New Battle to Crown 'The Next Iron Chef' Begins Sunday, October 3rd

BATTLE LINES ARE DRAWN TO JOIN 'IRON CHEF' RANKS

Alton Brown Hosts Season Three of 'The Next Iron Chef'

Premieres Sunday, October 3rd at 9pm ET/PT

NEW YORK - August 25, 2010 - This October, The Next Iron Chef returns with its fieriest season-to-date. Ten of the country's most accomplished chefs bet on their skills and put their reputations on the line for the chance to join the industry's most elite culinary society: the Iron Chefs. Hosted by Alton Brown and filmed in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York City, season three premieres Sunday, October 3rd at 9pm ET/PT and challenges the chefs' culinary skills and mental toughness as they enter a clash of culinary titans.

"The third season of The Next Iron Chef certainly has no shortage of tough competitors," said Bob Tuschman, General Manager and Senior Vice President, Programming & Production. "These chefs are some of the fiercest and most decorated yet, which promises the most exciting culinary rivalries to date."

The ten contestants include: Marco Canora (Chef & Owner of Hearth, Terrior, and Terroir TriBeca, in New York), Bryan Caswell (Chef & Owner, Reef, Stella Sola, and Little Bigs, in Houston, Texas), Maneet Chauhan (Chef at Vermillion, in Chicago and New York), Mary Dumont (Executive Chef at Harvest, in Cambridge, Mass.), Duskie Estes (Chef & Owner of Zazu Restaurant + Farm, Bovolo, and Black Pig Meat Co., in Sonoma County, Calif.), Marc Forgione (Chef & Owner of Marc Forgione, in New York), Andrew Kirschner (Executive Chef of Wilshire, in Santa Monica, Calif.), Mario Pag�n (Chef & Owner of Chayote and Lemongrass, in Puerto Rico), Celina Tio (Chef & Owner of Julian, in Kansas City, Mo.), and Ming Tsai (Chef & Owner of Blue Ginger, in Wellesley, Mass.). Click here for chef bios.

This season, the contestants battle their way from Los Angeles to Las Vegas to New York, for the right to compete in the finale in legendary Kitchen Stadium. Along the way, they will be challenged to showcase important Iron Chef attributes through their food: ingenuity, innovation, resourcefulness, transformation, respect, inspiration, seduction, and honor. Host Alton Brown puts the culinary warriors through eight grueling tests that pay homage to American cuisine. Challenges include: cooking on a desert island, catching their secret ingredients in the wild, dreaming up a 5-star luxury menu and turning ordinary fair food into an Iron Chef worthy meal. Esteemed judges Donatella Arpaia (restaurateur and cookbook author), Simon Majumdar (food writer and broadcaster), and Iron Chef Michael Symon (chef and restaurateur) critique the challenges and narrow down the competition. The final two battle for supremacy in Kitchen Stadium in the season finale on Sunday, November 21st, at 9pm ET/PT. The winner joins the ranks of Symon, Bobby Flay, Masaharu Morimoto, Mario Batali, Cat Cora and Jose Garces and launches into instant fame as a member of the Chairman's team on Iron Chef America.

The winner begins their reign as Iron Chef with a heated Iron Chef America battle on Sunday, November 28th at 9pm ET/PT. The Next Iron Chef is produced by Triage Entertainment in conjunction with Food Network and is based partially on the format Iron Chef owned by Fuji Television Network, Inc.

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