Chefs Challenge: Heat 11

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WNC Chefs Challenge 2010, Week 11

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Wine & Food Festival

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Chefs Challenge: Heat 11

The Chefs Challenge has entered the semifinal rounds, and the difference was palpable… correction, palatable. In past weeks, we’ve see competitors often win or lose on the strength (or weakness) of a single dish, but the 11th heat between the team from The Admiral and the team representing the dining room at The Inn at Biltmore saw nothing but strong recipes. In fact, it’s safe to say each dish they presented could have been a ringer in any previous week’s contest. The secret ingredient in this sold-out competition was tomatoes, and both teams did an excellent job showing off every way to prepare the fruit (yes, it’s a fruit). In the end, Team Biltmore edged ahead of The Admiral with a four-percent lead.

Team Admiral opened the night with an inventive tomato salad. According to their captain, Elliot Moss, this dish had probably a dozen different varieties of tomatoes—safe to say, I’ll probably never get such a wide sampling on one plate again. Their next dish may have been my favorite of the evening, a tartare of hanger steak where tomatoes were presented within a barbecue sauce, plus a Bloody Mary that was served alongside. Very creative use of the secret ingredient, Admiral!

Where Team Admiral presented completely unpredictable dishes, Team Biltmore came up with some undeniable crowd-pleasers. Their bacon-wrapped scallop and grilled pork tenderloin (served with a delicious butter-whipped sweet corn) earned high praise, but it was their dessert that scored the most points. They paired tomato with strawberry in a marmalade as well as a granita, with a serving of goat-cheese cake. As has been the lesson since the first Chefs Challenge, you can’t win without a strong dessert. And this night’s contest proved it again.

Team Admiral can take consolation in knowing they prepared some of the most creative dishes during the weekly competitions. They surprised us all on many occasions, and we hate to see them eliminated.

Team Biltmore will move on to compete in the finals at the WNC Magazine Asheville Wine & Food Festival’s Grand Tasting. They’re not just a great culinary team, they’ve proven themselves very savvy competitors as well. This is going to be a great finale to a summer’s worth of delicious events.

Team Admiral’s Dishes:
• Tomato salad served with basil and Humbolt fog
• Tartare of hanger steak, served with tomato jam, poached egg yolk, Heinz potato chips, and Bloody Mary
• Poached chicken served over fried green tomatoes, blue grits, tomato relish, charred tomato crema, and crispy skin

Team Biltmore’s Dishes
• Bacon-wrapped scallop with tomato-basil salad and tomato gastrique
• Grilled pork tenderloin with butter-whipped sweet corn and chorizo Bolognese
• Goat-cheesecake with tomato marmalade and strawberry-tomato granita, and candied popcorn