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Capital Food Fight 2011, Thursday, November 10

mdt

By mdt
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Waitman leviathan

Waitman

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Roberto was the big winner. Wabek was dissed in the first round. The best free food was from Willow (!), a cream soup with a mushroom cigar. The highlight was not being pounded to a pulp by the (quite large indeed) owner of the soon-to-be opened Proof, who took exception to some of my posts regarding said venture and recommended the sablefish at Asia Nora if you're interested in checking out the new chef before he moves downtown. I expect I won't be invited to the soft opening, :) but am now curious about the place myself even though the '61 Latour mentioned by Sietsema will likely not be available by the glass.

The afterparty was a fairly glorious little clusterfuck if you like to rub elbows with celebrity chefs, drink free Tattinger and hang out with Meaghan and UStreetGuy when they're between 2.24 and 2.775 sheets to the wind (which I do). Later, there was free Beaujolais and tripe. The beaujolais was the best wine I drank all night -- a harsh judgement of the wine at the event, an Argentinian Tinto -- but having discovered through harsh experience that tripe soup neither prevents nor cures hangovers, I stayed only for a glass.

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Camille-Beau ventworm

Camille-Beau

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It was a fun event and a great turnout! Three rounds of Iron Chef took a long time to complete since the 'kitchens' needed to be cleaned up and setup between each round but they filled in that time nicely with the auctions. Large open marble spaces, however, aren't very conducive to hearing the speakers since the sound reverberating in that space made it difficult at times to know what was actually up for auction.

Best line of the night from Tony Bourdain re fois gras: "I spread that shit on my toast for breakfast!" :blink:

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goldenticket leviathan

goldenticket

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Best-looking chef in skinny jeans: A tie: rabble-rousing TV personality Anthony Bourdain, who nailed the chiseled and grizzled older-man-with-grandeur George Clooney look
Good to see Tony using some of those 'packing light' techniques he's surely learned from his travels - appears to be the same outfit he wore on Wednesday night :blink: .

Thanks for sharing the link!

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sparkycom ventworm

sparkycom

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See Barton Seaver defend his title at Capital Food Fight 2008! Tuesday, November 11, 2008, 6:00 pm at the Ronald Reagan Building.

Here's the list of battling chefs:

David Deshaies --Citronelle

Tony Conte --The Oval Room

Peter Smith --PS 7

Stephen Lewandowski --Tribeca Grill, NY

Tickets are $150 until Oct. 9th, $175 after. Hosted by Jose Andres and Ted Allen with judges Chef Rock of Hell's Kitchen fame and Dave Lieberman of The Food Network. All proceeds benefit DC Central Kitchen. Cheer for your favorite chef, eat some great food and support DCCK!

Tickets

Sponsorship Opportunities

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sparkycom ventworm

sparkycom

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Bump! Come cheer on your favorite chef at Food Fight! This Tuesday, 11/11, the place to be is the Ronald Reagan Bldg. at 6:00 pm. Over 600 tickets have been sold, pm me to make sure to get your tickets in time!

See Barton Seaver defend his title at Capital Food Fight 2008! Tuesday, November 11, 2008, 6:00 pm at the Ronald Reagan Building.

Here's the list of battling chefs:

David Deshaies --Citronelle

Tony Conte --The Oval Room

Peter Smith --PS 7

Stephen Lewandowski --Tribeca Grill, NY

Tickets are $150 until Oct. 9th, $175 after. Hosted by Jose Andres and Ted Allen with judges Chef Rock of Hell's Kitchen fame and Dave Lieberman of The Food Network. All proceeds benefit DC Central Kitchen. Cheer for your favorite chef, eat some great food and support DCCK!

Tickets

Sponsorship Opportunities

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mbucher ventworm

mbucher

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Bump! Come cheer on your favorite chef at Food Fight! This Tuesday, 11/11, the place to be is the Ronald Reagan Bldg. at 6:00 pm. Over 600 tickets have been sold, pm me to make sure to get your tickets in time!

If going to the event you can also be among the first to see the unveiling of, and taste the line of entrees created by Michel Richard, Jeff Buben, Roberto Donna and Kaz Okochi to benefot DCCK, that will be available after the event at area grocers and peapod.com

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anix plankton

anix

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Plans are coming together for DC Central Kitchen's 6th Capital Food Fight on November 11, an annual foodie extravaganza with 5 chefs battling in 10-minute "Iron Chef" style battles and 50 restaurants offering tastes of their signature dishes.

Travel Channel's Anthony Bourdain will co-host again with Jose Andres, executive chef/co-owner of THINKfoodGROUP and host of the PBS series "Made in Spain." Battling Chefs this year will be Barton Seaver (last year's winner and chef at the new Blue Ridge in Glover Park), Bobby Varua (701 Restaurant and winner of last year's People's Choice award at the event), Tracy O'Grady (Willow), Michael Mina (Bourbon Steak and many others) and Mike Isabella (Zaytinya). We also have a a great panel of judges: Eric Ripert, Ted Allen, Carla Hall and Jonathan Umbel.

It's going to be an amazing event this year, but I'm biased--I work for DC Central Kitchen and the Capital Food Fight is my baby . . . In the past 5 years, the event has raised nearly $1.5M for our community programs, including recycling tons of food to make about 30,000 free meals a week for area social service organizations, training chronically unemployed adults for culinary careery and helping folks get off the street and supporting sustainable systems for area farmers. What's not to be excited about?

Check the website at www.capitalfoodfight.org for information, sponsorship and tickets.

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Flavortown ventworm

Flavortown

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*bump*

This kind of event isn't usually my thing, but I'm a big fan of the DC Central Kitchen. So...is anyone else thinking of going?

It's definitely going to be an awesome event. I'll be there, but as a volunteer.

Edit: And if it inspires anybody to buy more tickets, the list of competing chefs isn't quite up to date. Brian Voltaggio is going to be taking part as well.

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sacrilicious grouper

sacrilicious

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I'll be there. I went last year - we were standing right in front of Barton Seaver's parents during the food fight portion of the show. :( It's a great event, well-organized and a ridiculous number of tasting stations.

Plus as a Top Chef fangirl, I can't wait to see Bryan Voltaggio and Carla Hall live and in person! (I have been to Volt, but I don't think he was in the kitchen that day.)

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Lola007 ventworm

Lola007

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I'll be there. I went last year - we were standing right in front of Barton Seaver's parents during the food fight portion of the show. :( It's a great event, well-organized and a ridiculous number of tasting stations.

Plus as a Top Chef fangirl, I can't wait to see Bryan Voltaggio and Carla Hall live and in person! (I have been to Volt, but I don't think he was in the kitchen that day.)

Late to the party. Too bad the event is sold out. Can't wait to hear all about it--especially since Eric Ripert is going to be there too! :P

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Flavortown ventworm

Flavortown

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Oh my god...so much food. Almost none of the dishes were bad, too. Some restaurants that really impressed, best ones in bold:

Blue Duck Tavern's: Cassoulet

??: Rack of Lamb

Bourbon Steak: American Wagyu Shabu Shabu, Matsutake Mushroom

Darlington House: Compressed Melon with Prosciutto San Daniele

Proof: Chorizo Picante with Manchego and Pistachio Crusted Quince Paste

Vidalia: Queenland Pumpkin Soup, cranberry gomasio, vanilla salt

Oyamel: Ceviche de Cayo de Hacha con Citrico

Volt: Sweet and sour macaroon, guacamole, corn nuts

I thought I did a good job of making the rounds between doing the duties of my job, but somehow I managed to miss a whole slew of restaurants and dishes I wanted to try.

It was also great getting to meet a bunch of the chefs that were up on stage, including Voltaggio. And odd to come home and see him on TV an hour later.

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goldenticket leviathan

goldenticket

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I thought I did a good job of making the rounds between doing the duties of my job, but somehow I managed to miss a whole slew of restaurants and dishes I wanted to try.
I thought I did a good job too - but I managed to miss most of the ones you mentioned! The Lamb was from Goodstone Inn in Middleburg and I think won the People's Choice award. Proof was out of food by the time I got down there. Baby octopus from Zaytinya was quite nice, as was the wheatberry risotto w/bay scallops from Willow and the 'regular' risotto with sea scallop from L'Academie de Cuisine. Lots of great things to try.

Mike Isabella defeated Tracy O'Grady and took on Michael Mina who had triumphed over Bryan Voltaggio. Michael Mina then beat Mike I. to challenge, and unseat, Barton Seaver, the two-time reigning champ. There was also an impromptu Hell's Kitchen v. Top Chef Battle with Chef Rock and Carla Hall going at it - and the winner, decided by audience noise, was Carla. Eric Ripert looked dreamy, Bourdain and Jose Andres were great together - lots of banter during the battles. They even stepped up and filled the sous roles for Carla and Rock during their battle :( .

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sacrilicious grouper

sacrilicious

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I thought I did a good job too - but I managed to miss most of the ones you mentioned! The Lamb was from Goodstone Inn in Middleburg and I think won the People's Choice award. Proof was out of food by the time I got down there. Baby octopus from Zaytinya was quite nice, as was the wheatberry risotto w/bay scallops from Willow and the 'regular' risotto with sea scallop from L'Academie de Cuisine. Lots of great things to try.

I wasn't familiar with Goodstone Inn before. They definitely gave out more than just a "tasting" portion of the lamb - it was huge and on a big pile of mashed potatoes.

Personally I liked another meat and potatoes dish better (the one with the sweet potato puree), but I can't remember who was serving it - it might have been another catering outfit. Actually for the most part I forgot which dish went to which restaurant. After about 20 minutes it started to turn into a blur. The wine might have accelerated the forgetting process. (Except a couple of the bad ones, I do remember those, but they shall remain nameless.:()

I have to give special props to the chocolate dipped strawberry cheesecake lollipop from Coco Sala, by far my favorite dessert of the evening.

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leleboo leviathan

leleboo

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Wasn't this the dish they served at the 2009 Taste of the Nation event? Is it common for a restaurant to serve the same or similar variations at the different charity events? just curious...

I don't have an evidence-based answer for this but my guess would be it does happen commonly because once you know something works on that scale, why not repeat it?
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vinod clam

vinod

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I don't have an evidence-based answer for this but my guess would be it does happen commonly because once you know something works on that scale, why not repeat it?

For those of you who missed the event here are some pictures posted on my blog : www.chefvinod.typepad.com

- it includes a pciture of Bourbon Steak: American Wagyu Shabu Shabu, Matsutake Mushroom

cheers!

Vinod

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goldenticket leviathan

goldenticket

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Wasn't this the dish they served at the 2009 Taste of the Nation event? Is it common for a restaurant to serve the same or similar variations at the different charity events? just curious...

It was the same - and was just as tasty the second time! :( The Source was also serving the same item - tuna tartare cones. There were probably some other repeats, but those were the ones that I remember.
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goldenticket leviathan

goldenticket

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Just got this in my e-mail:

60 Restaurants, 4 Battling Chefs,

ONE Fight Against Hunger

Capital Food Fight tickets are on sale now!

On November 11, 2010, you can sample food and beverage from 60 of DC's best restaurants and watch live battles between 4 of the area’s hottest chefs.

Nationally renowned chefs like José Andrés, Tom Colicchio, Anthony Bourdain, and Michael Mina will be there. Will you?

AND--as if you needed any more reason--it's all for a great cause. The event has raised more than $1 MILLION for DC Central Kitchen's efforts to combat hunger and create opportunity.

See you there!

Tickets are on sale now (Individual Ticket @ $ 200.00)

www.capitalfoodfight.org

(and they do sell out...)

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goldenticket leviathan

goldenticket

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As j.whiteguy said, there is plenty of food. Sure, you may have to wait a few minutes at times, but lines move quickly.

The event is in the atrium area of the Reagan Building and food stations are set up on two levels, so the crowd is spread out. The battles take place on a raised stage, as well as being projected on large screens, so there's no problem being able to see them. You can also watch from above on the second (street) level, which gives a different perspective -and a better view of the celebrity guests :)

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Waitman leviathan

Waitman

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No, there's more than enough food. The challenge is getting a picture with Bourdain. Just bought the rents two tickets as early Christmas gifts, and damn proud of the decision.

Actually, the real challenge is forcing down the donated wine.

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Kibbee Nayee leviathan

Kibbee Nayee

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It was f-ing phenomenal from the food standpoint. It was a blur of crowd, food, drink, celebs, noise from the stage...wow!

Kudos to Antonio Burrell for his incredible duck gyoza.

Lebanese Taverna had kibbee nayee....uh, I only visited five times because I didn't think I could get away with the sixth and seventh.

There was a blur of food and restaurants, but the veal cheeks, the tuna cone (I believe that was Source), the lamb chop and Antonio's gyoza were hits. I tasted something (I wish I could remember) from 1789, Trummer's on Main, Kushi, Equinox, Vidalia, Vermilion, and 40 other restaurants.

This is the best $200 a head I ever spent.

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DanielK leviathan

DanielK

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...so much foie....

There must have been at least a half dozen preparations of foie (West End Bistro was by far the winner in this category), another bunch serving some kind of pate, and then add in all of the tartare preparations (tuna, lamb, beef, salmon...) and the oyster shuckers (I spent more than a few minutes in front of that table...)

It's all kind of a fuzzy memory at this point. Antonio and Dean did themselves proud at their tables, but Will Artley was completely robbed in the first round of the challenge by Spike, who I think won because he was on TV. His dishes in both rounds showed less skill in the kitchen than I have.

Congrats to Scott Drewno, Capital Food Fight Champion 2010!

[oh, and kudos also to the 61st graduating class of DCCK, who helped out tonight, and helped raise OVER HALF A MILLION DOLLARS for DCCK.]

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goldenticket leviathan

goldenticket

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[oh, and kudos also to the 61st graduating class of DCCK, who helped out tonight, and helped raise OVER HALF A MILLION DOLLARS for DCCK.]

Not to be nitpicky....but I think they'll actually be the 81st(!) graduating class - they're in week 4 of 12 and all seemed to be having a great time (as did everyone else) :)

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