"Top Chef" returns with a super-sized episode tonight at 10 p.m. on Bravo, when the Emmy Award-winning series moves to Manhattan for its fifth round of competition. And back for another taste-testing season are series host Padma Lakshmi and head judge Tom Colicchio.

"Shooting in New York lent itself to a lot of just amazing things that New York has to offer -- a lot of different ethnic cuisines," Colicchio says. "And that worked itself into the challenges at a lot of different locations."

Manhattan is the home of some of the best chefs in the business, who will be making reservations to judge the 17 new contestants, as will a lot of the biggest names in music and entertainment. Expect to see Martha Stewart, the Foo Fighters, Jean-Georges, Eric Ripert, Rocco DiSpirito, Wylie Dufresne, Jean-Christophe Novelli and Natasha Richardson.

"The amount of food consumed is staggering, especially in the first half of the show when we have so many contestants," says Lakshmi, who admits to gaining 10 pounds each season. "The onus is on us to make sure we sample every contestant's dish adequately in fairness, so it does become difficult."