‘America's Culinary Cup' Season 1: Who Went Home Tonight? (Night 9 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: World Cuisine.
The challenge for the commandment was for the Top 5 remaining chefs to prepare three dishes in three hours from three different nations: a dumpling dish, a rice dish and a noodle dish that were each inspired by a different world cuisine.
The America's Culinary Cup winner will be awarded the biggest cash prize in culinary history: $1 million dollars. Here's our spoiler-filled recap of who went home tonight.
Who went home on America's Culinary Cup tonight?
Katie Button
James Beard Winner
Advancing contestants tonight on America's Culinary Cup Season 1 Night 9
Buddha Lo
Michelin Starred Chef & Two-Time Top Chef winner
Cara Stadler
James Beard Nominee
Chris Morgan
Michelin Starred Chef
Matt Peters
Bocuse D'Or Gold Medalist
Who lost the elimination challenge on America's Culinary Cup tonight?
The three challenges began with a culinary quiz, which allowed the winner of each question to select the country they wanted to feature in their dish. Buddha selected Thailand, India and Nigeria; Cara picked Ukraine, France, Korea; Matt chose Japan, Jamaica, Italy; Katie went with Spain, Peru, Mexico; Chris picked Morocco, Lebanon, Turkey.
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. Then they added three additional judges: James Beard Award winner Roy Choi, James Beard Award winner Kwame Onwuachi and award-winning chef Asma Khan, bringing the total points to 120.
Dumpling Round Scores
Cara: 107
Chris: 101
Matt: 83
Buddha: 81
Katie: 73
Rice Round Scores
Katie: 103
Cara: 80
Chris: 77
Matt: 70
Buddha: 64
Noodle Round Scores
Chris: 120 – the first perfect score of the season
Matt: 110
Buddha: 96
Cara: 74
Katie: 60
TOTAL SCORES
Chris: 298
Matt: 263
Cara: 261
Buddha: 241
Katie: 236
"It is incredibly humbling to make it to the final five and then not make it all the way to the end," Katie said. "This is mentally, physically and emotionally exhausting. I am so honored to have made it this far and held up my own."
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 April 29, 2026 at 8:00 PM.