It’s back for a 4th season and this time network heavyweight Bobby Flay is on the selection committee full time. Also on the line up this season are guest judges Martha Stewart, Rachael Ray, Giada De Laurentiis, Alton Brown, Cat Cora, Sandra Lee, Gina and Pat Neely, Masaharu Moriomto, Tyler Florence, Michael Symon and Season Two winner Guy Fieri.

Challenges this season include everything from a late night race through Manhattan to teaming up with the Girl Scouts to fix healthy meals.

Also Food Network will allow online voting in which fans can pick their own favorite although fan voting has no (official) impact on who the selection committee picks.

The winner will be revealed during final episode on July 27th and will receive the usual six-episode show which will debut the follow month(August 2008).

If you’re keeping score at home Food Network Star is 1-1-1 (1 win, 1 loss, 1 ‘tie’). Season 2 winner Guy Fieri is well on is way to becoming a legitimate food star (we saw that early), Season 1 winners the Hearty Boys were hot for awhile but don’t seem to be making new episodes and last year’s Season 3 winner Amy Finely seems to have been a total bust. Too bad too because the ‘Gourmet at Home’ idea seemed sensible to us.

In any case the 10 finalists for Season 4 are: Nipa Bhatt (Victoria, MN), Jennifer Cochrane (Woonsocket, RI), Lisa Garza (Dallas, TX), Adam Gertler (Philadelphia, PA), Cory Kahaney (New York, NY), Shane Lyons (Colorado Springs, CO), Aaron McCargo Jr. (Camden, NJ), Kelsey Nixon (North Ogden, UT), Kevin Roberts (San Diego, CA), and Jeffrey Vaden (White Plains, NY).

Press Release

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