MasterChef is back for its 13th season and a battle for best of the U.S.

It’s official! Summer is here and that means the return of MasterChef on Fox. And for Season 13 it’s all about the United Tastes of America.

In the premiere episode of the new season, MasterChef brought back Daphne Oz to help with judging, as Aaron Sanchez, Gordon Ramsay, and Joe Bastianich return to find the best home cook across the country. For this season, it is all about which region of the country has the best chefs and the best food.

And for the first episode, it was all about the Northeast. It was Northeast chef versus Northeast chef, all in a bid to get an apron and the chance to prove they have what it takes to win. Of course, in order to get an apron, you have to get yeses from the judges. Specifically, you need at least three of the four judges to say yes.

MasterChef is back and this season it is all about the United Tastes of America

Right away it is clear that this is going to be a competitive challenge in a lot of ways. Not only do we have the chefs competing against each other, but the judges are really looking for the best of the best. And that means getting a yes from any of the judges is harder than ever.

With the MasterChef regional auditions underway, we don’t really know any of these hopefuls yet, so we don’t know who could be a favorite, who will tug at our heartstrings, or even really who will have what it takes to get an apron. But what we do know is that by the end of this first episode of Season 13, there will be a few aprons handed out by our judges.

In fact, by the end of the premiere episode it seemed like Ramsay, Oz, Bastianich, and Sanchez actually handed out five aprons to Northeast chefs.

Are you excited for the return of MasterChef? What do you think of the theme of regional cooking competing head to head? Let us know your thoughts over on Twitter.