I’ve been wanting to start a series of food throwdowns based on the Bobby Flay Food Network shows for quite a while now. I thought it would be fun to have a “Citizen Chef” challenge an Executive Chef at a Peoria restaurant or pub to a one on one cooking challenge. Well, a couple of weeks ago, my friend Kevin was telling me about how he loves to cook jambalaya and how he’s gotten rave reviews on his recipe from here and all the way to New Orleans where a restaurant let him be a guest chef and prepare this spicy dish. I thought this would make for a great food throwdown and the perfect place would be the Country Club BBQ where they serve a lot of southern-styled dishes. So I called and spoke with Clay the owner who passed the word to Mick the Executive Chef at Country Club BBQ and they accepted the challenge. So now, let the first MBIP Food Throwdown begin!
Here’s the challenger and his crew at the MBIP World Headquarters door! From left, Star, Kevin’s wife, Francis Angelina, Kevin’s sister and Kevin! Kevin’s sister Francis is a writer and photographer and you can see her work at her website by clicking here and you can click here to read about her book on Amazon. Okay, it’s off to the very first MBIP Food Throwdown! Excitement is in the air!
Here we are at The Country Club BBQ on Farmington Road. As you can see by the sign, it’s Throwdown time! Plus check it out, sluts are open here every day at 9AM! I love it here!
The Country Club BBQ
Before we begin the throwdown, we’ll take a look around inside. As you can see the front bar is massive and there’s a huge selection of beers on tap. There’s another bar in the back of the room and yet another in the beer garden. This place is massive and there’s something new here, they now have state of the art golf simulators on the second floor. Check that out by clicking here. Okay, time to get this MBIP Throwdown started!
The Competitors
There’s the two competitors, ready for action! That’s Citizen Chef Kevin on the left and the Executive Chef for the Country Club BBQ, Mick on the right. Mick is a great chef and we’ve sampled some of his tasty items in the past here on the blog. This is his first time cooking jambalaya, so we appreciate him taking on the MBIP Food Throwdown challenge! There’s Mick and Kevin back in the kitchen with their roasters of jambalaya simmering away! Mick’s is the top one and Kevin’s is the bottom photo. Okay, while they put the finishing touches on the jambalaya entries, we’ll go say hi to some of the people here for the throwdown!
The People
Lots of people showed up and I thank them all for coming! It’s a great crowd and I appreciate all of you who came for this inaugural food throwdown!
The Judges
We had 15 volunteers for judges and they’re pictured above with our official sign in judge’s list. Okay, it’s time for the main event!
Judgement Time
Here I am delivering the bowls of jambalaya to the waiting judges! The judges don’t know who made the separate batches and the bowls were marked with a circle and a triangle for voting purposes.
There’s the judges waiting for the jambalaya and now it’s time for them to dig in. Everyone enjoyed both batches of jambalaya, so this could be a close call! As you can see, a crowd had gathered on the perimeter of the stage to watch the judges sample the jambalaya
And The Winner Is...
Okay, the judges have submitted the ballots and we’ve tallied them up! It was really a close contest and here we are on stage to announce the winner. Oh Ringo, you know what to do here, right?
Kevin! Kevin won and there I am presenting him with the MBIP Throwdown Lightbox Award! Congratulations, Kevin, great work!
Here’s a couple of celebratory photos of Kevin after he won the top prize!
As I said when I announced the winner that afternoon, there wasn’t a loser today, because both batches of jambalaya were excellent! Thanks to both Kevin and Mick for their efforts and the delicious jambalaya! Thanks to Francis for taking photos and special thanks to everyone who showed up and to the judges who volunteered! This was a ton of fun and we’ll be doing another MBIP Food Throwdown in May, so stay tuned for that!
-------------
2510 W. Farmington Road
West Peoria
309-966-3766
-------------
Related Posts: Saturday Night BBQ @ Country Club BBQ and The Third Annual Christmas Tour With Kevin And Star.