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Brooke Williamson is teasing “a lot of excitement” on the next season of BBQ Brawl.
Speaking with PEOPLE at the Grand Tasting: After Dark at the New York City Wine and Food Festival on Saturday, Oct. 18, Williamson and boyfriend Bobby Flay had just flown in from filming the show in Texas.
When asked what to expect from the next installment, she said “lots of twists and turns” were coming.
“The format has shifted a little bit,” she revealed. “New captains, new judges. It’s going to be a wild, hot, fun western season.”
It will also be the first season with Williamson and Flay as a couple. While the pair took their romance public in March, Flay told PEOPLE ahead of season 6. “We shot this show before we started actually officially dating.”
The culinary competition series’ previous season, set at Star Hill Ranch in Austin, Texas, premiered on June 1.
Courtesy Food Network
The episodes saw 12 brawlers face off in teams led by Flay, Maneet Chauhan and Antonia Lofaso, aiming to win over judges Williamson, Carson Kressley and Rodney Scott.
Before the premiere, Flay said that season 6 had “serious renewed energy,” thanks to the addition of Lofaso and Chauhan.
“When I asked them to do this, they prepared themselves so incredibly well for so long prior to shooting this,” he recalled. “I mean, they did tons of research. They were practicing, cooking, all this sort of live-fire cooking, and they really brought their own sort of energy and attitude and obviously flavors to it. And I will say that they kept me on my toes the entire time.”
Courtesy Food Network
Flay added that the contestants on BBQ Brawl tend to be “students of the show.”
“They pay very close attention,” he said. “Obviously, I’ve been on every season, so they kind of know what I like and what I don’t like, what my style’s going to be, how I’m going to mentor them, and those kinds of things.”
“They don’t know who the other two mentors are going to be until they get there, but I think that every season, they seem to be better,” he went on. “And I think it’s not that everybody’s better than the prior seasons, but they’re just more schooled. So they know, they kind of drill down on what they need to do to win.”
