Our own "Culinary Combat" will challenge six local chefs to use their creativity to produce a winning dish right in front of your eyes. Similar to the Food Network's hit show "Chopped", our chefs will be given a market basket of ingredients and have 30 minutes to create a dish to present to a panel of esteemed judges.
Judging this competition will be: Alice Graham Underhill, Representative for North Carolina House District 3 Elizabeth Norfleet, Publisher, conducts cooking classes, runs own website, develops and designs catalogs and food related media Gloria Russakov, writer and food critic Jeffrey Yourdon, head of the Culinary Technology Program at Lenoir Community College Judy Castranova, recipe contest winner, writer for the Greenbrier Gazette, and author of two food blogs
New this year, one of our attendees can win the chance to serve as our "people's Choice" judge.Raffle tickets will be sold during the evening and one lucky person will be chosen to sit at the Judges' Table and taste and rate the creations of our competing Chefs. Don't you want it to be you?
Last year's event was won by the team of Gabriel Maldonado, Andy Hopper, and Chris Maravelas, all back this year to compete individually. We look forward to seeing what they create.The winning dishes last year, with the secret ingredient of salmon, included Gabriel's dish; Salmon Three Ways.
Andy's creation was Fennel crusted cast in seared salmon with squid ink risotto, blood orange puree, and purple basil pesto.
