NYC & Company and Bravo Announce Event to Celebrate NYC Restaurant Week and the Premiere of 'Top Chef' Season 3

NYC & Company and Bravo Announce Event to Celebrate NYC Restaurant Week and the Premiere of 'Top Chef' Season 3

City's Top Restaurateurs and 'Top Chef' Talent Take Part in Union Square Cook- Off

NEW YORK, June 6 /PRNewswire/ -- NYC & Company, the marketing and tourism organization for the City of New York, and the cable network Bravo have partnered to bring some of the city's own top chefs and restaurateurs together for a special event, NYC Restaurant Week: A Taste of "Top Chef." The event, scheduled for June 12 in Union Square Park, celebrates both the hit culinary competition series "Top Chef" Season 3 and the start of the reservation period for NYC Restaurant Week, the semiannual celebration of the city's vibrant dining scene. It will be highlighted by an outdoor cook-off between the reining "Top Chef" Season 2 winner Ilan Hall and Fan Favorite Sam Talbot-both native New Yorkers.

"Every year New York City attracts more and more talented chefs and restaurateurs, who do so much to enrich the dining scene here in the city," said Tracy Nieporent, partner of the Myriad group and chairman of the NYC & Company restaurant committee. "We're pleased to join with Bravo to celebrate that culinary tradition and to raise awareness of the NYC Restaurant Week program. It's a genuine value for diners, and a great way to get New Yorkers and visitors out to experience these restaurants for themselves." This summer's restaurant week takes place from July 16-20 and July 23-27-but reservations can be made starting June 18, just one week after the "Top Chef" competition. Bravo's hit culinary series "Top Chef" Season 3 premieres with a supersized episode featuring 15 rising chefs on Wednesday, June 13, at 10- 11:15 p.m. ET/PT.

At the June 12 event, the 30-minute quickfire challenge will be staged on the set of an actual kitchen with monitors for onlookers to watch the event. It will be judged by a panel of NYC restaurateurs and chefs, including Tom Colicchio, "Top Chef" 3 Miami head judge and co-founder of Craft Restaurants, and Mr. Nieporent, one of the culinary world's most celebrated figures. "Top Chef" Season 3 host and cookbook author Padma Lakshmi will serve as emcee. "I can't think of a better way to celebrate New York and its best restaurants than with a cook-off between two 'Top Chefs' from New York," said Jason Klarman, EVP Marketing & Digital, Bravo.

Bravo's "Top Chef" offers a fascinating window into the competitive, pressure-filled environment of world-class cookery and the restaurant business at the highest level. A delight for all the senses, each episode holds two challenges for the chefs. The first is a quickfire test of their basic abilities, and the second is a more involved elimination challenge designed to test the chef's versatility and invention. The challenges not only test their skills in the kitchen, but also uncover if they have the customer service, management and teamwork abilities required of a "Top Chef."

NYC Restaurant Week-now in its 16th year-has established itself as one of the most anticipated events of the season. It gives New Yorkers and visitors alike the chance to dine at some of the city's most sought-after eateries for special prix-fixe lunch and dinner prices. All told, 206 restaurants of all cuisines and ethnicities are participating; they are carefully selected by the NYC & Company restaurant committee, and represent a true cross-section of the NYC dining experience.

The three-course lunches go for $24.07, and the dinners for $35. Among the participants this year are City Hall, City Lobster, Chin Chin, and new participant Gordon Ramsay maze.

For more information on NYC Restaurant Week go to nycvisit.com.

About NYC & Company

NYC & Company is the official marketing and tourism organization for the City of New York, dedicated to maximizing travel and tourism opportunities throughout the five boroughs, building economic prosperity and spreading the positive image of New York City worldwide.

About Bravo

Bravo is the cable network that plugs people into arts, entertainment and pop culture with original programming, acclaimed drama series, movies, comedy and music specials, and by showing a whole different side of celebrities. Currently available in more than 84 million homes, Bravo is known for breaking exciting new personalities, shaking up the way we look at style, media, fame and Hollywood, pulling back the curtain on the creative process, and making influential and inventive original programming. Its critically acclaimed original programming includes the Emmy-nominated "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List," 12-time Emmy-nominated "Inside the Actors Studio," "The Real Housewives of Orange County," "Top Chef," "Celebrity Poker Showdown," as well as the 2004 Emmy winner for Outstanding Reality Program, "Queer Eye," and the four-time Emmy-nominated hit competition series, "Project Runway."

Source: NYC & Company

CONTACT: Kimberly Spell or Patrick Muncie, both of NYC & Company,
+1-212-484-1270; or Nora Grudman of Bravo, +1-212-664-4864

Web site:

http://www.nycvisit.com/

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