Welcome to Hot Chef Day 2013

Good morning, and happy Hot Chef Day! In the Eaterverse, February 14 is a special day for romance between couples (to which those couples' sky-high dinner tabs tonight will attest), but it's also a day to celebrate the glorious good looks of SF's culinary talent. After combing through tons of comments and e-mails nominating seemingly every toque in town, we've narrowed down the talent pool to eight gentlemen and four ladies who'll compete for the title of SF's Hottest Chef, as voted by you, the readers. The winner of today's festivities will go on to compete at the national level for the title of Eater's Hottest Chef in America, so let's choose someone whose penetrating good looks will eventually enthrall the rest of the nation.

Since we didn't receive as many female nominees as male nominees, we're tilting the playing field slightly so that women have an equal shot at the title. Here's how today's voting heats will work, and the list of nominees:

• 10:30 am, Gentlemen's Heat 1 (Kory Stewart, Americano vs. Brandon Sharp, Solbar)
  
• 11:00 am, Ladies' Heat 1 (Maya Erickson, AQ vs. Dominique Crenn, Atelier Crenn)
  
• 11:30 am, Gentlemen's Heat 2 (Christopher Kostow, Meadowood vs. Corey Lee, Benu)
  
• 12:00 pm, Ladies' Heat 2 (Melissa Chou, Aziza vs. Azalina Eusope, Azalina's Malaysian)
  
• 12:30 pm, Gentlemen's Heat 3 (Bill Niles, St. Vincent vs. Jake Godby, Humphry Slocombe)
  
• 1 pm, Gentlemen's Heat 4 (Ryan Scott, Market & Rye vs. Chris Thompson, A16)
  
• 1:30 pm: Voting closes on all initial heats
  
• 1:45 pm: Winner of Gentlemen's Heat 1 vs. Winner of Gentlemen's Heat 2
  
• 2 pm: Winner of Ladies' Heat 1 vs. Ladies' Heat 2
  
• 2:15 pm: Winner of Gentlemen's Heat 3 vs. Winner of Gentlemen's Heat 4
  
• 3 pm: Voting closes on all second-round heats
  
• 3:30 pm: Manly face-off between the winners of the two gentlemen's heats
  
• 4 pm: Title round: Top Lady vs. Top Gentleman
  
• 5 pm: Voting closes, winner crowned
  

Ready? Let's do this.

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