ADVISORY/El Pollo Loco Holds 11th Annual Perfect Pollo Challenge.

News/Assignment Editors & Food/Restaurant Writers

ADVISORY ... for Thursday (Dec. 5)

--(BUSINESS WIRE)

-- The Competition Sizzles as Six El Pollo Loco Finalists Compete for Cash and Prizes in a Heated Cook-Off to Name the Chain's Top Grill Master

-- Televison, Film and Stage Star Tony Plana Will Help Judge the Best Chicken and Kick Off El Pollo Loco's Percentage of Sales Event Benefiting the East L.A. Classic Theatre


WHAT:                  El Pollo Loco celebrates the art of cooking
                       Perfect Pollo at its 11th Annual Perfect Pollo
                       Challenge.  The event is held each year to
                       recognize and reward the grilling expertise
                       that put El Pollo Loco on the map.

                       In a heated competition that brings to an
                       exciting finish months of regional
                       competitions, six finalists from the more than
                       1,000 cooks in El Pollo Loco's more than 300
                       restaurants will compete for a $2,000 grand
                       prize and the title of Grand Grill Master as
                       they fire up the grill and demonstrate their
                       cooking expertise in a contest to determine who
                       prepares the best chicken in the chain.

                       The finalists will be judged by a panel of
                       chicken connoisseurs, including three-time
                       champion Juan Barco and television, film and
                       stage star Tony Plana. A percentage of all
                       sales on Dec. 5, 2002 at the El Pollo Loco
                       restaurant hosting the event will benefit the
                       East L.A. Classic Theater, a non-profit
                       organization dedicated to providing literacy
                       training and theatre experiences to
                       disadvantaged youth and minority communities.

WHERE:                 El Pollo Loco restaurant located at:
                       5319 West Sunset Boulevard (corner of Sunset
                       and Serrano Street)
                       Los Angeles, CA 90027

WHEN:                  Thursday, Dec. 5, 2002
                       8 a.m.-10 a.m.

WHY:                   As the nation's leader in marinated,
                       flame-broiled chicken, El Pollo Loco's legacy
                       began more than 25 years ago.  It was 1975 when
                       Pancho Ochoa opened his first roadside chicken
                       stand in the small town of Guasave on Mexico's
                       Pacific Coast.

                       He named it El Pollo Loco and began serving
                       chicken the same way his mother did --
                       marinated in an old family recipe of special
                       herbs, spices, and fruit juices and then
                       carefully flame-broiled to perfection.

                       Through the years, the art of grilling perfect
                       pollo has been passed down from cook to cook in
                       El Pollo Loco restaurants throughout the West.
                       El Pollo Loco pays tribute to the grilling
                       expertise and artistry that made it famous at
                       its annual Perfect Pollo Challenge.