Jeff Mauro is the host of the Food Network series Sandwich King and $24 in 24. Prior to this, he was the winner of the seventh season of the Food Network Star competition. Mauro, who is originally from Elmwood Park, Illinois, incorporates local Chicago restaurants into the context of his show. During Food Network Star, where fifteen contestants competed for an opportunity to have their own cooking show, Mauro maintained a strict concentration on sandwiches throughout the competition. The judges on the show noted Mauro's humor and likable persona, which are focal points of his personality on Sandwich King. Mauro rejected criticisms that there wasn?t enough to say about sandwiches to fill out a season, noting that any handheld "meal" could be classified as a sandwich. In 2012, Mauro was nominated for a Daytime Emmy award for his show Sandwich King on the Food Network Channel. The award eventually went to Bobby Flay for his show Bobby Flay's Barbecue Addiction. In January 2014, Mauro became a co-host on the Food Network's series The Kitchen along with Sunny Anderson, Katie Lee, Marcela Valladolid and Geoffrey Zakarian. [More at Wikipedia]