JANUARY 28, 2010 ISSUE
Twenty Chefs Square Off in 5th Annual Fire on the Rock
Preliminary Competitions Begin February 9
Pictured from right to left are six of this year’s 20 Fire on the Rock competitors: (top row) Andrew Long of Storie Street Grille, Michael Foreman of Bistro Roca, Charles Nelson of The Table at Crestwood, (bottom row) Sam Beasley of Gamekeeper Restaurant, Danny Bock of Canyons and Michael Barbato of Chetola. Photos by Tom Santay
Jimmy Crippen holds up chefs’ concoctions from last year’s Fire on the Rock competion. Photo by Ken Ketchie
Chefs facing off during last year’s competition pause for a moment in the kitchen. Photo by Ken KetchieIt’s like Iron Chef…except that it takes place in Blowing Rock, and you judge which restaurants’ teams make it to the next round.
Preliminary competitions begin with Glidewell’s facing off against Paolucci’s Italian Bar & Grill on Tuesday, February 9. The preliminary competitions, followed by quarterfinals, will take place at Crippen’s Country Inn & Restaurant, located at 239 Sunset Drive in Blowing Rock, each Tuesday and Wednesday in February and March.
The public is invited to make advance reservations to attend any dinner and participate in the judging, and the cost is $39, plus drinks, tax and tip. For more information and/or to make reservations, click to www.fireontherock.com.
“Book them now because we sold out a lot last year,” encouraged Jimmy Crippen, owner of Crippen’s.
“It’s unlike any other dining experience,” he said, explaining that “you’re going out to dinner and a show that you have to be part of.”
Ready, Set, Cook!
At a noon chefs’ meeting on the selected day of the competition, the teams meet, go over the rules and roll out the secret ingredient from a cage of randomly labeled bingo balls, Crippen explained.
All participants are familiar with the food list for the “common pantry” that includes vegetables, starches and proteins, Crippen said. However, 30 items are in the bingo cage, and because that special ingredient is rolled out on competition day, “even I don’t know what the secret ingredient will be,” he said.
The secret ingredient must be used in all the dishes, and chefs are not allowed to prepare dishes on their respective restaurants’ menus, he added.
Chefs share the kitchen space at Crippen’s, and they must bring anything they think they will need that is not already in the restaurant, Crippen said.
“Our chef is the ‘chef ref,’” Crippen said. “We’re not involved [in the competition] this year,” he said.
Competing chefs are allowed to bring a “bag of tricks” worth no more than a total of $100, Crippen said, and the “chef ref” has the final word on the value. A new rule this year limits the amount of food each chef and their two selected coworkers can use, he added.
All About Atmosphere
“We try to bring a fun, fight atmosphere,” Crippen said, adding that he usually announces the competing teams in the style typical of a boxing-ring: “In this corner, we have…!”
The competing teams are encouraged to bring as many people to support their restaurant as possible, he added.
And those eating and judging the final products always have a quality experience, Crippen said. He and other event facilitators put the three dishes each team prepares into a logical order for the blind six-course meal, and dishes must be ready at 6:00 p.m. Guests arrive at 6:30 p.m. and receive a “crash course on being a food critic,” Crippen said, adding that the dinner is served without a menu because the way in which chefs describe their dishes could give away who made which dish.
The dining experience is both exciting and unique for guests, he said. “Each course is judged on presentation, aroma and flavor. What happens is the conversations all night are about the food,” he said. “Some people love everything; some people criticize everything.”
At the end of the night, event facilitators round up the food forms guests filled out, tally the votes and bring out the teams for “quick two-minute interviews on their strategy [and] how it went” before revealing “who’s dish was who’s” and the final scores, Crippen said.
The winning team receives $500, and any leftover prepared food will be donated to The Hunger and Health Coalition, he said.
Winners of each competition move up through the bracket system, and the final four teams—and then the final two—will compete onstage at the Blue Ridge Wine and Food Festival, held in April in Blowing Rock.
Last year’s final competition resulted in a tie between Billy Greene of Artisanal and Dominic Geraghty of Hound Ears Club, Crippen said.
Fire on the Rock began five years ago and involved six chefs from Blowing Rock restaurants. The event was Crippen’s brainchild, and was created because he thought it would “be fun to recreate Iron Chef,” he said.
Crippen had previously dreamed up Winterfest, an annual festival that began 12 years ago, but he felt that “there was another festival needed,” he said.
The inaugural Fire on the Rock took place at the Green Park Inn, and along with a group of dedicated volunteers, Crippen credited the Blowing Rock Fire Department for being instrumental in helping to pull off the event.
The second year, the Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce took over the event, Crippen said, and the location moved to the Hayes Center. The chamber was also instrumental in expanding the event to include chefs from towns other than Blowing Rock, and then from other counties, he added.
This year’s competition features chefs from five counties: Ashe, Avery, Surry, Watauga and Wilkes, he said.
For more information, call Crippen’s at 828-295-3487.
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