Top Chef Duels is an American reality competition series which premiered on August 6, 2014, on Bravo.
 The culinary show is one of the several spin-off series of the popular cooking competition show "Top Chef" aired on the same network.
 Announced in January 2014 as "Top Chef Extreme", the series features eighteen contestants who have previously competed in "Top Chef" and "Top Chef Masters".
 During each episode, two of the contestants face each other in various culinary tasks.
 The winner is picked at the end of an episode to compete in the championship finale.
 The series is hosted by Curtis Stone.
 Besides hosting, Stone is also a judge together with Gail Simmons, while Wolfgang Puck, Hugh Acheson and other celebrity guest judges make numerous appearances throughout the series.
Stephanie Izard (born October 30, 1976) is an American chef residing in Chicago, Illinois, best known as the first female chef to win Bravo's "Top Chef", taking the title during its fourth season.
 She is the co-owner and executive chef of three award-winning Chicago restaurants, Girl and the Goat, Little Goat, and Duck Duck Goat, and opened her first restaurant, Scylla (now closed) as chef-owner at the age of 27.
 Izard received a James Beard Foundation Award for "Best Chef: Great Lakes" in 2013 for her work at Girl and the Goat.
 She has made a number of appearances on "Top Chef" since her win, both as a guest judge on future seasons and as a participant in "Top Chef Duels".
 In 2017, Izard competed in the Food Network series "Iron Chef Gauntlet", where she defeated chefs Bobby Flay, Michael Symon, and Masaharu Morimoto to obtain the title of Iron Chef.
Top Chef: California is the thirteenth season of the American reality television series "Top Chef".
 The season was announced by Bravo on April 14, 2015.
 Similar to "", filming took place in several locations across California, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Oakland, and the greater Palm Springs area, concluding with a finale in Las Vegas, Nevada.
 "Top Chef: California" had a two-night premiere on December 2–3, 2015.
 Host Padma Lakshmi and head judge Tom Colicchio returned, alongside judges Gail Simmons, Emeril Lagasse, and Richard Blais, among others.
 The companion web series, "Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen", also returned, premiering immediately following the second part of the season premiere on December 3, 2015.
 In the season finale, Jeremy Ford was declared the Top Chef, defeating Amar Santana.
 Isaac Toups received the Fan Favorite Award.
Gail Simmons (born May 19, 1976) is a Canadian food writer and cookbook author.
 Since the show’s inception in 2006, she has served as a permanent judge on BRAVO’s Emmy-winning series "Top Chef".
 Simmons was previously the head critic on "Top Chef Duels" and host of "", Bravo’s pastry-focused spin-off of the "Top Chef" franchise.
 She was also co-host of “The Feed,” which aired in 2014 on FYI, A+E’s new lifestyle network.
 In addition to her work on "Top Chef", Gail makes frequent television appearances on NBC’s "Today" and ABC’s "Good Morning America", among others.
 She has been featured in such publications as "New York magazine", "Travel + Leisure", "GQ", "People", "Los Angeles Times", and more.
Padma Lakshmi (] ; born Padma Parvati Lakshmi Vaidynathan; September 1, 1970) is an Indian-born American author, actress, model, television host and executive producer.
 Her debut cookbook "Easy Exotic" won her the "Best First Book" award at the 1999 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.
 She has been the host of the US reality television program "Top Chef" since season two in 2006, for which she received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program.
 In 2010, "Top Chef" won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality-Competition Program.
 Her debut memoir "Love, Loss and What We Ate" was released on International Women's Day, March 8, 2016.
Top Chef: Just Desserts is an American reality competition show, spun off from "Top Chef".
 It premiered on the cable television network Bravo on September 15, 2010.
 "Top Chef: Just Desserts" features pastry chefs competing in a series of culinary challenges, focusing on pastries and desserts.
 The show is produced by Magical Elves Productions, the same company that created "Top Chef" and "Project Runway", and distributed by Bravo and Tiger Aspect USA.
 It is hosted by Gail Simmons, with head judge Johnny Iuzzini, head pastry chef at Jean-Georges.
 Other judges include Hubert Keller, owner of restaurant Fleur de Lys and a Top Chef Masters finalist, and Dannielle Kyrillos, "an entertaining expert and editor-at-large of DailyCandy".
Elizabeth Falkner (born in San Francisco) is a consulting chef working and living in New York who has been cooking since 1990.
 She frequently appears as a competitor and sometimes a judge on many of the cooking competitions on television from "The Next Iron Chef, Super Chefs", 2011 and "The Next Iron Chef, Redemption", 2012, (both Food Network), as well as "Chopped All Stars", (Food Network), "Top Chef Masters", "Top Chef", "", (Bravo), "Top Chef, Canada", "Food Network Challenge", (Food Network) on.
 Falkner was the executive/chef/pastry chef and managing partner of Citizen Cake for 14 years, and executive chef and co-owner/co-managing partner of Orson for 4 years, restaurants located in San Francisco, California, U.S..
 Both establishments closed in 2011.
 In 2012 Falkner won First Prize at the World Pizza Championships in Naples, Italy with her innovative "Finocchio Flower Power" pizza.
 Falkner relocated to Brooklyn, NY in 2012 and was employed at Krescendo for seven months.
Top Chef: Charleston is the fourteenth season of the American reality television series "Top Chef".
 The season was announced by Bravo on October 13, 2016, which premiered on December 1, 2016, and concluded on March 2, 2017.
 Filming initially took place in Charleston, South Carolina, beginning in May 2016, while the season's final episodes were filmed in areas across Mexico, including Guadalajara and the Yucatán Peninsula.
 "Top Chef: Charleston" featured eight new contestants competing against eight returning contestants from previous seasons. "
MasterChef" and "Top Chef Masters" alumnus Graham Elliot debuted as a recurring judge, alongside returning judges Padma Lakshmi, Tom Colicchio, and Gail Simmons.
 In the season finale, "" runner-up Brooke Williamson was declared the Top Chef, defeating "" finalist Shirley Chung.
 "Top Chef: Seattle" finalist Sheldon Simeon received the Fan Favorite Award, marking his second Fan Favorite win.
Top Chef Suomi is a Finnish cooking reality show on Sub based on the American television series "Top Chef".
 Auditions for the series were held in autumn 2010 and 12 contestants were chosen.
 The programme is hosted by model and restaurant chef Pipsa Hurmerinta The head judge for the competition is Finland's most renowned chef Hans Välimäki.
 The other judge is business group manager of Royal Ravintolat Pia Kämppi.
 "Top Chef" season 5 runner up Stefan Richter has made an appearance as a special guest judge for the first four episodes.
 The show is produced by Solar Television Oy.
 The show is renewed for a second season, which is expected to premiere in either fall 2011 or in spring 2012.
Top Chef: Texas is the ninth season of the American reality television series "Top Chef".
 The season was filmed in various cities in Texas, including San Antonio, Dallas, and Austin, before moving on to British Columbia for the finale.
 The season premiered on November 2, 2011.
 This season of "Top Chef" featured a much larger number of contestants than any previous season, with 29 chefs.
 "Top Chef: Texas" also introduced a new competition to the series; in addition to the Quickfire and Elimination Challenges featured in televised episodes, the "Last Chance Kitchen" competition allowed eliminated contestants to compete head-to-head in a series of webisodes, with the winner eventually returning to the main competition.
 In the season finale, Paul Qui was declared the Top Chef, defeating Sarah Grueneberg.
 Chris Crary received the Fan Favorite Award.

Question: What Indian-born American author was a judge in "Top Chef: Charleston"?
Answer: Padma Lakshmi