Monsters and Critics.com - USA - Bravo does reality television with panache and intelligence.  Fans of "Top Chef" and "Project Runway" can attest to this.

Now, the stunning actress and trained dancer, Elizabeth Berkley, once known for her role as "Jessie" on the classic TV series "Saved By the Bell," claims her new dance show follows suit and replicates the higher standards of the other Bravo efforts.

Berkley is the host of Bravo's "Step It Up & Dance," premiering April 3 at 8:00 p.m.

She is joined by Tony award-winning choreographer Jerry Mitchell, who serves as a mentor for the contestants in the reality dance competition.

The Bravo series will

Mid Columbia Tri City Herald - Kennewick, WA, USA - Taste Washington, a two-day celebration of Washington wines, will include a series of wine seminars April 5 at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center in Seattle.

Wine lovers can attend up to 10 tastings and seminars featuring nationally recognized speakers and experts and enjoy a keynote luncheon featuring food prepared by Top Chef winner Ilan Hall.

"Wine lovers can satisfy their thirst for knowledge with a diverse lineup of seminar offerings for the novice and connoisseur alike," said Chris Stone, consumer marketing director for the Washington Wine Commission. "Washington State's remarkable wine industry is booming and consumers can experience firsthand what makes

Starpulse.com - Branford, CT, USA - I'd like to personally welcome all of you easy chair culinary pundits to another season of "Top Chef." This show is the best food competition on TV; you can take your "Iron Chef" and shove it.

The kitchen is no place for theatrics, just nifty knife work, refined flavor profiles and the usual reality show drama. All of your favorite nitpickers (Tom, Ted, Gail and Padma) are back for this season's culinary sojourn in the windy city of Chicago. The new locale will assuredly provide us with more and different challenges spawned from the flavors of the second city, so let

The Futon Critic - San Jose, CA, USA - Bravo's Emmy-nominated culinary creative competition series "Top Chef" fired up the competition last night by premiering once again as the No. 1 rated food show on cable across all demographics, according to Nielsen Media Research. With significant growth from its last cycle, the season premiere attracted 1,475,000 adults 18-49 and 2,256,000 total viewers.

Season to season, "Top Chef" premieres have grown, continuing Bravo's hallmark of increasing viewership with each original franchise cycle. Last night's 10 p.m. "Top Chef: Chicago" premiere increased from the third season premiere (6/13/07) by 11 percent in total viewers (2.256 vs. 2.024 million) and by five percent

Time Out Chicago - Chicago, IL, USA - As Top Chef airs its Windy City episodes, Features Editor Laura Baginski, Eat Out Senior Writer David Tamarkin and Comedy/Time In Editor Steve Heisler will be tracking its progress. Check back weekly for recaps and plenty of well-deserved snark (on the show’s behalf), and hit up the comments.

Chicago! The culinary capital of the world! Thanks for the kind words about our city, Jennifer Biesty (my vote for the contestant with the most appropriate last name), but if that’s true, wouldn’t Top Chef Chicago pick a less stereotypical, pedestrian dish for its first quick-fire challenge than deep-dish pizza?

But while the challenge

Chicagoist - Chicago, IL, USA - Top Chef is back and, according to Padma Lakshmi, tastier than ever. As Padma gives us an overview of the show, we get a brief glimpse of telling scenes to come – mainly, the predominant use of the F-word. And something tells us that this may be the most honest look we get into the back of the house. Winner gets: A spread in Food & Wine Magazine, showcase at the Annual Food and Wine Classic in Aspen, vacation to the French Alps, one hundred grand and all the Glad pimpin’ a person can take.

Padma Lakshmi, Tom Coliccho, Gail Simmons,

San Jose Mercury News - CA, USA - Turn on your television at just about any hour of the day or night and you can find a food fight.

The Food Network is loaded with culinary competition shows, involving both big names ("Iron Chef: America") and gifted amateurs (the new "Ultimate Recipe Showdown"). Fox's "Hell's Kitchen," with acerbic chef Gordon Ramsay, is a big hit with younger viewers and returns for its fourth season next month. BBC America regularly offers such series as "Last Restaurant Standing." Even PBS has dabbled with shows featuring battling cooks.

But the sharpest and most addictive series in the genre is Bravo's "Top Chef," which

The Stew - Chicago Tribune Blog - Chicago, IL, USA - Bravo’s "Top Chef: Chicago" premieres 9 p.m. Wednesday with some seasoned chefs bungling classic dishes that they clearly have never learned to make--but should have.

"That always surprises me," said a still-flabbergasted head judge Tom Colicchio in an interview promoting the premiere. We won’t give away the details, but the elimination challenge involves the chefs re-creating classic dishes. "Back when I came up 25 years ago, you learned the classics; you were cooking in kitchens. But nowadays you don’t have to learn those dishes."

Still, Colicchio went on to say that with this cast of 16, including two Chicagoans, Valerie Bolon and

Buffalo News - NY, United States - The culinary accent is on a hometown specialty and favorite classic dishes as “Top Chef” returns to Chicago to launch its fourth season with a special 75-minute episode at 10 p.m. Wednesday on Bravo.

Joined by guest judge Rocco DiSpirito, returning host Padma Lakshmi sizes up 16 rising chefs within minutes of the opening in a quick-fire challenge built around deep-dish pizza, a staple among Chicago foodies.

Then, the chefs must weather their first elimination challenge in the form of head-to- head cookoffs of such classic dishes as eggs Benedict, crab cakes, lasagna, shrimp scampi and steak au poivre, evaluated by Lakshmi,

Business Wire (press release) - San Francisco,CA,USA - New England Culinary Institute (NECI) graduate Manuel Trevino’s star is rising and he is making a name for himself in the highly competitive world of culinary arts. Trevino – an executive chef at Dos Caminos in New York City – was chosen from thousands of other U.S. chefs to be one of 16 “chef’testants” in Bravo’s “Top Chef: Chicago” show that will premier March 12 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

The highly anticipated fourth season of the Emmy Award-nominated number one food show on cable features a diverse wealth of talent and skills from rising young chefs from coast to coast (www.BravoTV.com).