Top Chef finalists heading to Tucson for carne seca challenge, season finale

The Bravo network is bringing its top-rated “Top Chef: Houston” cooking competition show to Tucson for the final Quickfire Challenge and the show’s finale, according to the website Rotten Tomatoes.

In “Cactus Makes Perfect,” the remaining chefs will “make the trip to El Charro in Tuscon(sic), Ariz., the oldest family-run Mexican restaurant in the country, where chef Carlotta Flores challenges them to create a dish featuring her carne seca,” the film and TV aggregate website reported.

The show, to air May 26, is the second-to-last episode of the Houston competition, which started airing in March and concludes with the finale on June 2. That show also was filmed in Tucson.

The Tucson location was hinted at the end of last week’s show when they said they were taking the final Quickfire Challenge to a “city of gastronomy.”

There are only two UNESCO City of Gastronomy cities in the U.S. — Tucson and San Antonio, Texas. San Antonio seemed an unlikely candidate given how close it is to Houston.

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The show also tipped its hand in January when it released trailers for the Houston show with a skyscape image that looked like downtown Tucson.

More than 3 million people tune in weekly for “Top Chef.”

This will be the second Tucson tie to “Top Chef.” Last year, Boca Tacos y Tequila chef-owner Maria Mazon was a finalist on season 18’s “Top Chef: Portland.”