The new season of Top Chef kicks off (or cooks off, to be precise) on March 12 in Chicago. Here’s a rundown of the contestats vying for this reality show title…

Andrew (pictured) is a 30-year-old sous chef from New York City. He has studied everything from the French cuisine of Raymond Blanc to the molecular gastronomy of Ferran Adria. The man possesses strong skills in a variety of different types of cuisine.

31-year-old Antonia hails from Los Angeles. She’s currently the executive chef at a popular restaurant called Foxtail. The single mother lives with her 7-year-old daughter and has a background in Italian cuisine. Antonia loves root beer floats with her daughter.

Check out the rest of the contestants now, courtesy of BuddyTV.

Greetings, Top Chef fans!

Have you ever wanted to cook like your favorite contestants on the show? Well, a newly released cookbook should help you achieve this goal.

You can pre-order the Top Chef Cookbook right now. Don’t wait!

Padma Lakshmi is a busy lady.

But she recently found time in her schedule to discuss her most recent book, Tangy Tart Hot and Sweet, along with the latest season of Top Chef.

“Yes, we just wrapped [taping for season 4] up last week in Chicago. It went really well and I ate like a pig. Now I’m going to have to exercise,” Lakshmi said.

And how did it go?

“It’s all amazing. The fact that this show just keeps getting more popular and it’s attracting a higher caliber of chefs is what impresses me. And the food is outstanding.”

Lakshmi also responded to criticism that she’s isn’t actually behind all of the content of her books. Setting the record straight, she said:

“You know, I get [questioned about that] all the time, and yes, absolutely, this book is 100 percent me. I wrote every single word and the text for every recipe. It was two years in the making and a labor of love for me. My fingerprints are on every aspect of the book, and it’s more of me than anything in my life.”

Are Wednesdays currently the best night of the week for reality TV? We think so.

You’ve got a cooking show that actually doesn’t focus on just one mean cook yelling a lot (yes, we’re looking at you and shaking our head, Gordon Ramsay) in Top Chef.

And then you’ve got a show that actually makes us laugh… with the contestants, as opposed to at them! Last Comic Standing has always been a favorite of this writer. With that in mind, check out the latest episode guide now to see what Alonzo Bodden and company were up to last night.

But don’t stop there. Read about the latest sizzle on Top Chef via that show recap, as well.

Top Chef judge and restaurateur Tom Colicchio has a bone to pick with his Hell’s Kitchen counterpart Gordon Ramsay over the way Fox’s foul-mouthed culinary king treats his aspiring chefs.

“I watched five minutes of [Hell's Kitchen] once and turned it off because I can’t deal with people screaming at chefs,” said Colicchio. “I try to treat the [Top Chef] contestants the way I would treat the cooks in my kitchen - you have to be firm, you have to criticize them, but you do it in a way to build them up, not rip them apart.”

Colicchio said he works nights so he’s not usually around to watch much TV, and when he does find himself in-front of the television it’s usually to watch his favorites.

“It’s not [Hell's Kitchen],” he told TV Guide.

Colicchio said he considers his Bravo reality show’s third-season cast, which consists mostly of sous chefs or executive chefs, to be “a deeper talent pool” than Top Chef’s previous seasons. Nevertheless, he couldn’t help but offer some words of wisdom from his decades of experience in the restaurant industry.

“Simple is better than complicated, especially when you’re doing things under time constraints,” he told TV Guide. “I think too often their minds are racing so quickly that they end up doing more than they can handle. The chefs that are really going to distinguish themselves are the chefs that are going to do something uniquely their own. You want to see someone’s own style and personality on the plate.”

To cook-up some buzz around the premiere of Top Chef 3 Miami (Wednesday, June 13 at 10:00 – 11:15 p.m. ET/PT), Bravo has partnered with NYC & Company to kick off NYC Restaurant Week.

The event will featurea live cook-off event on Tuesday, June 12, between Season 2 native New Yorkers, winner Ilan Hall (pictured) and fan favorite Sam Talbot, with series host Padma Lakshmi as emcee and chef Tom Colicchio as lead judge.

Bravo also has joined forces with the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau for Top Chef’ Presents a Taste of Miami Spice yesterday in Miami Beach - home base to the series’ third season - a free preview of Miami’s finest restaurants. Both New York City and Miami Beach will present official Top Chef Day proclamations to take effect on June 13.

“I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the best restaurants in both New York City and Miami Beach than with the best of our Top Chefs,” said Jason Klarman, EVP Marketing & Digital, Bravo.

Earlier this week, Bravo announced its first-ever venture into the Hispanic market with a multi-faceted promotional partnership with sister network Telemundo and Bravo’s hit culinary series Top Chef 3 Miami.

The promotional elements will include creative in-show integrations for both Top Chef 3 Miami and Telemundo’s popular morning show Cada Dia; a webisode cooking series hosted by Top Chef season two contestant Carlos Fernandez, produced in English and Spanish for www.BravoTV.com and Yahoo!Telemundo (www.YahooTelemundo.com) websites; and weekly blogs featuring Fernandez’s take on the series.

The announcement was made today by Jason Klarman, Executive Vice President, Marketing and Digital, Bravo, together with Don Browne, President, Telemundo.

“Partnering with Telemundo is the perfect way to leverage the Latin influence of this season and drive viewership with the Hispanic audience,” said Klarman.

“This alliance represents the perfect marriage between Bravo’s quality product and bilingual viewership and Telemundo’s bilingual talent,” added Browne. “This partnership will strengthen Bravo’s presence among U.S. Hispanics and will increase Telemundo’s audience and awareness in the general market.”

That’s right. Bravo has officially ordered another helping (har har) of its acclaimed reality TV series Top Chef, the Scoop has learned.

Top Chef is the No. 1 rated food series in all of cable TV, and one of the top reality TV shows in existence. We’re happy it will make its return for a third season of culinary competition.

A nationwide casting call for season three of Top Chef fires-up this spring with cook-offs in Dallas, Las Vegas, Miami, New York, and San Francisco.

In February, Bravo devoured the competition (we’re here all day, ladies and gents) with the Season 2 finale of Top Chef, with a delectable 3.896 million viewers and 2.879 million adults age 18-49 tuning in.

Bespectacled New Yorker Ilan Hall won the second season finale in what was the #1 telecast on cable for the night and even beat ABC’s Primetime in head-to-head competition in viewers 18-49 (2.879 vs. 2.705).

Bravo has not announced whether Padma Lakshmi, who replaced Katie Lee Joel as host, will return for the third season, the premiere date for which has not been set. The show will take place in Miami, Florida.