WEB SENSATION LAURA VITALE RETURNS TO THE KITCHEN ON NEW SEASON OF COOKING CHANNEL'S "SIMPLY LAURA"

New Season Premieres Saturday, March 5th at 10:30am ET/7:30am PT

NEW YORK - January 25, 2016 - Internet cooking sensation Laura Vitale spreads warmth and love from her kitchen to yours with simple, seasonal meals on the return of Simply Laura, premiering on Saturday, March 5th at 10:30am ET/7:30am PT on Cooking Channel. While Laura's roots are in Italian food, she is also an all-American girl who uses the power of a hearty meal to bring friends and family together. Throughout the season she shares her passion for food by cooking with her heart to create a blend of easy, enticing recipes.

"Cooking Channel's millennial audience first discovered Laura Vitale on her popular online cooking series, and now with the return of Simply Laura they will continue to be charmed by her bubbly personality and approachable recipes," said Didi O'Hearn, Senior Vice President Programming, Food Network & Cooking Channel.

For Laura food is a symbol of joy, and there is no other place where she is happier than cooking in her kitchen. Over the course of the eight half-hour episodes, Laura gives her delicious take on popular American mealtimes and shares personal stories behind each dish. In addition to tasty menus, Laura provides useful tips and tricks, from ideas on repurposing one main ingredient to make multiple meals, to make-ahead recipes to allow the most time to be spent enjoying family and friends, and to shortcuts for creating quick and easy meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

On the season premiere, Laura prepares a special date night with a restaurant-quality meal that she and her husband, Joe, can enjoy in the comfort of their own home. For the freshest ingredients for their dinner, Laura stops by her favorite local market to splurge on a beautiful cut of beef for the star of the plate - Seared New York Strip Steak. Inspired by her grandmother's "cucina povera" or poor food, she also prepares some steakhouse-worthy side dishes without a hefty price tag such as Green Beans with Herbed Butter and Crispy Ribollita. It takes two to make this date night a success, so while Laura plates the food, Joe arrives home with flowers and helps to set the table, showing date night can be even more romantic and affordable at home.

Fans can join Laura online at CookingChannelTV.com/SimplyLaura for exclusive videos featuring her lifestyle tips and they can also access recipes from the show. To connect to the conversation on Twitter use #SimplyLaura.

Internet sensation Laura Vitale moved to the United States when she was 12 years old. As a teenager, she developed her love for cooking from her Italian grandmother, learning many of the recipes for classic Italian dishes over the phone. She began working in her father's restaurants in her teens, but after they closed in 2008, she wanted to find a new way to continue to share her passion for cooking. In 2010, Laura began a new phase of her culinary career when she started her internet cooking series "Laura in the Kitchen." The series quickly became a hit and now boasts an audience of several million, making Laura a well-known name in the cooking community.

Simply Laura is produced by Rock Shrimp Productions.

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COOKING CHANNEL (www.cookingchanneltv.com) is an entertainment brand dedicated to today's passionate food lover. For food people, by food people, Cooking Channel is the answer to a growing hunger for more content devoted to food and cooking in every dimension from global cuisines to international travel, history and unconventional how-to's. Cooking Channel is part of the media portfolio of Scripps Networks Interactive (NYSE: SNI), which also includes Food Network (www.foodnetwork.com), HGTV (www.hgtv.com), DIY Network (www.diynetwork.com), Travel Channel (www.travelchannel.com), and Great American Country (www.gactv.com).