Food TV

Xpress has plenty of online content that doesn’t show in the printed paper. One example of that is a video that we’ll call “Battle Bacon.” It marks one of the first multimedia collaborations between staff reporter Jake Frankel and me. What better forum in which to start than summer’s WNC Magazine Chefs Challenge competitions? Those well-attended events marked Asheville's first foray into official Iron Chef-style competitions, secret ingredient and all.

In this installment, the Admiral went up against Grove Park Inn’s Sunset Terrace. The secret ingredient was, of course, bacon, a foodstuff that I consider to be akin to manna from heaven.

My enthusiasm is perhaps embarrassing at times, but ”Battle Bacon” was fun to make, and Frankel did an excellent job of editing.

An excerpt from the blog post:

“This tete-a-tete between the Sunset Terrace from the Grove Park Inn and the Admiral in West Asheville was highly anticipated; the two teams cruised into the semifinals, and were both considered to be formidable contenders.

The highest-scoring dish of the competition, a very simple chicken roulade wrapped in bacon and served over mashed potatoes, brought my favorite phrase of the night into circulation: “meat glue.” There was just something very fun about watching team Admiral — T-shirted and drinking Budweiser at the bar while awaiting the results — talk about meat glue next to the toque and white jacket-wearing team from the Sunset Terrace.

It was perhaps that highly simple dish that pushed team Admiral into the lead; the results of the audience-judged competition were close once again — the Admiral won by only 4.1 percent after all of the points were tallied.”

Food TV: An online-only feature at http://avl.mx/1h

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