A few months ago a friend within the Food Network family hipped me to who the four Food Network Star participants in Chopped: All Stars would be.  So I’ve known since last fall that we’d get to see the charms of Penny Davidi and Chris Nirschel on display once again and have managed to keep it to myself.  Even better we also get to see Vic Moea and Justin Balmes cook again.

The talent in this group runs the gamut.  Chris is the chef at what many consider a wannabe Olive Garden, Penny is a one trick pony but she does that one trick extremely well and then Vic and Justin are top notch chefs.  But these guys make up just one night of Chopped: All Stars.  Dig the rest.

Part 1, “Iron Chefs Do Battle” Premieres Sunday, April 8th at 9pm ET/PT  Competitors: Iron Chefs Cat Cora, Marc Forgione, Jose Garces and Michael Symon.  Judges: Scott Conant, Aaron Sanchez, Geoffrey Zakarian

Part 2, “Prime Time vs. Day Time” Premieres Sunday, April 15th at 9pm ET/PT  Competitors: Show hosts Keegan Gerhard (Food Network Challenge), Jeffrey Saad (United Tastes of America, Cooking Channel), Aarti Sequeira (Aarti Party) and Marcela Valladolid (Mexican Made Easy).  Judges: Amanda Freitag, Aaron Sanchez, Geoffrey Zakarian

Part 3, “Food Network Star Contestants” Premieres Sunday, April 22nd at 9pm ET/PT  Competitors: Food Network Star Season Seven Finalists Justin Balmes, Penny Davidi, Vic “Vegas” Moea and Chris Nirschel.  Judges: Scott Conant, Amanda Freitag, Aaron Sanchez

Part 4, “Judge Remix” Premieres Sunday, April 29th at 9pm ET/PT  Competitors: Chopped judges Alex Guarnaschelli, Marc Murphy, Marcus Samuelsson and Chris Santos. Judges: Amanda Freitag, Aaron Sanchez, Geoffrey Zakarian

Part 5, “Grand Finale” Premieres Sunday, May 6th at 9pm ET/PT Competitors: Prior episode winners.  Judges: Anne Burrell, Amanda Freitag and Aaron Sanchez.

Read full chef bios HERE.  Read bios for judges and host Ted Allen HERE.

Read my exclusive interviews with Alex Guarnaschelli (HERE), Scott Conant (HERE), Justin Balmes, (HERE) Penny Davidi (HERE), Chris Nirschel (HERE), Marc Forgione (HERE), Michael Symon (HERE) and Ted Allen (HERE and HERE).