This past weekend, we had a chance to check out Abbey's Kitchen Stadium (#AKS) Round 3 for the first time. For those who haven't heard of AKS, it's a food competition event designed after Top Chef, Chopped, etc and organized by Abbey Sharp (Abbey's Kitchen) to celebrate the growing food culture in Toronto. In addition, some proceeds from the ticket and food sales go to a local food initiative, My Food My Way.
As per battle 1 & 2, battle 3 was held at the Virgin Mobile Mod Club in Little Portugal/Little Italy on College St. It was great to see that they had sold out for battle 3!
When we first went inside, we bought some food tickets ($5 each) to try the chef's creations later on and got ourselves some delicious drinks from local vendors:
Delicious 40 Creek Whiskey, Sam Adams beer, Rosewood Wine, Dillons Distillers Cocktails, Limonana and Tea Emporium were all available for $6. I went for a Dillons Pear Cocktail. It was refreshing and delicious.
Abbey's Kitchen Stadium has 4 chefs from local restaurant competing. Battle 3's secret ingredient was apple sauce. This means all the chefs had to prepare a couple of dishes that use apple sauce. Let the best chef win!
Richmond Station - Carl Heinrich (Food Network's Top Chef Winner)
Apple Cinnamon Creamsicle with Walnut Gingerbread
Apple Braised Pork Ribs with Apple/Cabbage/Corn Slaw *my fave*
Playa Cabana - Dave Sidhu
Apple Corn Tamale with Braised Lamb & Blue Corn Masa with Chihuahua Cheese and Salsa Manzana
Apple Sauce Churros
Stockyards - Thomas Davis
Smoked Duck Spam with mash, broccoli greens & apple mushroom gravy
Deep fried Korean quail with apple chili glaze over buttermilk biscuit
and finally, Acadia Restaurant - Dustin Gallagher (Food Network's Top Chef Competitor)
Apple BBQ Quail with apple and sorrel slaw
Apple Tarte Tatin
After we all got a taste of the amazing food incorporating apple sauce, we watched the judges take their seat on the stage to dig in to the dishes themselves.
Judges:
Vikram Vij (Celebrity Restauranteur)
Alex Lifeson (Rush Guitarist & Rock Hall of Famer)
Liem Vu (Host for Global TV's The Morning Show)
Dee Brun (Cocktail Deeva, Stephen and Chris Show)
Susan Merry (Owner, All the Best Fine Foods)
... and the winner is....
Dustin Gallagher from Acadia Restaurant!
Overall, Abbey's Kitchen Stadium Battle 3 was a great experience. Watching the chefs of popular Toronto eateries do their thing right before our eyes was definitely memorable and having a taste of all the dishes got us hooked! We're definitely going to pay a visit to all four restaurants in the near future!
The final show is taking place at the Delicious Food Show at the end of October! If you haven't been to any of these events, I suggest you head to battle 4.
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