Eater's 3rd Annual Hottest Chef in NY Contest Starts Today

Ladies and gents, boys and girls, Eater readers in the Tri-State area: did you hear the forecast calls for freezing rain today? Sounds like the perfect time to launch Eater's hotly anticipated Third Annual Hottest Chef in NYC Competition to get the blood flowing. This year 30 reader-nominated chefs will battle it out for the coveted title through daily polls, and the champion will go on to face the winners from our sister sites in Austin, Miami, Chicago, Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

How it works: A special panel of experts have ranked all submitted chefs and in standard sporting fashion, the top seeds will face off against the bottom until we have a final list of contenders. In this competition, number one will compete against 30 - 27, two against 26 - 23, and so on until we have our final six. There are a lot of new faces this year, so let's hope a newbie gives title holders Emma Hearst and Alain Allegretti a run for their money.

As is always the case, we'll be keeping a close watch on any suspicious behavior, and disqualifications are always an option. So let's make it a clean fight.

Voting for Round 1, Heat 1 starts at 1 PM.
· All Coverage of the Hottest Chef in NY Competition [~ENY~]