Pack your knives; Seattle is a finalist to host Top Chef

Seattle could be home to the next season of the popular reality TV cooking show Top Chef. (Bravo photo)

Pack your knives. Seattle could be home to the next season of the popular reality TV cooking show Top Chef. But the region needs to put its money where its mouth is.

“They really want to be here, but they need to feel the love,” says Tom Norwalk, President of the Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Norwalk says the tourism promoter has been working with the show for several years and while the producers love the city’s cuisine and culinary talent, it ultimately comes down to which city is willing to pay producers enough to cover a significant amount of their production costs.

“And so this will take a sizable chunk of money from the leisure tourism promotion budget to really compete and be on an equal footing with another city.”

Norwalk estimates the cost could be in the neighborhood of $200,000 to $300,000. He says the city narrowly lost out to Austin, Texas for the season currently airing.

But Marketing Director Ali Daniels says that’s a minimal investment for millions of dollars worth of exposure.

“So basically, we would get 12 one-hour advertisements for our city.”

Daniels says the producers are interested in profiling both destinations in city and surrounding areas, such as the wineries in Woodinville and the San Juan Islands.

The show would be taped in the spring and air this fall.