Tournament of Champions 7 (TOC 7) Bracket and Winners

Tournament of Champions season 7 starts on Sunday, March 1st at 8pm on Food Network and 32 chefs are competing for a $150,000 prize.  Once again, none of former champions are competing in the competition and they will be taking on other roles in Tournament of Champions.  Former winner Tiffani Faison will be a sideline reporter, while other former winners Maneet Chauhan, Brooke Williamson, Antonia Lofaso, and Mei Lin will be helping out judging.

There were two weeks worth of qualifiers where chefs competed head-to-head to try to earn 7th and 8th seeds.  Here are the results of all of those matchups and the eight chefs that earned their way into the tournament were: Aarti Sequeira, Katsuji Tanabe, Kenny Gilbert, Dan Jacobs, Giuseppe Tentori, Ashleigh Shanti, Viet Pham, and Stephanie Izard.

The other 20 confirmed chefs competing in the main tournament are: Adam Greenberg, Adam Sobel, Britt Rescigno, Bryan Voltaggio, Carlos Anthony, Claudette Zepeda, Dale Talde, David Viana, Jet Tila, Joe Sasto, Jonathon Sawyer, Kaleena Bliss, Karen Akunowicz, Kevin Lee, Lee Anne Wong, Marcel Vigneron, Nini Nguyen, Sara Bradley, Shirley Chung, and Tobias Dorzon.

This year, they are hyping up four "culinary icons" who will not be revealed until the contest starts.  These icons will be given number 1 seeds and have not yet competed on Tournament of Champions. Many people have been guessing who they are, but they will not be revealed until the new episodes start airing. That is probably the reason why no official brackets have been released by Food Network.  I have created a bracket below that has the matchups with placeholders for the unannounced chefs if you want to see the matchups for TOC VII.  This was done based on the bracket reveal episode that revealed the seeds and divisions, but let me know if anything is off.

Justin Warner and Tiffani Faison will be providing the play-by-play analysis of the competition, and Hunter Fieri will again be following the action backstage with interviews.  The judges this year include Antonia Lofaso, Maneet Chauhan, Mei Lin, Brooke Williamson, Alex Guarnaschelli, Cat Cora, Curtis Stone, David Chang, Dominique Crenn, Geoffrey Zakarian, Hubert Keller, Judy Joo, Ken Oringer, Marcus Samuelsson, Michelle Bernstein, Nancy Silverton, Rocco DiSpirito, Scott Conant, and Susan Feniger.  As they are judging the competition, it is safe to rule out all of these chefs as the mystery "culinary icons."

This post will be used to track the winners for each episode, so come back each week to see who won the matchups on Tournament of Champions (TOC 7) and to discuss the episodes.  Also, the Tournament of Champions season 7 bracket will be updated below with the winners during each episode. The TOC VII finale will air on Sunday, April 18th where the winner will be crowned and awarded $150,000 cash and the champions belt.

Continue reading to see who won the matchups in each episode of Tournament of Champions season 7 and to see the current bracket......

Tournament of Champions 7: Qualifier Winners

Photo - Food Network

Season 7 of Tournament of Champions (TOC VII) on Food Network begins on Sunday, March 1st.  This year there are 16 chefs competing in qualifiers in hopes to earn a spot in the final tournament bracket.  Eight of the 16 chefs competing in the qualifiers will earn spots by winning head-to-head battles.  The Tournament of Champions season 7 qualifiers start on February 15th and the 16 chefs trying to earn one of the eight spots in the final bracket are:

• Aarti Sequeira 
• Angelo Sosa 
• Ashleigh Shanti
• Brittanny Anderson 
• Chris Oh 
• Dan Jacobs 
• Eric Barrett 
• Gabi Chappel 
• Giuseppe Tentori
• Joe Flamm
• Katsuji Tanabe
• Kelsey Murphy
• Kenny Gilbert
• Michele Ragussis 
• Stephanie Izard
• Viet Pham

There will be four qualifier episodes, with two airing on February 15th and two airing on February 22nd.  Each of the chefs that advance to the final will be 7 and 8 seeds in the tournament. Right after the episode on the 22nd, the final bracket will be revealed with the final 32 chefs competing on Tournament of Champions season 7.

I will track the winners of the qualifiers below and I will do another post when the bracket is revealed to track the winners in the TOC 7 final bracket.  

Continue reading to see who won each of the TOC 7 Qualifier matchups......

John Henson and Stephanie Boswell Are Getting Married

Halloween Baking Championship host John Henson and Halloween Baking Championship judge Stephanie Boswell announced their engagement on Instagram in January 2026.  Stephanie shared a photo of her engagement ring (right) with the caption, "YES YES A THOUSAND TIMES YES!!! WE'RE ENGAGED!!! My love @realjohnhenson and I are making it official! Stay tuned for me bargain dress hunting and a backyard wedding with chickens in the background!"

This engagement came to a shock for many as most didn't know they were a couple until they announced their engagement.  The Instagram post has many commenting they are happy for John and Stephanie and wishing them the best. John even chimed in saying, "I have never felt happier or more at peace than when I’m with you. I am the luckiest man ever. (And that doesn’t even include the desserts!)"

Congratulations to John Henson and Stephanie Boswell on their engagement and I am sure they will have a great wedding cake!