Update: Results and photos here.
It’s time again to celebrate all things culinarily wonderful in Arkansas, in glorious, knife-weilding battle at the annual Diamond Chef Arkansas competition, hosted by the Pulaski Technical College Foundation.
The event will be held this Tuesday, June 5 at 6 p.m. at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock.
This year’s competitors are Chef Jason Knapp, executive chef at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway/Aramark (and a former PTC chef) and Chef Bonner Cameron from Ya-Ya’s Euro Bistro in Little Rock. Both were finalists in the competition’s preliminary rounds in March. (See our prelim play-by-play and photo roundup here.)
This final event is formatted a bit differently than the preliminaries. For this event, only one surprise ingredient is unveiled, and that ingredient must be included in three courses produced by the chefs and their sous chefs within 60 minutes. In the preliminary event, a basket of several ingredients was opened before each round, all of which had to be used for a single course.
The final is judged by a panel of Certified Master Chefs, which is in and of itself quite spectacular. The prestigious CMC designation is awarded by the American Culinary Federation after a grueling 8-day testing procedure. Pulaski Technical College Arkansas Culinary School will host the judges, CMC John Johnstone and CMC Peter Timmins, at PTC South Campus’ Crain Community Room from 10 a.m. until noon for a panel discussion of the CMC designation and the testing process. (See an upcoming post for more details.)
As I wrote last year, the Diamond Chef Arkansas final is a spectacular fine-dining event that you won’t want to miss. Except, I hear that it’s sold out. So, make a note for next year, huh?
Wish you could see the event? You can, right here. Follow along here at Fancy Pants Foodie, or on our Twitter feed at @ARFoodie, for a live play-by-play and photo updates.
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