UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. – March 12, 2010 –Critically acclaimed celebrity chef/restaurateur Bobby Flay (“Iron Chef America: The Series”) is the first of five key restaurant and business leaders to join NBC’s new reality competition series “America’s Next Great Restaurant” (working title) premiering next season. Flay will be an investor, judge and sometimes mentor to the zealous contestants who are vying for arguably the biggest prize in reality show history — the opportunity to open a new restaurant chain in three cities across America.

Open casting calls for the series are set to take place March 19 – April 5 in New York City, New York (March 19, 20), Raleigh, North Carolina (March 22), Nashville, Tennessee (March 24), Columbus, Ohio (March 26), Chicago, Illinois (March 28), Kansas City, Kansas (March 30), Denver, Colorado (April 1) and Los Angeles, California (April 5).

The reality competition series is from Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz of Magical Elves, the Emmy Award-nominated producers of “Project Runway” and “Top Chef.”

Flay will kick off the first open casting call in New York as casting teams set out on a cross-country bus tour to scour the nation for potential contestants.   Participants do not need to have any cooking or restaurant experience — just a great idea for a unique restaurant concept.

Flay joins a select panel of some of the most important names in both the dining and business worlds who will ultimately select the winner.  These individuals will invest their own money in the final restaurant chain, and will have a huge stake in the game’s winner.  These larger-than-life personalities will offer the hopeful restaurateurs their expertise, support — and the kind of tough love it will take to overcome great odds.  Ultimately, after much-heated debates, the panel will choose the winning concept and decide which idea will become America’s newest restaurant chain.

Thousands of ideas will be narrowed down and then each week the investors will put the chosen few through rigorous challenges to discover which contestant’s concept has the greatest potential for success.  The stakes have never been higher for the contestants and the investors.  One contestant’s dream will become a reality.

Flay, star of “Iron Chef America: The Series” and “Throwdown with Bobby Flay,” shows his culinary versatility in the multiple talents he brings to the field as a chef/restaurateur, award-winning cookbook author and television personality.  Most importantly, he is a leading restaurateur.

Interested applicants for the series should log onto nbc.com/casting to pre-register for an open casting call at one of the eight stops on the nationwide casting bus tour.  Along with a filled out and signed application and a photo-ID, casting teams want applicants to bring anything they feel would help pitch their restaurant concept. Elements could be visual, edible or even wearable and applicants will have a limited time to pitch their idea.