PREPARE TO BE OVERWHELMED. My wife took a lot of pictures. As I said before we had a blast as some of the pictures will show.
An obscene amount of truffles from day 1. This was the story for the entire weekend
More of the Same. People were using truffles like they were button mushrooms. Awesome
This is an up close picture of our Tea smoked duck from the first night. We served it on wontons with homemade black mustard. We cured it for three days and slow smoked it with Lapsang Souchong.
My sous chef John Mersinger cutting up a lot of tea smoked duck.
The
beautiful house were we served our smoked duck, foie gras, and truffled brie.
Cane Creek Farms Pork belly made by Amy Lynn Lafreniere of the
Umstead Hotel and Spa.
A picture of two of our three passed hors d'oeuvres. The top one is foie gras tourchon, black currant jam and shaved truffle. The bottom is our tea smoked duck with housemade black mustard.
My ugly mug working in the kitchen at the
Double Tree hotel in Asheville pre party.
John getting ready the first night.
Sam Poley's roasted salmon.
Bill Harrison from The Umstead.
Me again cutting crostini
A celebratory drink at 11am on saturday. John, Bill from the Umstead, and I after finishing the risotto competition.
Two pictures of the plate John and I put out for the competition. We tried to think of ways to use risotto that didn't involve a traditional bowl of risotto. So we used the risotto rice like sushi rice and served it with seared scallop in the center, Mache tossed with verjus and pickled truffle.
A picture of the photogragher, my beautiful wife, and Amy Lynn from the Umstead.
More Champagne after the competition.
This is John first thing on saturday morning stirring our risotto with a lot of love. He looks so happy to be stirring while I kept asking what was taking him so long.
(It didn't really take that long)
This is a quick shot of the crew from the Umsteads' plate going out to the judges. It looked amazing.
John and I with the man Franklin Garland. Franklin and his wife Betty, provided all the Truffles, and Accomodations for the chefs. We were really pampered.
The large bottle of Chimay going on Ice on saturday morning. If you look closely you can see this is a 22qt cambro. That's a lot of beer.
A bunch of picture of most of the chefs at the competition with Franklin and Betty Garland front and center.
Bill working hard to make sure the chimay gets cold!
Some of us awaiting the results of the competition. Yes that is Iron Chef Walter Royal all the way to the left. He was a judge and is a super nice guy.
Saturday night I am describing our scallop dish to 120 people.
Yes look at the date on that Medoc. I went out into the dining room to brag to my wife that I was drinking a 1996 Medoc in the kitchen. She in turn shows me this bottle of 1988. Both were amazing. This is a little nod to lavash lifestyle we were living for 3 days in Asheville.
John and I trying to look pretty at the last event on Friday. These great outfits were courtesy of our restaurant Owners Ed and Deborah Roach who were so kind to let us both attend the event.
