National Restaurant Association Announces All-Star Chef Line-up for 2014 World Culinary Showcase

CHICAGO, Feb. 20, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- World-class celebrity chefs dish out their tips and tricks to showcase their culinary talents at the World Culinary Showcase at this year's 2014 National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show® and the International Wine, Spirits & Beer Event at NRA Show® (IWSB). Guest attendees will have the opportunity to learn from acclaimed chefs such as Maxime Bilet, co-author of Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking; Top Chef Masters contestants Rick Bayless, David Burke, Graham Elliot, and Art Smith; Travel Channel's Andrew Zimmern, as well as Food Network stars Claire Robinson, Robert Irvine, Marc Forgione; and more.

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"We are incredibly excited about this year's line-up of talented chefs – as well as our revamped culinary stage," said Sam Facchini, Convention Chair for NRA Show 2014 and co-founder and co-owner of Metro Pizza. "The new stage will provide an even greater opportunity to interact with these renowned chefs - to learn, laugh, and be inspired by practical knowledge and skills that operators can take home and apply to their own businesses. I invite all of our attendees to stop by World Culinary Showcase while they are here to experience it for themselves."

The World Culinary Showcase, running all four days of the NRA Show, will feature chefs from across the country with a wide range of culinary specialties. See here for a look at last year's World Culinary Showcase. This year's talent includes:

Rick Bayless – Winner of Bravo's Top Chef Masters and multiple James Beard award winner; author of seven award-winning cookbooks, including his latest book, Fiesta at Rick's; chef/owner of Frontera Grill, Topolobampo,  XOCO and 3 locations of his Tortas Frontera; founder of Frontera Farmer Foundation to attract support for small Midwestern farms. 

Maxime Bilet – Forbes "30 under 30" for the food and wine industry in 2012; Scoffier as one of the best emerging chefs of that year; co-author of Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking, which received the 2012 Book of the Year Award from the James Beard Foundation and of Modernist Cuisine at Home.

David Burke – Top Chef Masters contestant and chef/owner of restaurant empire including: David Burke Townhouse, David Burke at Bloomingdale's, David Burke Fishtail, and David Burke Kitchen, all in New York City; David Burke's Primehouse and Burke's Bacon Bar in Chicago, David Burke Prime at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut and Fromagerie in Rumson, NJ, and opening this year, David Burke Kitchen in Aspen, Colorado; author of two cookbooks, "Cooking with David Burke" and "David Burke's New American Classics."

Maneet Chauhan – Chopped judge, Iron Chef challenger and James Beard Award winner; author of World on My Plate and Flavors of My World; owner of soon-to-be-opened restaurant in Nashville, TN; active supporter of various charities such as CRY (Child Rights and You) and P.A.V.E. (Partnerships for Action, Voices for Empowerment).

Graham Elliot – Acclaimed chef, restaurateur and television personality; three-time James Beard Award nominee; Iron Chef and Top Chef Masters competitor; judge on Fox's MasterChef.

Marc Forgione – Chef/owner of the Michelin-starred Restaurant Marc Forgione as well as  American Cut in New York City, Revel in Atlantic City, and Laotian restaurant Khe-Yo; winner of "The Next Iron Chef;" author of Marc Forgione: Recipes and Stories from the Acclaimed Chef and Restaurant (April 2014); creator of the hand-crafted Bloody mix, Batch 22.

Robert Irvine – Host of The Food Network's Restaurant: Impossible and Restaurant Express; also seen on Dinner: Impossible, Worst Cooks in America, and The Next Iron Chef; author of two cookbooks Mission: Cook! and Impossible to Easy.

Jehangir Mehta – Participant on Food Network's Next Iron Chef Redemption and Iron Chef America; the runner-up on the Next Iron Chef; chef of Graffiti, Graffiti Me, and Mehtaphor; supporter of Gastro-Kids After-School initiative that promotes healthy eating among children through exciting after-school menus created just for them.

Pat Neely – After turning his family restaurant into one of the most renowned barbecue restaurants in the South, Pat Neely embarked on a career in television as one of America's favorite celebrity chefs with Food Network's Down Home with the Neelys, where he shared the secrets behind his favorite dishes and his passion for food, family and fun.

Claire Robinson – Host of 5 Ingredient Fix, a Food Network series featuring fresh recipes made with five ingredients or fewer; author of her first cookbook; host of Food Network Challenge; as well as hosted shows on BBC America and Cooking Channel.

Art Smith – Executive chef and co-owner of Table fifty-two, Art and Soul, LYFE Kitchen restaurants, Southern Art and Bourbon Bar, and Joanne Tratorria; once day-to-day chef to Oprah Winfrey; two-time James Beard Award recipient; two-time Top Chef Masters contestant as well as regular on numerous other television shows; author of three award-winning cookbooks of Back to the Table, Kitchen Life: Real Food for Real Families, and Back to the Family; founder of Common Threads, a non-profit organization teaching low-income children to cook wholesome and affordable meals since 2003.

Ming Tsai – James Beard Award-winning chef/owner of Blue Ginger and his new Asian Gastropub Blue Dragon; Emmy Award-winner, host and executive producer of PBS-TV's Simply Ming; author of five cookbooks including his latest, the interactive Simply Ming In Your Kitchen; national spokesperson for the Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE) organization; member of the Harvard School of Public Health's Nutrition Round Table; supporter of many charities including Big Brothers Big Sisters, Cam Neely Foundation, Family Reach Foundation, Common Threads and Greater Boston Food Bank.

Andrew Zimmern – Two-time James Beard Award-winning TV personality, chef, food writer, teacher; creator, host and co-executive producer of Travel Channel's hit series, Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern and Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre World; owner of food truck AZ Canteen which debuted in the summer of 2012 with expansion plans this year; contributing editor at Food & Wine magazine, an award-winning monthly columnist at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine and a senior editor at Delta Sky magazine; author of The Bizarre Truth, Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre World of Food and Andrew Zimmern's Field Guide to Exceptionally Weird, Wild & Wonderful Foods.

NRA Show 2014 will be held May 17-20 and IWSB will be held May 18-19 at Chicago's McCormick Place. To register, please visit Restaurant.org/Show/Register. Restaurants Rock guests must be registered NRA Show and IWSB attendees and may purchase tickets for $50 here.

The annual National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show is the largest annual gathering of restaurant, foodservice, and lodging professionals in the world. NRA Show 2014 will be held May 17-20 at McCormick Place in Chicago, and the 2014 International Wine, Spirits & Beer Event, held in conjunction with NRA Show, will take place May 18-19. The events attract 65,000+ attendees and visitors from all 50 states and 100+ countries, and the event showcases the latest products, services, innovative ideas, up-to-the-minute information about trends and issues, and more growth opportunities than any other industry event. For more information, visit the NRA Show and IWSB websites at Restaurant.org/Show and WineSpiritsBeer.org, and find the NRA Show on Twitter @NRAShow,  Facebook, Instagram @NRAShow,  YouTube, Flickr, Pinterest and its widely read NRA Show Blog.

Founded in 1919, the National Restaurant Association is the leading business association for the restaurant industry, which comprises 990,000 restaurant and foodservice outlets and a workforce of more than 13.5 million employees. We represent the industry in Washington, D.C., and advocate on its behalf. We operate the industry's largest trade show (NRA Show May 17-20, 2014, in Chicago); leading food safety training and certification program (ServSafe); unique career-building high school program (the NRAEF's ProStart); as well as the Kids LiveWell program promoting healthful kids' menu options. For more information, visit www.restaurant.org and find us on Twitter @WeRRestaurants, Facebook and YouTube.

SOURCE National Restaurant Association