge: The contestants were sent to New York to participate in an Iron Chef America battle. They were judged by both the usual panel and a panel of Iron Chefs on both the overall quality of their meal and their ability in commentating on the preparation of their peers' meals. The final three move on to the finale episode where they will each film their own pilot episode.
