NBC Launching New Food-Based Competition Series

UNIVERSAL CITY: Celebrity chef and restaurateur Bobby Flay is the first of five culinary luminaries to join NBC’s new reality competition series America’s Next Great Restaurant (working title).

Flay will serve as a mentor, investor and judge for contestants who are competing for the opportunity to open a new restaurant chain in three cities across America. The series is from Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz of Magical Elves, the producers behind such hits as Project Runway and Top Chef. Flay will kick off the first open casting call in New York. Further open castings will continue on in Raleigh, North Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; Columbus, Ohio; Chicago, Illinois; Kansas City, Kansas; Denver, Colorado; and Los Angeles, California.

Flay, along with a select panel of some of the top names in the dining and business worlds, will select the winner and will invest their own money in the final restaurant chain.