April 3, 2013

COLUMBIA, S.C. – University of South Carolina head men’s basketball coach Frank Martin will take part in the LG Coaches Cook-Off at this weekend’s Final Four in Atlanta, facing off against West Virginia Head Coach Bob Huggins in a cooking competition hosted by celebrity chef Richard Blais, LG and the NABC.

LG Electronics USA, an official Corporate Partner of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), is bringing its “A” game to Atlanta during the 2013 NCAA® Men’s Final Four® weekend, April 5-8.

As part of the festivities, LG, along with the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), will be hosting its signature event – the LG Coaches Cook-Off^TM– with celebrity chef Richard Blais, as well as a Harlem Globetrotters game presented by LG and CBS Sports analyst Greg Anthony, and a series of engaging and fun-filled high-tech activities at the LG Fan House at Bracket Town. Attendees there will also be able to experience NCAA college basketball highlights in “4K” on LG’s award-winning 84-inch class Ultra HD TVs.

Fan-favorite NCAA coaches Bob Huggins of West Virginia University and Frank Martin of the University of South Carolina will take their friendly court rivalry into the kitchen in the LG Coaches’ Cook-Off, a battle between two former Kansas State colleagues to chop, season and present the tastiest upscale game-day finger foods.

Hosted and judged by Blais, Bravo’s “Top Chef All-Stars” winner, author and Atlanta restaurateur, the LG Coaches’ Cook-Off will benefit the Coaches vs. Cancer® program, a collaboration between the American Cancer Society and the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) that allows coaches to help finish the fight against cancer. After the cooking competition, LG will donate $20,000 to the American Cancer Society in the winning coach’s name.

Huggins and Martin will each quickly craft Blais’s own delectable, game-day English Muffin Pizza recipe, from his new, top-selling cookbook, Try This At Home: Recipes From My Head to Your Plate, in the LG Kitchen, using LG’s best-in-class products to prepare their competing dishes.

Among the products used will be LG’s French-Door Refrigerator with its innovative Door-in-Door feature. A convenient solution for cooks crunched for time, it will help the coaches shave time off their preparation thanks to the magnetically sealed section of the right refrigerator door, allowing easy access to commonly used items without opening the main refrigerator door. The coaches will also need to clean up their space, using the Easy Clean^TM feature on LG’s newest range, requiring nothing more than a spray of water and a few minutes. The LG Dishwasher with EasyRack^TM and TrueStream^TM Technology will also help the coaches cut their cleanup time by virtually eliminating the need to prewash dishes.

Fans will also be able to watch the coaches’ progress during the culinary showdown on a 55-inch class LED smart TV in high-definition picture quality as the contestants scramble to combine ingredients and cross them off the list using the QuickMemo feature on the award-winning LG Optimus G smartphone. LG Optimus G allows fans to stay tuned into the biggest college basketball sporting event of the year, whether they are sharing commentary with QuickMemo, watching replays on the impressive 4.7-inch True HD IPS Plus display, or beaming highlights wirelessly to their LG Smart TV using LG’s SmartShare feature.