Food Network's Ultimate Recipe Showdown Winner Inspires 'Peruvian Herb-Roasted Chicken' Available Only at Friday's(R) Restaurants

CARROLLTON, Texas, Feb. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- After a nationwide contest to determine the Ultimate Chicken Recipe, an entree inspired by Amparo Alam, a 51-year-old Wal-Mart bakery worker and full-time mom from Syracuse, Utah, debuts at over 600 US T.G.I. Friday's(R) restaurants today.

Alam's recipe was judged to be best in class by a panel of food experts on Food Network's Ultimate Recipe Showdown, a six-week series featuring America's greatest home cooks battling head-to-head for $25,000, culinary supremacy and a spot on T.G.I. Friday's menu.

The "ultimate" result: Peruvian Herb-Roasted Chicken, a roasted half-chicken seasoned with a lime, garlic, cumin and herb rub and served with sweet potato fries and a spicy Aji pepper sauce for dipping.

"What's great about this dish is that it just screams 'Friday's'," said Scott Randolph, Senior Director of Culinary, R&D for T.G.I. Friday's.

"We are very excited to bring America's greatest recipes to our guests," said Mike Archer, president and chief operating officer of T.G.I. Friday's USA. "These are real recipes from real people and their creations have inspired menu items that are only available at Friday's."

Food Network's Ultimate Recipe Showdown, hosted by Marc Summers and Guy Fieri, features 54 original recipes, whittled down from thousands of submissions, divided into six categories -- Burgers, Chicken, Comfort Foods, Pasta, Cakes, and Cookies. Every Sunday at 9 pm ET/PT, nine finalists compete under the lights and in front of an enthusiastic crowd to make the most delicious version of their recipe. A panel of judges including Katherine Alford (Director, Food Network Test Kitchen), Kerry Simon (chef and partner at SIMON LA, Simon at Palms Place and CatHouse at the Luxor) and Russ Parsons (Food Columnist, The Los Angeles Times) then score each dish on creativity, appearance, ease of execution and taste.

Carlson Restaurants Worldwide Inc., the parent company of T.G.I. Friday's Inc., is a privately held company owned by Minneapolis-based Carlson, a world leader in the hospitality, travel and marketing industries. As of February 2008, Carlson Restaurants Worldwide owns, operates, franchises or licenses more than 1,000 restaurants in 58 countries. For more information, visit http://www.fridays.com/.

FOOD NETWORK (http://www.foodnetwork.com/) is a unique lifestyle network and Web site that strives to be way more than cooking. The network is committed to exploring new and different ways to approach food -- through pop culture, competition, adventure, and travel -- while also expanding its repertoire of technique-based information. Food Network is distributed to more than 90 million U.S. households and averages more than seven million Web site users monthly. With headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit and Knoxville, Food Network can be seen internationally in Canada, Australia, Korea, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Monaco, Andorra, Africa, France, and the French-speaking territories in the Caribbean and Polynesia. The E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE: SSP) , which also owns and operates HGTV (http://www.hgtv.com/), DIY Network (http://www.diynetwork.com/), Great American Country (http://www.gactv.com/) and FINE LIVING (http://www.fineliving.com/), is the manager and general partner.

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