By Jesse Wood
April 10, 2013. Last night’s secret ingredient during the second contest of Fire on the Rock wasn’t quite as obscure as Monday night’s Siberian sturgeon.
It was Goodnight Brothers Ham, which being from Boone is about as local as it gets, and judging by the scores, it is safe to say the ham courses were a tad more popular than those with sturgeon and the caviar that comes from the ancient fish species.
In Tuesday’s night square off at the Meadowbrook Inn, Sam Ratchford of Vidalia in Boone won decisively over Will Young of the Toe River Lodge in Plumtree. While Young had a slightly better percentage score from the professional judges, the voting diners overwhelmingly favored Ratchford.
Among the weighted scores of the diners and professional judges, Ratchford received the only two scores to top 80 percent. One of those entrées was called “Redneck Sushi” featuring collard green wrapped coconut accented grits, pulled smoke country ham, citrus ponzu and Texas Pete shrimp sauce and crispy wonton. The other was the dessert, a country ham ice cream featuring candied country ham, sweet potato cake, ham salted caramel, and guava coulis.
Young’s best scoring course was the Roasted Certified Angus Beef Petite Filet with a mushroom bench pinot demi, ham hock greens, country ham rutabaga, prosciutto wrapped asparagus and chateau roasted potato.
See the entire course listing and scores here: http://www.competitiondining.com/results/vidalia-v-toe-river-lodge.
Click here for reservations for tonight’s battle between John Dean of Twig’s in Blowing Rock and Clark Barlowe of Heirloom in Blowing Rock: http://www.competitiondining.com/reservationcal?TripDate=2013-04-10&TripId=126
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