The season was filmed in various cities in Texas, including San Antonio, Dallas, and Austin, before moving on to Whistler, British Columbia for the finale.

Location: San Antonio Qualifying Challenge: The first group of chefs created a feast with an entire pig, which had only been partially butchered.

Location: San Antonio Qualifying Challenge: The third group of chefs each chose an ingredient from a provided assortment.

Elimination Challenge: The chefs, divided into two teams, catered a quinceañera with upscale Mexican food.

Location: San Antonio Quickfire Challenge: The chefs made dishes using an assortment of chiles, ranging from mild to hot on the Scoville scale.

Location: Dallas/Fort Worth Quickfire Challenge: The chefs prepared dishes using only the ingredients provided in backpack survival kits.

Elimination Challenge: Each chef had to create a dish for a course in a progressive dinner party in the exclusive Dallas neighborhood of Highland Park.

Location: Dallas/Fort Worth Quickfire Challenge: The chefs were given 90 minutes to prepare a dish that incorporated their own interpretation of one of Auguste Escoffier's five "mother sauces": béchamel, espagnole, hollandaise, tomate, or velouté.

Elimination Challenge: The chefs worked as a team to cater a four-course steak dinner for 200 at the annual Cattle Baron's Ball.

Elimination Challenge: The chefs were tasked with making dishes honoring their cooking influences as part of a tribute dinner.

They had 30 minutes to shop, then two hours the next day to cook and serve their meals to the judges at the Driskill Hotel in Austin.

Location: Austin Quickfire Challenge: The chefs were given 45 minutes to create a dish that best illustrated Modernist Cuisine, an encyclopedia and guide to the science of contemporary cooking.

Location: Austin Elimination Challenge: The chefs, working in two teams divided by gender, had to create a pop-up restaurant and execute a three-course dinner service.

Location: San Antonio Quickfire Challenge: The chefs had to make sophisticated dishes that incorporated three ingredients from a random assortment provided by a quickly moving conveyor belt.

Location: San Antonio Quickfire Challenge: The chefs paired off for a mise en place relay, where they had 30 minutes to both prepare ingredients for the judges' inspection and combine them into one dish.

The prep tasks included making fresh pasta, shelling and deveining shrimp, and husking corn.

Elimination Challenge: The chefs were given bikes to shop for their own ingredients, and had to find their own cooking spaces somewhere in the environs around The Alamo.

Elimination Challenge: The chefs catered a "fire and ice"-themed event, where they prepared a dish and cocktail that incorporated a hot and cold element.

Elimination Challenge: The two finalists were asked to lead their own restaurants and create a four-course tasting menu.

Challenge: The chefs were given 10 minutes to prep and cook a dish containing six ingredients, including clams, lemons, onions, and peppers.

Challenge: The chefs were asked to prepare a dish using at least three ingredients provided from the leftovers of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

Challenge: Colicchio directed the chefs to Bolner's Meat Market in San Antonio, where they were given an entire rib rack of beef.

Challenge: The chefs had 30 minutes to make a dish that incorporated all of the ingredients found in a "mystery box", which could not be opened until the timer started.