Dinner in Charlotte – Competition Dining

Competition Dining is a North Carolina-centric competition between local chefs. The bracket-style competition takes place across four cities: Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Raleigh, and Greenville, South Carolina. The winning chefs from each city compete in a final Battle of Champions, where one chef is declared the overall winner. To win, the chefs must each prepare three courses, incorporating two secret ingredients into their dishes. One appealing aspect of the competition is that the secret ingredients only include items grown and/or produced in North Carolina and the surrounding region. From strawberries, dairy, meats, chocolate, to a whole range of produce, the competition truly highlights the breadth of the state’s agriculture and food production.

Of course, the best of the evening is getting to eat and judge the three courses prepared by each chef (six in total). Each dish is served without disclosing by whom it was prepared. The audience then votes via a mobile application on a series of attributes including presentation, aroma, flavor (overall), flavor (secret ingredient), execution, creativity, use of secret ingredient, and accompaniments. To keep the scoring somewhat balanced, the competition uses a weighted scoring system of pros (culinary professionals) and Joes (the rest of the audience). Scores are revealed at the end of the night and the winning team moves onto the next round.

To date, I have attended three competition dining events. The most recent one was between Chef Clark Barlowe of Heirloom Restaurant and Chef Mike Suppa of Vivace and was held at the Bonterra Dining and Wine Room.

Each dinner begins with bread from Cary’s La Farm Bakery. The bread is shipped specially from the Cary, NC, bakery to the competition location and is some of the best bread I have had outside of France, thanks to the skill and talent of its Master Baker, Lionel Vatinet.

As the competition kicks-off, the secret ingredients are revealed to the dinner participants. For the competition between Chef Barlowe and Chef Suppa, the two ingredients were Cactus Creek Coffee and Black Mountain Chocolate. Given the versatility of these flavors, I knew I was in for a treat. And so the evening of eating and judging began…

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About Ashley

Eating good food has always been a favorite activity of mine. Having had the good fortune of traveling the world, I have developed an appreciation for a whole variety of cuisines; French, Italian, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Ethiopian, Middle Eastern, Indian, Mexican… I love them all. However, there is one region’s cooking that impassions me above all others; the Mediterranean. The main reason being that I married a Greek-American. The second, is my desire to eat as healthfully as possible without having to stock the pantry with exotic ingredients or venture too far from the familiar flavors of my mother’s home cooking. And so, I hope this blog will provide a window into the wonders of Greek cooking, the importance of good ingredients, the joys of home gardening, and the fun of food and travel.