Chefs are the best.
For them, food is art, so they hone their craft by choosing the best ingredients and making dishes perfect.
And then we eat it.
Who doesn’t love that?
As humans, we’re always looking for the “best,” and that’s the mission of Slice Dice+Spice NY: to find the best chef in New York state. They carefully selected nine chefs from Buffalo and the Finger Lakes to compete in a sort of “Iron Chef” style competition which took place on October 19th at the New York Wine and Culinary Center. Using three heats of three chefs each, judges determined the top three performers, all of whom will compete against one another on October 25th.
The chefs had one hour to create a three-course meal using primarily Finger Lakes ingredients and produce from local farms.
The winners are Michael Bommelje of Warfield’s Restaurant in Clifton Springs, Nick Rada of Doc’s Seafood and Steakhouse in Canandaigua, and Kate Elliott from Juniper on Elmwood.
Kate’s seared sea bass with butternut squash, tenderloin with Arbor wine barbeque sauce, parsley root spaetzle, and gingerbread and rosemary whipped cream, paired with Rohrbach’s vanilla porter won the judges over. She defeated the Inn on the Lake’s Brad Gray and The Lancelotti-Geneva on the Lake’s Carl Bray.
Buffalo was also represented by Kevin O’Connell Jr of O’Connel’s American Bistro, and Keith Bulak of Trattoria Aroma.
The October 25th championships will also take place at The NYWCC. Good luck, Kate!
(Top Image: Kate Elliott of Juniper)