Fire in the Triangle names 16 competing chefs

Sixteen Triangle chefs will soon engage in another round of competitive cooking as part of third annual Fire in the Triangle event. Got to Be NC Competition Dining Series founder Jimmy Crippen welcomed participants this morning, including last year’s Triangle winner, Chef Dean Thompson of Flights at the Renaissance Hotel at North Hills.

The series of 15 dinner events are based around one or more surprise ingredients, which are not revealed to competitors until the morning of each contest. All ingredients are either grown or produced in North Carolina. By recording their feedback in a smartphone app, ticket-buying diners have as much say in the outcome as do a panel of guest judges.

This year, Fire in the Triangle stretches beyond the traditional tri-county boundary to include Pup’s Steakhouse in Wilson.  Weathervane in Chapel Hill returns, but this time under new Chef Spencer Carter. Additionally, the series will feature the female chef for this region, Beth LittleJohn of Raleigh’s Coquette Brasserie.

“It’s still a guy’s game, as you can see by looking at this room, but women chefs are finally getting the attention we deserve,” says LittleJohn, noting Ashley Christensen’s selection as Best Chef Southeast by the James Beard Foundation. “I’m feeling good about my chances.”

All Fire in the Triangle events will be held at 1705 Prime, located at 1605 E. Millbrook Road, Raleigh. Chefs and restaurants spotlighted in the first-round bracket include:

• June 23: Dean Thompson of Flights and Joseph Yarnell of Cantina 18 in Raleigh
• June 24: John Childers of Herons at The Umstead in Cary and Scott Yankovictz of The Station in Raleigh
• June 25: Spencer Carter of Weathervane at Southern Season in Chapel Hill and Nunzio Scordo of Driftwood Southern Kitchen in Raleigh
• June 30: Christopher Hill of The Oxford in Raleigh and Yunes Sabou of City Kitchen in Chapel Hill
• July 1: Serge Falcoz-Vigne of 518 West in Raleigh and James Clark of Carolina Crossroads at the Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill
• July 2: Peter Spear of Pup’s Steakhouse in Wilson and Adam Jones of Dean’s Seafood Bar & Grill in Cary
• July 7:  Sean Fowler of Mandolin in Raleigh and Steve Zanini of Jimmy V’s Steakhouse & Tavern in Cary
• July 8: Regan Strachler of Little Hen in Apex and Beth LittleJohn of Coquette Brasserie in Raleigh

Laurence Willard is the competition’s executive chef and the person responsible for selecting the surprise ingredients. Foods introduced during the current Fire in the Triad contest include Texas Pete’s new Cha! sriracha sauce, manufactured in Winston-Salem, and chestnut flour from High Rock Farm in Gibsonville. The Triad contest will conclude on June 2.

“The chestnut flour was a good challenge,” grins Willard, who surprised chefs by using it on two consecutive nights. “We’re looking at some incredible North Carolina cheeses and have connected with a new mushroom grower in Hickory. We hope to use giant trumpet mushrooms during the Triangle events.”

The Fire in the Triangle winner will receive $2,000, a handmade culinary knife from Steve Watkins of Ironman Forge in Charlotte, and a coveted red chef jacket. Each regional winner will move on to the championship, which will be held in Raleigh in November. The grand prize is a trip to the Culinary Institute of America’s Greystone program in Napa Valley.

Tickets are $59 for preliminary and quarter-final Raleigh rounds and $69 for the final battle, which will be held on Aug. 4. For information or to order tickets, visit www.competitiondining.com.

Competition Dining's secret ingredients: camaraderie and fun

For the past seven years, Jimmy Crippen has been inviting guest chefs into the kitchen of his acclaimed Blowing Rock restaurant, where they have dazzled local diners.

“I’d say to my friends, “Come to my kitchen and let’s play a game,’” said the good-humored entrepreneur, who staged a series of Iron Chef-inspired cook-offs at Crippen’s Country Inn and Restaurant. “Let’s face it: Chefs are performers. You don’t open a restaurant unless you think you can feed people better than someone else can.”

What started as a way to draw customers on typically slow or off-season nights – while at the same time giving highly-regarded chefs a chance to get out of their own kitchens and meet other people in the industry – this year morphed into a series of regional Competitive Dining events. The first was the Fire on the Rock contest in the High Country, in which Chef Michael Foreman of Bistro Roca in Blowing Rock reigned supreme and claimed the $2,000 prize. In April and May, Crippen took his road show to Wilmington, where Chef Andrew Hopper of Chefs 105 in Morehead City emerged as champion of the Fire in the Dock contest.

The Raleigh-based Fire in the Triangle competition launched on June 11 and will conclude on July 31. The sold-out spectacles are held on Mondays and Tuesdays at 1705 Prime, located at 1705 Millbrook Road. The elegant North Raleigh facility is the catering hub of Rocky Top Hospitality, which includes Twisted Fork, Tribeca Tavern and the Daily Planet Café in the new Nature Research Center, among others.

Tonight’s challenge will pit Raleigh chefs Michael Lee of Sono against Dean Wendel of Flights. Competitors are not told what each event’s mystery ingredient is until a few hours before the doors open at 6:30 p.m.  It is selected and sourced in collaboration with the Southern Foods distributing and the Got to Be NC program of the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. As with Iron Chef, the special ingredient must be prominent in each course, supplemented only by what is provided in an extensive pantry, and produced entirely on site.

Jimmy Crippen, founder of the Competition Dining series

While chefs strive to impress judges with expertly prepared and plated creations, teams also are responsible for providing an example of each course to about 120 paying guests. Diners get to participate in a popular vote and are encouraged to post comments on Twitter at #CompDiningNC.

In addition to an exhilarating evening of fine dining, Crippen is hopeful that participants will gain a heightened appreciation for the quality of locally sourced ingredients.

“We really try to keep the focus on building an awareness of the amazing resources that our state has to offer,” said Crippen, adding that home cooks also will concoct great meals if they start with fresh ingredient from local growers. “It’s a nice marriage to be able to promote the chefs, the agriculture and the whole sustainable lifestyle.”

So far, required ingredients in the first five weeks of the Raleigh competition have ranged from blueberries and Butterball turkeys to mustard, eggs and cantaloupe. Crippen said he's been impressed by watching chefs work their magic with the day's selection – which, while varied, have not been as bizarre as some previous challenges.

“One of the weirdest things to come out of these was Battle Beef, where you had to use the entire cow,” he recalled. “One of the chefs made a beef tongue bread pudding, which he smartly disguised as ‘Lingua Bread Pudding.’ It wound up getting the highest marks and won the competition for him.”

While Crippen himself has never competed in any of the events, even when they were based in his kitchen, he clearly relishes his role in choreographing the contests.

“I feel like Gene Kelly with an umbrella doing Singin’ in the Rain,” he said. “There’s all the insanity around you, but it’s so much fun you just want to dance with it.”