In the video below you can watch Nickel City Chef Krista Van Wagner of Curly’s take on challenger Chef Andrew Nuernberger of the Roycroft Inn. Both chefs were challenged with completing three courses in just an hour, with each course utilizing a secret ingredient that hails Western New York. For this competition the secret ingredient was Balaton cherries, both dried and frozen, from Singer Farm Naturals located in Niagara County.
Hosts Bert Gambini of 88.7 WBFO and Chef Mike Andrzejewski of SeaBar, helped to keep things moving along, both with their wit, knowledge and respect for Nickel City Chef’s goal to promote local, independent restaurants and the Western New York region’s legion of small farms and food artisans.
Judges for this event included the unflappable and highly-credible John Bourdage, Spiel the Wine’s Kevin LoVullo, and special guest judge, Ivy Knight. Knight is a Toronto-based chef who is also a food writer (Globe and Mail, Toronto Life, City Bites, the Toronto Star and www.egullet.org) and works on Food Network Canada’s Pitchin’ In with rock star chef Lynn Crawford.
You can see the point tally and photos of each course here.
Each episode of Nickel City Chef takes place in the stunning showroom and state-of-the-art kitchens of Artisan Kitchens & Baths. The audience of nearly 200 was treated to catering by SeaBar and a cash bar.
There are only three Nickel City Chef shows left, so get your tickets while you can. On May 16th, undefeated Nickel City Chef JJ Richert of Torches and his sous chef and brother, Kevin Richert, will take on Chef Dino DeBell.
DeBell studied in Italy and has manned the stove at some of our city’s best restaurants. He is currently at work on the new menu for the highly anticipated Blue Monk. He, and his sous chef for the competition, Joe Kennedy, a former chef who is best known as the owner of Spar’s European Sausage, will face the same challenge of preparing three dishes within an hour before a live audience and a panel of judges. Judges will include Chef Kate Elliott of Juniper (a winner from last year’s season), Alan Bedenko (aka Buffalo Pundit and restaurant reviewer for Buffalo Spree) and the controversial and outspoken Nelson Starr.