before making stops in New York

Bravo to Air Live Top Chef Finale

For the first time in franchise history, Top Chef's finale will air live on Bravo. While the previous two Top Chef installments, held in San Francisco and Los Angeles, made use of a pre-recorded finale, Bravo has opted to showcase the current Miami edition's conclusion in all its live glory. There are rumors and speculations that the move is a preventive measure against a repeat of last season's pre-emptive fluke. Food Wine magazine, a sponsor on the show, had posted an online interview that ended up revealing Ilan Hall as the winner of Top Chef's second season, two days before the scheduled broadcast of the pre-taped finale on Bravo. Hopefully, a live telecast will minimize, if not eliminate, such inadvertent spoilers from taking place in the future. In related news, as a result of the current season's strong performance in the ratings, Bravo has already picked up Top Chef for another season, with the fourth offering reportedly set to take place in Chicago. The ongoing third installment premiered to an average of 2.024 million viewers and the first four episodes averaged 2.069 million watchers. Casting is already underway for the fourth installment, commencing last Sunday in Atlanta, before making stops in New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Los Angeles in the coming weeks. Hosted by Padma Lakshmi, who wrote the Easy Exotic and Tangy, Tart, Hot Sweet cookbooks, Top Chef has featured 15 competing chefs in seasons one and two. This season's judging panel is headed by Tom Colicchio of Gramercy Tavern and Craft Restaurants and includes Gail Simmons of Food Wine magazine and Ted Allen who is best known from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.