Who watches Chopped on Food Network?? Well, a few weeks ago I attended a Chopped style cooking competition with a few of my co-workers.
HUGE thanks to Angela of Tulips & Rain for giving me and Laura our tickets. She was unable to attend the event and it was super sweet of her to think of us. She has something special coming to her in the mail next week but I don't want to ruin that surprise.
The event was called Zest and Zing and it was organized by the Kansas Soybean Commission and Kansas Farm Bureau. While Chef Richard McPeake and Chef Gary Hild competed we got to hear from local farmers and learn a little bit about the history or their farms and how they operate. It was very cool to see that actual source of our food!
Chef Alli, owner of Chef Allie's Farm Fresh Kitchen, was the perfect MC for the event; she kept the audience pumped and asked the Chef's great questions while they cooked.
The judges were the ever so sweet, Angela of Handmade in the Heartland, Danni Boatwright Wiegmann, winner of Survivor Guatemala, and a lucky audience member. The audience member turned out to by my co-workers boyfriend! We were pretty jealous of the delicious food he judged and ate.
While the Chef's created their dishes with the mystery ingredients, we enjoyed appetizers. The pulled pork sandwiches and corn bruschetta were my favorite. And, don't even get me started on the liquor truffles. SOOO good. I actually made them and will share the recipe next week.
Chef Gary Hild took the win at the end of the night. Thanks to Angela, I was able to try his dish and it was amazing. Crazy that he created a gourmet dish in under 30 minutes with zero planning. Guys have some skillz.
It was such a fun night! My co-workers had a blast too; it was a nice change of pace from the daily grind and something we wouldn't normally do as a group. And, we all left with pretty awesome swag bags. #winning
