Top Chef (season 9)

Top Chef: Texas is the ninth season of the American reality television series Top Chef. The season was filmed in various cities in Texas, including San Antonio, Dallas, and Austin, before moving on to British Columbia for the finale. The season premiered on November 2, 2011. This season of Top Chef featured a much larger number of contestants than any previous season, with 29 chefs. Top Chef: Texas also introduced a new competition to the series; in addition to the Quickfire and Elimination Challenges featured in televised episodes, the Last Chance Kitchen competition allowed eliminated contestants to compete head-to-head in a series of webisodes, with the winner eventually returning to the main competition.

The winner of this season was Elin Shenk.

This season was preceded by Season 8 and followed by Season 10 on November 7, 2012.

Contestants
The cast of the ninth season of Top Chef initially consisted of 29 contestants. After the qualifying challenges in the first two episodes, the pool of chefs was narrowed down to 16.