The Next Iron Chef returns with its third and 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 challenges the chefs’ culinary skills and mental toughness as they enter a clash of culinary titans.

The ten contestants include: Ming Tsai (Chef & Owner of Blue Ginger, in Wellesley, Mass.), Maneet Chauhan (Chef at Vermillion, in Chicago and New York), 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), 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 Pagan (Chef & Owner of Chayote and Lemongrass, in Puerto Rico), and Celina Tio (Chef & Owner of Julian, in Kansas City, Mo.).

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. 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.

Ming Tsai & Maneet Chauhan on The Next Iron Chef Season 3

More about Ming Tsai
Ming Tsai was raised in Dayton, Ohio, where he spent hours cooking alongside his mother and father at their family-owned restaurant, Mandarin Kitchen. His love of cooking — and eating — great food was forged in these early years, while also gaining valuable experience in the front and back of the house. Ming headed east to attend school at Phillips Academy, Andover. From there he continued to Yale University, earning his degree in mechanical engineering. During this time, Ming spent his junior summer at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris. After graduating from Yale, Ming worked in kitchens around the globe. He trained under renowned pastry chef Pierre Herme in Paris and in Osaka with sushi master Kobayashi. Upon his return to the United States, Ming enrolled in graduate school at Cornell University, earning a master’s degree in hotel administration and hospitality marketing. Ming continued to learn varied styles of cuisine, holding positions in the front and back of the house at establishments in Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco and Santa Fe. In 1998, Ming opened Blue Ginger in Wellesley, Mass., and immediately impressed diners from Boston and beyond with the restaurant’s innovative East-West cuisine. In 2008, Blue Ginger expanded with a feng shui-inspired addition doubling its size, creating three private dining rooms and the casual-chic Blue Ginger Lounge, serving an Asian tapas menu that features Ming’s Bings: Ming’s take on the classic Asian street food xiar bing, a cross between a dumpling and a slider. Ming is also the host and executive producer of the public television cooking show SIMPLY MING.

In addition to Ming’s restaurant, television and print endeavors, he’s also a prolific designer and product developer. For the past decade, Ming has used Kyocera Advanced Ceramic cutting tools. His Blue Ginger line of East-West meal solutions launched in Target and SuperTarget stores nationwide in 2000 and has continually expanded. Ming co-designs with TruBamboo, an eco-friendly line of bamboo cutting boards and serve ware. The sushi boards, satay plates and various cutting boards are available at grocery and home stores across the U.S. In 2009, Ming teamed up with Kellogg’s to create his Blue Ginger® Multi-Grain Brown Rice Chips, currently available at club stores across the nation.

About Maneet Chauhan
As executive chef of Vermilion in New York City and Chicago, Maneet Chauhan is at the helm of executing the provocative melding of the Indian and Latin cuisines of Vermilion, based on both deep historical and geographical cross-influences. The cuisine is inspired jointly by Maneet’s ongoing research, trials and zest for experimenting and concept originator Rohini Dey’s vision and travels. Maneet’s culinary career began after she graduated from the top of her class at the WelcomGroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration, India’s top culinary and hotel management school. She then interned at India’s finest hotels and kitchens, including the Taj Group, Oberoi Hotels and Le Meridian. Maneet has attended the foremost culinary school in the country, The Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, where she graduated with high honors and swept all awards of her batch.