And Now, The Hottest Chef in the Bay Area Contest Begins!

To start December off with a bang, it's the moment everyone's been waiting for, ever since the nomination lines were opened two weeks ago: the First Annual Hottest Chef in Bay Area competition, as decided by Eater readers far and wide. How this is going to work: A special panel of experts have ranked all reader-nominated chefs and in standard sporting fashion, the top seeds will face off against the bottom until we have a final list of contenders. In this competition, number one will compete against 30-32, two against 27-29, and so on until we have our final eight plus one wild card. And it's a loaded field, people. Sidenote: we'll be keeping a close watch on any suspicious behavior, so please no ballot-stuffing, because disqualifications are always an option. Let's make it a clean fight.

Today, the number one seed, Quince's virtuoso pastry chef William Werner, goes up against La Folie's silver fox Roland Passot, Fish & Farm's Chad Newton, and Spruce's Mark Sullivan. May the hottest chef win.