If you’ve witnessed the Food Network show “Chopped,” which pits chefs from around the United States against each other in three timed heats to crown a winner, then you’re aware that food competitions don’t lack a flair for the dramatic. Amid the tears, damaged pride and uncomfortably swollen egos is the beauty of competition, a sense of accomplishment and the prize of $10,000.

Following up on Feed Your Soul’s wildly popular Nickel City Chef competitions—modeled after the Food Network’s Iron Chef America—between Buffalo’s top culinary wizards, the brand-new Nickel City Firing Line will present a glorious opportunity for tandems of sous-chefs and line cooks to out-duel their peers. Two preliminary heats are scheduled for Nov. 7 and Nov. 14, each of which will pit three challengers against each other to determine one cook worthy of a place in the final, which is slated for Dec. 2.

Contenders can still apply by completing the following form and mailing it to Artisan Kitchens and Baths or dropping it off to 200 Amherst St., Buffalo, in person. Applications are due Oct. 1 and online submissions can be sent to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Tickets will go on sale to the general public Oct. 5, and there’s no word yet on pricing. Because of the intimate nature of Artisan Kitchens and Baths, the series is expected to sell-out within two days.

While the full details of the battles are discussed in the application above, the similarities between Chopped and the Firing Line are clear: contestants are given a time-limit to concoct an appetizer with a $50 stipend in part one of the competition, and then must create an entree for a panel of judges out of a market share basket. Only one chef will survive from each of the first two heats.

Dec. 2’s final demands another market share entree creation and a dessert made from a secret ingredient. Given the rather bizarre nature of secret ingredients in the Food Network show—such as lamb hearts, rice cakes and honey flavored cough drops—the creative minds of Buffalo’s chefs will be pushed to their limit.