Last night I attended the CAPITAL FOOD FIGHT for the first time which benefits the DC CENTRAL KITCHEN. It as a super event marred only by the extreme loudness of the sound system during the actual "food fight" portions of the evening. The individual food stations were FAAAAAABULOUS and included chefs from all over the region and represented about FIFTY restaurants!
Imagine one room with NO LINES at tables where the likes of
Greggory Hill of DAVID GREGGORY
Jamie Leeds of HANKS OYSTER BAR
Kaz Okochi of KAZ SUSHI BISTRO
Vikram Garg of INDEBLEU
Jeff Buben of VIDALIA/BIS
Tracy O'Grady & Kate Jansen of WILLOW
Baront Seaver of CAFE SAINT-EX/Bar Pilar
Rahman Harper of B. SMITH'S
Michael Harr of BUTTERFIELD9
not to mentions those from Argia's, 100 King, 1789, Cafe Atlantico, Chipotle, Farrah Olivia, Galieo/Bebo Trattoria, Kinkead's, Lebanese Taverna, Firefly, Agraria, Charlie Palmer Steak, Taberna del Alabardero, Maestro, Mie N Yu, Les Halles, Rock Creek, Olives, Zengo, Nage, Notte Biache/Dish, The Ritz-Carlton, Wegmans, Tosca and Santa Lucia Estate Coffee and some of the yummiest pastries and desserts from the staff at the REAGAN BLDG itself.
There was good wine, wine tastings, sake tastings, sushi bars, cake tables and oh so much more. Everything from smoked salmon to foie gras to oyster shooters and melon shooters.
There were live and silent auction items so of which went for many thousands of $$, and a very generous couple even announced a $1million donation to the Central Kitchen; now ain't that a boost?!
Other than the food, the MAIN EVENT on stage was the actual competition which is kind of a mini Iron Chef competition, where teams of chefs compete in 10minute segments for the main title.
Battle #1 had BOB KINKEAD(Kinkead's) & SANTI ZABALETI(Taberna) edging out VIKRAM GARG (Indebleu) and JOHN WABECK (Firefly) as the celebrity judges jokingly made fun of the competititors.
Battle #2 was TIM ELLIOT(Mie N Yu) & JAMIE LEES(Hanks) losing to ROBERTO DONNA (Galileo/Bebo) & ANTHONY CHITTUM (Notte Bianche/Dish).
Battle #3 had the first two winning teams head to head and it was quite close with the DONNA/CHITTUM team going into the finals against last year's winner RIS LACOSTE & KEN ORINGER. The winner was ROBERTO DONNA, but in the hubub and noise, I somehow missed where Anthony Chittum seemed to drop out--maybe there was a faceoff at some point.
No matter, lots of money was raised, lots of food and drink consumed, and everyone seemed VERY happy, even the losing chefs!
Can't wait for next year!
