‘America's Culinary Cup' Season 1: Who Went Home Tonight? (Night 10 Elimination)
America's Culinary Cup, hosted by Padma Lakshmi, continued its search for America's best chef with the roll out of yet another culinary commandment in the semifinals: Mastering the Art of Taste.
The final four chefs raced to make it to the finale in the "Bittersweet Semifinals" episode, in a challenge highlighting the five flavor profiles. Only three chefs made it through tonight and moved on to the finale, while one said their bittersweet goodbyes.
As usual, Padma, Michael Cimarusti and Wylie Dufresne awarded points based on Taste, Creativity, Presentation and Mastery of the Commandment with each quality worth 5 points, so each judge's total would be 20 points for a cumulative possibility of 60 points.
The America's Culinary Cup winner will be awarded the biggest cash prize in culinary history: $1 million dollars.
Who Went Home on America's Culinary Cup Tonight?
Buddha Lo
Michelin Starred Chef & Two-Time Top Chef winner
Advancing contestants tonight on America's Culinary Cup Season 1 Night 10
Cara Stadler
James Beard Nominee
Chris Morgan
Michelin Starred Chef
Matt Peters
Bocuse D'Or Gold Medalist
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What was the challenge this episode of America's Culinary Cup, and who won it it?
The four remaining chefs were tested on the five taste profiles: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami.
"Mastering the five basic tastes is essential to creating food that's balanced, satisfying and memorable," Wylie said.
The challenge was to create two dishes: one hot and one cold in 75 minutes. Both dishes had to demonstrate one of the flavor profiles, the dishes still had to be balanced.
Because Chris won last week's challenge, he received an extra 30 minutes to cook, but in order to get the 30 minutes, he had to take them from his competitors. He had the choice of taking all 30 minutes from one chef, or 15 minutes from two chefs. He chose to take 15 minutes each from Matt and Buddha, saying his mother would slap him if he took away time from Cara, who was in her second trimester.
The flavor profiles were determined at random by the board:
Chris: Sweet
Cara: Sour
Matt: Salty
Buddha: Bitter
The top two scorers were through to the finale. The bottom two had to undergo an elimination challenge.
Matt 105
Cara 98
Chris 88
Buddha 77
What was the elimination challenge this episode of America's Culinary Cup, and who lost it?
Chris and Buddha went into the elimination challenge which was to feature two taste profiles in one dish. They both had to feature umami and the second was their choice.
When the votes were counted, it was Chris moving into the finale and Buddha who cooked his last time in the competition.
"Of course, I'm bummed out," Buddha said. "Of course, I want to make it to the finale. I love competition but I daresay this may be my last. You win some, you lose some. You can't always win everything."
America's Culinary Cup airs Wednesday nights at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. Streams next day on Paramount+.
Next, Top Chef Star Joins Padma Lakshmi's New Culinary Competition Show
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This story was originally published May 6, 2026 at 7:30 PM.