Coming to a City Near You: "Speed Plating"

Chef Danny Boome -- host of Food Network's Rescue Chef -- has found a way to combine America's passion for food with the dating scene (and it goes beyond the traditional dinner and a movie): a concept called "Speed Plating," bringing together good food and four dates in one night.

"As a young bachelor, I've had a lot of experiences in the dating world," Boome tells Slashfood. "But speed dating events can get a little repetitive, a little boring. You need an ice breaker. Food brings everyone together -- you have your likes, your dislikes and these days everyone has an opinion on food. So what we're trying to do with the food is heighten the senses...and hopefully people will find out something about the other person."

Like traditional speed dating events, 16 to 32 singles sign up for Boome's Speed Plating night, then they're paired off with four different dates, rotating with each of the evening's four different courses. If no match is found at the table, a cocktail hour closes out the night, where you could get a chance to reconnect with your "appetizer" date or talk to someone that looked appealing from across the room but wasn't in your group. The pros are evident -- you immediately have a conversation starter regarding your starter course, allowing for a quick window into a person's food preferences. Do they carefully select their peas one at a time or scoop up shovelfuls? Wipe the mouth, smack the lips? Eating habits can certainly be major deal breakers but obviously a love of food can be a great starting point for a romantic relationship.

Boome is designing the menus with romance in mind. "The menu design is a bit cheeky," he says. "One of the first sessions is a blind tasting, where one of the persons is blindfolded and the other feeds you. It tries to get your senses going."

Aside from merely providing a platform for singles to get together, it's also a boost for the restaurants participating in the show. "No matter how good your business is, you need to find more ways to keep people coming through the doors. So if we can help restaurants and the chefs who are willing to work with me, it's fantastic. If you get together a group of people who have four courses and it's a good meal, they're going to come back."

Boome will host the speed-plating events, which are scheduled to roll out starting at New York City's Tree next month; he has partnered with Speeddate.com for the concept's platform. Assuming all goes well, Boome hopes to have Chicago, San Francisco and Atlanta thrown into the mix starting in 2011, perhaps in conjunction with a "restaurant week" theme that currently happens in major U.S. cities these days.