Chefs Compete for Vegan Iron Chef All-Stars Title

Live cooking competition winners battle for bigger title using a secret ingredient or two

New York, NY, February 12, 2016 --(PR.com)-- Vegan Iron Chef presents its first All-Stars Competition Wednesday February 24th 6:30 pm at Verdi Club in San Francisco. This fourth annual live cooking competition puts the past winners of San Francisco’s Vegan Iron Chef in a three-way battle of culinary skills for the grand title, and prizes including a Blendtec blender.

The competing chefs are wunderkind Jay Astafa from Long Island, the creatively fresh Lisa Books-Williams, and omnivorous underdog Kevin Schuder. Handing out this big new title are the trio of web personality Dustin Harder, VegNews publisher Colleen Holland, and George Lin, the unofficial vegan mayor of San Francisco. Emceeing this live and livestreaming excitement is author and TV personality Lani Muelrath, hailing from Sacramento.

Lani is a multi-award winning teacher, speaker, and author having made numerous television appearances before, ready to break down the action minute by minute. Dustin, aka The Vegan Roadie, is bringing his recipe testing expertise from the television hit Cupcake Wars and the wildly popular dishes at byCHLOE., which is opening two more locations after only being open six months! 20 year vegan foodie Colleen Holland has been a catalyst for growing the vegan movement with her hand on the pulse of everything vegan as co-founder of VegNews Magazine. She is a returning judge. George Lin is well-known on the local vegan scene supporting many of the Bay’s best vegan chefs. Besides being a microblogger, dancer, LGBT rights advocate, animal rights activist, and culinary explorer, George is the force the emerging 365 Days of Dance project. The chefs will need to be very creative and be at the top of their game to impress this judges’ panel.

The three competing chefs are previous winners and star chefs in their own right so it will be a fierce competition. Lisa Books-Williams won the first Vegan Iron Chef. She is an acclaimed chef and ‘vegucator’, known for winning Best of Raw NYC 2010, her nutritious plant-based diets, and for her role as a master teacher. Lisa blew the judges away with her raw live vegan dishes. Is her fresh take on food enough to overtake her competitors though?

Second year winner Jay Astafa grew up in the restaurant business. At the age of 16, he created a plant-based menu that gained the attention of the New York Times, and since then has been a vegan force working with acclaimed chefs and celebrities embracing plant-based foods. This vegan wunderkind will have to keep making strides, under intense pressure, to take a new title home.

Last year’s winner and loca chef Kevin Schuder trained at the renowned Millennium Restaurant and has worked locally at top restaurants including the emerging Citizen Fox. He’s recently focused on his own pop-up dinners utilizing the bountiful local produce of the Bay Area. His passion for delicious sustainable food has driven his career in vegan cuisine. As the only omnivorous chef competing, some may consider him the underdog. All three chefs have the skills and know-how, but who can handle the pressure to create a culinary masterpiece that will win the title!

Sponsors for the event include Blendtec, Obsessive Confection Disorder, Monsieur Vegan Croissant, Rainbow Grocery, Upton’s Naturals, Vegan Mashup, and VegNews. This events is presented by Dancin' in the Eats and Karine Brighten Events.

What: Vegan Iron Chef All-Stars Competition
When: Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Where: Verdi Club, 2424 Mariposa St, San Francisco
Cost: $30 and $75 through Valentine’s Day. If available, remaining tickets will be $40 and $100 thereafter
More Info: purplepass.com/allstars

Media Contact:
For interviews or more information, please email Demetrius Bagley - dbagley@vegand.net. High-resolution images of the chefs, MC and judges are available at bit.ly/vicsf16pix
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Demetrius Bagley
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