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Home , Alton Brown, Iron Chef America, Sara Moulton

Simon Super Chefs Live! Returns For Encore Performance

March 30, 2005

Coast-to-Coast Tour Features Celebrity Chefs , , , Jacques and Claudine Pepin and More

Jacob's Creek, Bertolli, Dasani and KitchenAid to Serve as Major Sponsors

INDIANAPOLIS, March 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Simon Brand Ventures (SBV), the business-to-consumer arm of Simon Property Group (NYSE: SPG), is sticking with its winning recipe and offering second helpings of Simon Super Chefs Live! -- a coast-to-coast mall tour that invites eager food fans across the country to get up close and personal with today's most popular TV chefs. The unique culinary experience feeds America's growing fascination with "food- as-entertainment" by offering exciting in-mall celebrations of food, wine, cooking and shopping.

Kicking off April 2 in Orlando with Giada De Laurentiis, popular host of on and author of a newly released cookbook by the same name, each stop will serve up a renowned celebrity chef as headliner. Other chef "stars" will include:

* Alton Brown - author of several top-selling cookbooks and star of as seen on Food Network, as well as co-host of America, also on Food Network

* Nathalie Dupree - author of 10 cookbooks and host of more than 300 television shows that have aired on PBS, The Learning Channel and Food Network for over 15 years

* Mary Ann Esposito - author of eight cookbooks and host of Ciao Italia, the longest running cooking series on PBS

* Sara Moulton - cookbook author, host of Sara's Secrets as seen on Food Network, chef of the executive dining room at Gourmet Magazine and Food Editor for ABC-TV's

* Jacques Pepin - a legendary TV chef and Emmy Award-winning host and co- host of several cooking shows on PBS, who will appear together with daughter Claudine, co-host of Cooking With Claudine, which aired for several seasons on PBS

* Martin Yan - celebrated host of more than 1,900 TV cooking shows and author of 26 cookbooks

* Simon Super Chefs Live! is hosted by food and lifestyle authority, stage performer and four-time Emmy Award-winning TV host Bill Boggs.

Simon Super Chefs Live! is free and open to the public. Each event showcases live cooking performances by the featured celebrity chef, cooking demonstrations by popular local chefs, wine seminars, audience participation, food and beverage sampling, sponsor pavilions, cookbook sales and culinary activities with participating retailers and restaurants. Audience members are encouraged to chat with cooking celebrities and secure autographs.

The daylong event culminates with the highly popular Simon Super Chefs Live! Cookoff, where local food fans selected from the audience have the opportunity to serve as sous chefs during a live-action, on-stage cookoff. The high-energy Simon Super Chefs Live! Cookoff is typically the highlight of these events.

"A proprietary platform program developed specifically to target a core audience of women age 35-45 and a broader audience of women and men age 25-54, Simon Super Chefs Live! has actually shown to have extremely broad appeal among all people who view 'food as entertainment'," said Stewart Stockdale, chief marketing officer of Simon Property Group and president of Simon Brand Ventures.

"And we've found that Simon Super Chefs Live! is not only a popular event for shoppers, but an ideal venue for our retailer, restaurant and sponsor partners to engage motivated and attentive audiences in a shopping environment," he added.

A number of major brands have signed on as sponsors or partners for the Simon Super Chefs Live! 2005 tour.

* Jacob's Creek Wines (a division of Pernod Ricard USA) will host sampling of their Australian red and white wines at each tour location.

* Bertolli (a division of Unilever) will be presenting its new Bertolli Frozen Dinner for Two that will be prepared and sampled at the event site.

* Dasani (a division of Coca-Cola) will provide samples of its Dasani Lemon and Raspberry flavored bottled water beverages.

* Waldenbooks will sell featured chef cookbooks adjacent to the event stage at 18 of the tour stops, with other booksellers similarly participating at the other events.

* KitchenAid will present an on-stage, product demonstration, featuring Jennifer Bushman, KitchenAid spokesperson, demonstrating KitchenAid's Pasta Roller kit at select malls on the tour.

Following the Simon Super Chefs Live! event at participating KitchenAid malls, Ms. Bushman will present an in-store product/cooking demonstration at a participating anchor retailer.

"Jacob's Creek, Australia's Top Drop," which also served as a sponsor for the 2004 Simon Super Chefs Live! tour, had a decidedly positive experience. "The impact of Jacob's Creek's affiliation with the Super Chef's Live! tour was outstanding!" said Jeanne Toro, senior group director/wines and marketing systems for Pernod Ricard USA's Wine Group. "It gave us a perfect opportunity to meet face to face with our consumer base to discuss and sample the Jacob's Creek range of reserve wines."

"Simon Super Chefs is a great program for Dasani, because it's consistent with what consumers expect from the Dasani brand -- quality and great taste," said Rick Zuroweste, Dasani group marketing director.

Simon Super Chefs Live! is executive produced exclusively for Simon Malls by NY-based Culinary Entertainment Group and produced by Entertainment Design Group of . The national mall tour will culminate in early August in Seattle after stopping in major markets across the country, including: Jacksonville; Atlanta; Greenville, SC; Washington, D.C.; Charles County, MD; ; Long Island, NY; Philadelphia; Livingston, NJ; Cleveland; Pittsburgh; Chicago; Indianapolis; Memphis; Kansas City, MO; Dallas; Austin, San Diego; Orange County, CA; and San Francisco.

For further information on the Simon Super Chefs Live! tour and schedule, visit http://www.simon.com .

About Simon Brand Ventures

Simon Brand Ventures (SBV), Simon's business-to-consumer arm, has pioneered the transformation of shopping malls into a medium where consumer brands can build one-on-one relationships with shoppers who make approximately 2.2 billion visits to Simon Malls each year. Simon's vast franchise of market-leading shopping centers nationwide provides SBV the foundation to monetize the distribution system through numerous consumer ventures. SBV has engaged in a number of consumer business initiatives, including the Simon Giftcard(TM), launch of Simon platform programs -- such as Simon Kidgits Club(TM), Simon Super Chefs Live!(TM), Simon DTour Live(TM), Simon Mall for You(TM) and Simon Evening of Giving(TM); a national media delivery channel including static, digital and experiential marketing and advertising vehicles; and multiple national and local marketing alliances with Coca-Cola, Visa U.S.A. and Cingular Wireless, among others.

About Simon Property Group

Simon Property Group, Inc., headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, is a real estate investment trust engaged in the ownership, development and management of retail real estate, primarily regional malls, Premium Outlet(R) centers and community shopping centers. The Company's current total market capitalization is approximately $36 billion. Through its subsidiary partnerships, it currently owns or has an interest in 297 properties in the United States containing an aggregate of 203 million square feet of gross leasable area in 40 states plus Puerto Rico. Simon also holds interests in 51 European shopping centers in France, Italy, Poland and Portugal; 5 Premium Outlet(R) centers in Japan; one Premium Outlet(R) center in Mexico; and one shopping center in Canada. Additional Simon Property Group information is available at http://www.simon.com .

SOURCE Simon Property Group, Inc.

CONTACT: Kelli Hauser of Fleishman Hillard, +1-314-982-8704, [email protected] ; or Billie Scott of Simon Property Group, +1-317-263-7148, [email protected] /