A Culinary Battle in Seattle

Chef Matt with Colleen Brown

Last night I attended the new United Way of King County fundraiser, "Top Chef and Exec" challenge.  The event was part of a United Way initiative to raise $1 million to help end hunger in our community.  It was a reality show format featuring four chefs from Tom Douglas Restaurants paired with business executives Colleen Brown of Fisher Communications, Brian McAndrews of Madrona Venture Group, Dan Fulton of Weyerhaeuser and Shawn Jones of Wells Fargo,

Cheftastic Colleen decorating the cake

The object was to cheer on the "cheftestants" and donate in their names as they took on the challenge - to prepare a meal using the ingredients typically found at a food bank.  To kick off the evening and to determine which Chefs and Execs got which supplementary ingredients, there was a flash cake decorating contest which Colleen Brown and partner Chef Matt of the Palace Ballroom handily won by cutting their cake into four pieces and decorating it with orange frosting and a photo of UWKC Campaign Chairs, Brad Smith and Kathy Surace-Smith.  For their supplementary ingredient, they selected the tray with assorted fresh herbs.  The other three contestants were given one of the remaining ingredients which were chicken, cheese or fresh vegetables.

Hsaio Ching, Kathy Surace-Smith, Brad Smith, Renee Behnke

There were over 100 friends and fans attending to cheer on the cheftestants including Carl Behnke, JJ McKay, Dee Dickinson, Bill Miner, Randa Minkarah, Julie & James Sun, Elizabeth & Jonathan Roberts, and Delphine & Charles Stevens.

Tom Douglas served as the emcee for the evening while the compeition judges included Renee Behnke, Hsaio Ching, and Brad Smith & Kathy Surace-Smith.  They took their job seriously tasting a "Spam Tonnato" or sauteed Spam served with a creamy mayonnaise-like tuna fish sauce as shown in the photo included with this blog posting.

Winning cake is 3rd from the lift.

The winner of the competition was Brian McAndrews, who was selected through a combination of judges' scores and the amount of money he raised for United Way of King County.