Maui’s Sheldon Simeon is hanging in there on “Top Chef” Season 14. In episode 3, he made adobo radish with radish porridge, spiced cashews, raw radish and micro radish greens. Top Chef photo

Emmy- and James Beard Award-winning “Top Chef” competition series is taking on the culinary hot spot of Charleston, S.C., on Thursdays and Maui’s own Sheldon Simeon is in the thick of it.

He returned to the hit series after being named a finalist and a Fan Favorite on Season 10. The host is Padma Lakshmi, joined by head judge Tom Colicchio, and judges Gail Simmons and “Top Chef Masters” alum Graham Elliot. The heat is on.

In Thursday’s episode, “Choke Holds and Clammy Hands,” Padma and guest judge Chris Cosentino divided all the chefs into teams to compete in the notorious “Top Chef” mise en place race. In the elimination challenge, the same teams went head-to-head and created a seven-course progressive meal with each dish featuring the same ingredient, the humble radish.

They battled it out course by course in front of a group of “Top Chef” super fans, including Richard Blais, who joined Tom, Padma and Chris at the judges table. The team who won the most courses was safe while the losing team was up for elimination.

Sheldon hung in there with adobo radish with radish porridge, spiced cashews, raw radish and micro radish greens.

After finishing as a finalist and winning the coveted title of “Fan Favorite,” Sheldon was hired as the executive chef at Maui’s former Mala Wailea and MiGrant, was named in Hawaii Magazine’s Top 5 Best Hawaiian Chefs of 2014 and voted Food & Wine Magazine’s 2014 People’s Best New Chef for the Pacific & Northwest.

Earlier this year, Sheldon opened Tin Roof, a mom-and-pop luncheon eatery in Kahului and it quickly catapulted to the top of the charts as “Best New Restaurant” in The Maui News’ annual Best of Maui readers’ poll and that is no small feat.

In Charleston, a charming city teeming with horse-drawn carriages and cobblestone streets filled with antebellum houses, the chefs battle it out for a $125,000 prize by S.Pellegrino Sparkling Natural Mineral Water along with a feature in Food & Wine magazine, a showcase at the annual Food & Wine Classic in Aspen and the coveted title of “Top Chef.”

Will Sheldon keep advancing? Tune in on Thursday on the Bravo channel to find out. Keep your fingers crossed.