Top Chef All-Stars cast officially announced; Anthony Bourdain, Muppets will judge

The cast of Top Chef All-Stars was revealed yesterday when Bravo confirmed the existence of all-star competition. The show’s eighth season will debut Dec. 1 and feature Anthony Bourdain and Gail Simmons alternating as the third judge, and challenges featuring Jimmy Fallon and Muppets—Cookie Monster, Telly, and Elmo—as guest Quickfire judges.

TV Guide reported these details and also declared it had an “EXCLUSIVE” on the all-star season. Even though they did report on the challenges and reveal the full cast, someone at the magazine needs to look up the definition of that obnoxiously over-used word because Eater NY had that news last month. I guess news that doesn’t get fed to a publication by a publicist just doesn’t count.

Eater has the list of 18 contestants broken down by season, and besides the previously revealed cast, it includes Elia Aboumrad, Jennifer Carroll, Jamie Lauren, Dale Levitski, Antonia Lofaso, Casey Thompson, and Tre Wilcox.