The second annual Crozet Culinary Competition for Charity will be held September 19 at the Lodge at Old Trail with chefs from five Crozet restaurants competing to possess the gold trophy and a year of bragging rights.
Teams from Southern Way Café, Fardowner’s Restaurant, da Luca Café and Sal’s Restaurant will challenge last year’s winners, Eddie and Pat Keomahathai from Bangkok 99, and will have one hour to prepare a dish from a mystery basket of local ingredients.
The competition, which sold out last year, is designed to benefit local non-profit organizations. This year’s recipients will be Crozet Arts and the Crozet Lions Club.
Guests will enjoy complimentary hors d’oeuvres and desserts from Lodge executive chef Jesse Kaylor while they watch the teams cook. Local wines from King Family, White Hall, Veritas, Well Hung, Early Mountain, Flying Fox and Afton Vineyards and microbrews from Starr Hill Brewery will be available at a cash bar.
Four judges, two celebrity judges and two audience members, will sample and score the entrées and desserts. Raffle tickets will be sold for a drawing to win the two open seats at the judge’s table. The celebrity judges selected this year are NBC29 reporter Henry Graff and Crozet Gazette editor Mike Marshall.
Crozet Arts plans to use proceeds from the competition to establish a scholarship fund to support community participation in the ballet, music, theater, visual arts and yoga programs they offer for children, teens and adults, as well as to support the purchase of supplies.
The Crozet Lions Club will use the money to support a financial assistance program that provides eyeglasses and hearing aids to local citizens who could otherwise not afford them and to help fund two community college scholarships they grant each year to deserving students from the Miller School and Western Albemarle High School.
The event begins at 6 p.m. Tickets purchased in advance are $20 for adults and $5 for children under 12 years of age. Tickets can be purchased at competing Crozet restaurants, The Senior Center in Charlottesville, The King Family Vineyards and The Lodge at Old Trail. Tickets purchased at the door are $25, but, remember, the event sold out last year.
