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Last week, I originally planned to go for a regular dinner with a friend from uni, but at the last minute she found one of the the coolest events I’ve ever been to in Toronto. Called the Underground Chef Battle Series, it was a cooking competition with local chefs! The event was hosted at Teppan Kenta, a Japanese teppanyaki restaurant (you know, with the griddle right in the middle, making the cooking the main event), which turned out to be the perfect setting for the crazy cook off!
We arrived early for a drink and some nibbles cooked by Chef Kenta, tasting the crunchy salad, crispy chicken wings, and fried omelette. Everything was delicious and we quickly gobbled them up, hungry for more. The DJ entertained us while we waited for the secret ingredients of the competition to be revealed: fresh crab and a new vegetable hybrid, a mix between brussels sprouts and kale.
Chef Eric Wood and Chef Deron Engbers battled it out for an hour, while the five judges tasted and commented for us while we drooled on, completely starving. I made the mistake of not eating before the event, having not read that we’d just taste those few appetizers. And yes, that is Ben Mulroney there on the right.
Chef Eric drew inspiration from his recent trip to Peru to make a fresh and zesty ceviche. Chef Deron, on the other hand, used his French culinary background to influence his cooking, creating a dish with grilled tomatoes and dried porcinis.
This was the first episode of the battle series and felt like an innovative step in Toronto’s food culture. There were a few kinks that still need to be worked out, like perhaps giving each competing chef a hands-free mike to narrate the process, but otherwise it was a success. The amount of chefs in the audience confirmed that this was a genuine foodie event. It was really fun and felt like the beginning of something big.
Hosted by the Underground Chef Cartel.
