RECAP: 'Top Chef' Goes To Texas

The hotly anticipated reality show, Top Chef settled in San Antonio, Texas for Season 9, where it dropped a staggering 29 contestants at the mercy of judges Padma Lakshmi, Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons. Top Chef fans can also look forward to seeing Emeril Lagasse and Top Chef Masters' Hugh Acheson grace the current season, which kicked off Wednesday night on Bravo.

For the show's season premiere, the hopefuls were split into three groups to determine if they would ultimately move up into the Top Chef house, if they would go in "the bubble," a kind of limbo where it's still possible to advance, or if they would go home.

The first group got to butcher a pig into several cuts, one of which would be used as their dish's main course. Very Texan indeed. Five contestants moved forward from this challenge, with two in the bubble and the unlucky Tyler Stone getting sent home straightaway for leaving merely scraps of the poor animal for his unlucky partner, Grayson Schmitz, to try to salvage.

The second group had to all agree upon one main ingredient in the dish they would make. The winner was … rabbit? So the group got to work, with one New Yorker, Ty-Lor Boring, 34, flooring the judges with his confit rabbit leg with pickled cucumber, tomatoes, and fried shallots, while more contestants were sent to wait it out in the bubble.

And what awkward challenge is in store for group three? You'll have to wait until next Wednesday to find out, as this is a two-episode challenge.

Watch a clip from Wednesday night's premiere here: