London – NBCUniversal International Formats announced a deal for its hit unscripted format Top Chef with Discovery Italia’s free to air channel, Deejay. The Italian version of the cooking competition will be produced and broadcast in 2016.

The deal will be Top Chef’s 18th local production, with the show capturing an audience of over 110 million viewers globally.

Top Chef is a reality competition show pitting chefs against each other in culinary challenges.  The Emmy award-winning series first aired on Bravo in the U.S. in 2006 and is currently set for its thirteenth season.

After huge success in the U.S. on Bravo, M6 in France and Antena3 in Spain, Deejay is hoping for an equally long and successful run.

Hannah Worrall, VP, Format Sales & Production, NBCUniversal International Formats says: “As the Italian home of Bravo’s Top Chef, we are thrilled Discovery Italia is expanding its association with the brand by commissioning a localised version. We are confident the channel will provide its local audience with another high quality international production of this Emmy award-winning hit.”