Eater's Hot Chef Day Contest Begins Now

Welcome to Eater's fifth annual Hottest Chef competition! But as Eater Louisville is in its first year of existence, we're poppin' our cherry. Through three rounds of polling, all of which will take place today, we'll crown Louisville's inaugural Hottest Chef. Our chefs are renowned nationwide for their dishes; soon they'll be just as famous for being bootylicious. (Hopefully the contest goes down smoother than that rhyme.)

Sixteen eligible Louisville-area chefs were nominated (they have to be currently working in a restaurant). They were randomly grouped into four pools of four. Voting for each pool will occur this morning, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

The winners of each pool, four chefs total, will move on to round 2 and be seeded according to the number of votes they received in round 1. The chef with the most votes (1 seed) will go head-to-head with the chef who received the least votes (4 seed), with seeds 2 and 3 competing against each other. Voting in round two will take place from 1 to 3 p.m.

The two winners from round 2 will then compete in the final, with polls open from 3:30-5 p.m.

Any suspicious behavior will be forwarded to the stewards for an inquiry and possible disqualification.

The winner gets the title of Louisville's Hottest Chef—as well as to compete against winners in other city's Hottest Chef contests. Whether that honor leads to other perks, such as increased business, a modeling contract or enough meaningless sex to guarantee a nasty case of gonorrhea (it's nothing to clap about), is up to him or her.

UPDATE 5:20 p.m. We have a winner
Congrats to 610 Magnolia's Johnny Streetman who bested Volare's Josh Moore 273-244 (53 percent to 47 percent) in the final.

UPDATE 3 p.m. Round 2 Results
Winner in bold, select the link for a breakdown of the votes.

·Semifinal A: Streetman vs. Searle
·Semifinal B: Lamas vs. Moore

UPDATE 12:40 p.m. Round 1 Results
Winner in bold, select the link for a breakdown of the votes.

·Round 1, Pool A: Lehman, Lawrence, Cary, Streetman
·Round 1, Pool B: Rogers, Pettry, Moore, Hillyard
·Round 1, Pool C: Wallace, Searle, Banet, Hartley
·Round 1, Pool D: Lamas, McCabe, Lee, Myers