Flight vs. LAB: An Eggciting Evening

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WNC Chefs Challenge 2011, Week 3

Wine & Food Festival

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Flight vs. LAB: An Eggciting Evening

By Eric Seeger

Eggcellent! Eggceptional! They weren’t yoking around!
There are a lot of corny clichés that I could use to describe this week’s Chefs Challenge, and I just want to clear them all out early.

It’s OK. You’re safe now.

To be perfectly honest, I initially cringed at the potential list of reimagined culinary mainstays when last night’s secret ingredient was announced. Bring on the tabbouleh-stuffed deviled egg appetizers and oriental-style flan desserts, right? Thank goodness, no.

Green Hill Urban Farm and Farside Farms supplied the chefs with a selection of chicken, quail, and duck eggs, which turned into with extremely tasteful (in every sense of the word) offerings. The night’s competing restaurants were both represented by very savvy teams who delivered surprising dishes with every course.

On the surface, Flight Wood Grill & Wine Bar and Lexington Avenue Brewery (or as they prefer to be called, LAB) sound fairly dissimilar; Flight is one of Hendersonville’s most stylish restaurants, while LAB specializes in microbrewing on downtown Asheville’s funkier side. But they actually meet somewhere in the middle of the culinary spectrum. LAB has earned a reputation for elevating bar food to a standard that normally requires reservations, and Flight prides itself on making upscale eating a relaxed and accessible pleasure. In many ways, they’re not very different from each other.

This was both teams’ first time competing in the Chefs Challenge, but they tooled their games well to the format: Each team learned the secret ingredient when they arrived around noon, they were not allowed any written recipes or outside help, and the dishes would be scored/judged by the entire audience. The team with the most points moves on to the next round.

When all the score sheets were tallied, only a 3.1 percent difference separated the two teams. Saying it was close would be an understatement. That margin averages to just a few points’ difference for each scorecard.

Team Flight’s strategy seemed to use eggs in their traditional context: as ingredients within bigger dishes. For instance, there was a small, fried quail egg resting atop a hearty bowl of lentil soup. And duck egg was used in the breading of succulent pork tenderloin. The main course dish was served over golden-brown potato chips, and I must admit that little touch left me (incorrectly) assuming Team LAB was serving this recipe. Sure, I was wrong, but that dish was just so right and landed in my top two of the competition.

In the end, it was Team LAB who won that three-percent margin. Their dishes presented the secret ingredient in a slightly more in-your-face manner. It all started with the appetizer, which read like a story from left to right: First, there was a ravioli filled with soft egg yoke that left everyone wondering “How’d they do that?” It was served alongside asparagus caviar that looked deceivingly like real roe. And the faux roe sat next to a crostini topped with crab salad. The dish wasn’t huge on flavor, but its presentation created a beautiful plate. Team LAB’s duck Sausage Scotch Egg took home the most points of the night. Far from an understated dish, the ball of fried sausage rested atop a portion of stir-fried vegetables surrounded by slices of smoked duck breast. In a competition, where small servings often rule the day, this formidable dish was a welcome change of pace.

And even more style points went to Team LAB for their dessert, which involved an intricate presentation that incorporated an eggy meringue cake topping. The dish was a high scorer for its intricacy, but I was also a fan of the simplicity found in Flight's bread pudding. Either way, neither team went wrong with their
desserts.

Both competitors wowed the crowd with what was an extremely strong set of dishes. While Team LAB moves on to the next round, Team Flight went back to Hendersonville having proven that they are extremely strong competitors. Hopefully they’ll return to the Chefs Challenge next year.

Chef Jason Roy and Team Lab’s Dishes
Chicken egg ravioli, asparagus caviar and béarnaise sauce, and petite salade de crabe with pretzel crostini

Smoked duck breast and duck-sausage scotch egg fried in duck fat, vegetable stir-fry with egg drop soup sauce and duck cracklings

Chocolate-accented coconut ice cream with ginger cake, tropical anglaise with meringue, and Gâteau dacquoise

Chef Rob Keener and Team Flight’s Dishes
Garlic lentil soup with sunny-side quail egg and fried cacciatore

Oven-style duck-egg breaded pork tenderloin with ginger-soy cream sauce served over a root salad with wild mushrooms and potato crisps

Bailey’s chocolate bread pudding served over Godiva cream with a pecan cookie

A portion of the proceeds from this event support F.E.A.S.T., a hands-on cooking program that focuses on seasonal, local ingredients and education and is sponsored by Slow Food Asheville. Children are taught how to plant, harvest, cook, eat, and enjoy food that is fresh, easy to prepare, affordable, and sustainable.