Food Network culinary competition show Tournament of Champions is set to crown its fifth winner Sunday, April 20, during the season 6 finale — fifth winner instead of sixth because the Dancing Spice Queen herself Maneet Chauhan claimed the title twice, in seasons 2 and 5.
Read on to find out who won, but beware of spoilers ahead.
The winner by a score of 88 to 82 was Antonia Lofaso, who has participated in all six seasons of the show. Read on to find out how she got there.
The first half of the Tournament of Champions season 6 finale consisted of the two semifinal matchups — 1-seedLofaso vs 1-seed Britt Rescigno, and then 3-seed Lee Anne Wong vs 5-seed Sara Bradley.
For Rescigno’s face-off with Lofaso, they were given whole pompano (a fish) for their protein, figs for their produce, lava rocks for their equipment, escabeche for their style and purple for their wild card color. After the judging, there was an exact tie at 82 points each, which is not something that happens very often on this show. In TOC season 2, Lofaso actually tied with Jet Tila on every single category, so they had to do a rematch in order to see who would advance to the final four that season.
This season, Lofaso and Rescigno did not have an exact tie in every category; taste is the tiebreaker. Host Guy Fieri showed their scores before he announced the winner. They tied on the use of the randomizer at 33/40 each. One chef won on taste by a score of 41 to 40, the other chef won on presentation by a score of 9 to 8. The chef who won on taste was Lofaso. Backstage, Rescigno was overcome with emotion in her disappointment with losing, but considering the is is her third year in a row getting to the final four, we probably have not seen the last of Rescigno.
On the second semi-final matchup, Bradley and Wong were given blue silkie chicken for the protein, sorrel for the producer, turmeric leaves for the equipment, en papillote (in paper) for style and the wild card color black. After the judging, Bradley took the win by a score of 85 to 83.
In the final between Bradley and Lofaso, the randomizer gave them wagyu beef for the protein, huitlachoche (a delicate fungus that grows inside ears of corn) for the produce, a sausage stuffer for the equipment, hot & cold for the style, and two envelopes from the wild card category. The two envelopes contained “opportunities,” one for each chef. Bradley got the word “sticky” and Lofaso got the word “spicy” and then they had to decide which one would be “hot” and which one would be “cold.” They decided to do a random draw, so it ended up being that the hot part of the ditch had to be spicy and the cold part had to be sticky.
For the judges, they brought back the former winners (except Tiffani Faison, because she’s a culinary commentator this year for season 6). So the judges were Chauhan, season 1 winner Brooke Williamson and season 4 winner Mei Lin, at least for the semifinals. For the finals, they brought in a secret fourth judge — Martha Stewart!
Season 6 sees a brand-new winner because none of the previous winners were in the bracket for the sixth season, but it is also the sixth year in a row to crown a female winner. No male chefs have ever even made the final matchup. Jet Tila made the final four in seasons 2 through 5, and Tobias Dorzon made the final four in season 3, but all the other final four chefs have been women and the final matchup has always been between two female chefs.
The final four for season 6 consisted of Lee Anne Wong and Sara Bradley facing off in a battle of two people who have never made the final four in prior seasons (this is actually Bradley’s first season on the show at all), and then Antonia Lofaso versus Britt Rescigno in a battle of a repeat finalists. Lofaso made the final four two times before season 6 and made the finals in season 5, losing by one point to Chauhan. Rescigno also made the final four twice before but has never made the finals.
Tournament of Champions will return in spring 2026 with season 7.
