It’s a whole new ballgame for the competing chefs on Bravo’s Top Chef: Texas. For the first-time ever, season nine will boast a record 29 chefs -- almost double the amount of chefs in season’s past -- who will see if they have what it takes to become an official cheftestant and qualify to wear the Top Chef coat. Only 16 will go on to compete across the Lone Star State -- in Austin, Dallas and San Antonio. In what will prove to be the most challenging season yet, some of the biggest names in food, music, and entertainment including Charlize Theron, Pee-wee Herman, Cat Cora, John Besh, Tim Love, Patti LaBelle will be featured this season on Top Chef: Texas. Returning to the Judges' Table is host Padma Lakshmi and head judge, chef Tom Colicchio, alongside judges Gail Simmons and new this season, famed chef and restaurateur Emeril Lagasse and critically-acclaimed chef Hugh Acheson.

I think I have it figured out. Comcast On-Demand has a 12 minute preview available. It appears to be the first 12 minutes, depending on editing, of the first episode. I think they started with 30 contestants. They are separated into three teams of 10 chefs. Each team is assigned a different animal protein and they each pick a cut of meat to cook. In the preview the first team of 10 is assigned pork. An arrogant 22 year old starts to butcher the bone-in loin to get a pork chop. In the process he butchers, as in destroys, the tenderloin that another contestant needs for her dish. She is left with about a 3 ounce piece of the tenderloin. Tom is so dismayed at his ability to break down the meat that he kicks him off right then and there. That is how the show has 29 contestants rather than 30. The confessionals that were included in the preview had quite a few comments from the kid that got booted early. He made Marcel Vigneron look humble.