Capital Food Fight 2007 Recap

I've never been to an orgy. Hell, I'll probably never get the chance. But I'd imagine that Capital Food Fight is probably close enough to the real thing to count. Lust and Gluttony were on display as what seemed like an endless crowd reached for sample after sample, and glass after glass of wine.

There was a lot of sin for such a good cause.

In short, Capital Food Fight was a blast, and for those of you who didn't go, there's no excuse not to go next year. All the food you can eat, all the wine you can drink, and some of the best chefs and personalities in the food world - not to mention it was for an amazing cause.



So - who among the battling chefs won the day (night)?

After beating RJ Cooper from Vidalia and Cathal Armstrong of Restaurant Eve, Barton Seaver of Hook ended up beating the duo of Roberto Donna and Anthony Chittum.

A couple quick observations.

-Seaver was the crowd favorite from the beginning. Was it because he's so flippin hot? Who knows, though I'm sure that had a little something to do with it. Honestly, I think Cathal beat him in their faceoff in Round 3 - but that's just me.

-My favorite shot of the night, which, like most of my pictures came out fuzzy, was of the Armstrong clan watching the first battle. Seriously, it was like watching Liam Neeson's character in the opening battle scene of Gangs of New York - I honestly thought that Armstrong and Todd Thrasher were going to run up, draw swords and start effin some people up.





-Anthony Bourdain and Jose Andres were awesome. Holy crap Jose has a lot of energy; I can see why he's been able to sell his brand and his ideas so effectively (that and a great PR team).



-Oh Roberto Donna, why'd you have to hand make pasta in a TEN MINUTE COOKING COMPETITION?!?!? This isn't Iron Chef (which you also didn't finish your dishes in), you only had TEN MINUTES. Seriously, you could have poured a bowl of Corn Flakes and milk for the judges and you would have won - that's how much they love RD. But no, you didn't bring your A-game. Barton did. Kudos to Barton.



As for the actual food served:

-Kaz sitting there making hand rolls was awesome. Yeah I could just go to the restaurant and get that - but there's nothing like the service of sitting at the bar with no line.

-The cake at 1789 was awesome. Great texture play with the crunchy bottom and the creamy top.

-Whatever the hell they were serving at Cafe Atlantico was intense. Some sort of liquid cheese - like a food acid trip.

-Too much tuna tartare. I saw this mentioned elsewhere - but I had to echo it. Enough it with folks!

A very complex dish that I don't remember (just that it was bigger than average and good) won from PS7's.

In all - it was a great event that raised a lot of money for a cause everyone should support.

I can't wait for next year.