Women have dominated ‘Tournament of Champions.' Here's what winners say is a key ingredient

LOS ANGELES — Maneet Chauhan delicately sprinkled saffron onto her gushtaba goat meatballs as the live audience began the final countdown. She and competitor Antonia Lofaso scrambled to finish their dishes on the season five finale of Food Network's ''Tournament of Champions.''

As the timer buzzed, Chauhan tossed a mixing bowl onto the cluttered counter, throwing her hands up in surrender to the clock. She and Lofaso embraced, neither breaking a sweat.

History was on the line for Chauhan, a highly decorated Indian American chef famous for her mastery of spices, who was hoping to become the first two-time ''Tournament of Champions'' winner.

Chauhan would prevail, and in the process help the show extend its own history streak. ''ToC'' as it is known, is the only cooking competition series that includes people of all genders where no man has ever won, let alone made it as a top-two finalist.

As the show readies to air its qualifying episodes for its sixth season starting Sunday and its full season on March 2, it remains to be seen whether women continue to dominate. But as viewers and chefs have noticed the trend, the show's unique format is seen as both the reason and proof of what woman chefs have been saying for years.

''This is the UFC of culinary. That's what I was trying to create,'' said Guy Fieri, who conceived of the show and pitched it for years. ''I'm a fan of giving people a platform. There are other culinary competitions out there, but they're a little more drama-oriented. I want to cut the (BS) and just see the best of the best going through the most.''

Fieri, host of ''Guy's Grocery Games'' and ''Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives,'' saw an opening for a no-frills, professional Food Network cooking competition that ''Iron Chef America'' once occupied. ''ToC'' debuted in March 2020, just as the pandemic started.

The show has chefs from all corners of the country compete one-on-one until only two finalists are left. In every match, the chefs are at the mercy of a creation Fieri calls ''the Randomizer,'' a spinning, five-category board inspired by the ''Wheel of Fortune'' wheel.

The categories include a required protein, produce ingredient, specialized equipment, cooking style and time limit. Requirements have ranged from cooking grasshoppers in paella style to combining mussels and cabbage.

Dishes are blind-judged from a private trailer away from the studio where they've been cooked.

Many players are relatively unknown outside the culinary world, which makes for high-stakes battles when they're pitted against household names and big television personalities. This held true for Brooke Williamson, the first ''ToC'' winner.

''I've done my best over the years to go in with a game plan and some familiarity with what I will be facing,'' said Williamson. ''Generally, that goes out the window the moment that clock starts or the moment the ingredients are revealed.''

In a remarkable series of events, Williamson, the self-proclaimed underdog, swept through her competitors, beating well-known Food Network stars Jet Tila and Lofaso. In the finale, she pulled off a huge upset, defeating renowned Food Network personality Amanda Freitag by one point.

''I didn't know her. Holy (expletive). She just knocked it out,'' Fieri said of his initial reaction to Williamson's victory. At that moment, he knew ''ToC'' was different.

And the surprises didn't end there. Season after season, lesser-known talents gave Food Network titans and Iron Chefs a run for their money.

And above all, one fact remained clear: only women were making it to the finale.

According to Fieri, who pushed for blind judging, the judges cannot, under any circumstances, know who is cooking in the competition at any point. Judges are sequestered in private trailers far from the kitchen and competitors until it's time for them to taste.

Tiffani Faison, a James Beard Award-winning restaurateur who won ''ToC'' season three, feels blind judging plays a clear role in the outcome of ''ToC.''

''It completely removes implicit bias,'' said Faison. ''There's no one in front of you that looks a certain way, that speaks a certain way, that wants to tell you about what this dish means to them or where it's from. It (is) just the food.''

In the U.S., only 23.3% of chefs and head cooks in 2023 were women, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Only 6% of Michelin-starred restaurants worldwide are run by women, as reported by Chef's Pencil.

''For the longest time, as women chefs, we've been trying to say, ‘Judge us on our food, not on who we are.' And that's exactly what's happening on this show,'' said Chauhan, who beat out 40 male chefs for the executive chef position at Vermilion in Chicago at age 23.

Chauhan was no stranger to having to prove her skills in kitchens dominated by men. She was the only woman among 70 male students at her hotel management school in Manipal, India, and she graduated at the top of her class.

''I think that part of the reason why women do so well on ''ToC'' is because we are a little bit more focused,'' said ''ToC'' season four winner Mei Lin, who grew up in family-owned restaurants and felt pressure to prove herself in kitchens run by men. ''We're a lot more organized in the kitchen. We just put our heads down and work, and that's really all it is.''

Chauhan said ''the Randomizer'' forces contestants to multitask, a skill she believes women are raised to excel in.

''I think women are very thoughtful about how they enter a situation like ‘ToC,' especially having been put in a position to have to prove themselves throughout their career,'' she said.

''What really makes a big difference is when there are young girls who look like me, who reach out to me and say, 'You can do it. I'm going to push myself, and I'll do it too.''