Chef and restaurateur Geoffrey Zakarian is looking for the next rising star in the restaurant world. He invites eight emerging chefs to his home base in Florida to see who has what it takes to run their own dream restaurant, and there's a $250,000 investment of his time and expertise on the line. With the help of his wife and business partner, Margaret Zakarian, and his former executive chef Eric Haugen, Geoffrey puts the competing chefs through increasingly grueling challenges, from making their "moneymaker dish" to presenting their restaurant concepts to dealing with unruly customers. He also gets to know each chef on a personal level to choose the right fit for him and his team.