Want to dine like a rock star??! Follow these four simple steps
1) Buy a competition dining ticket
2) Roll up to the front door of Bonterra, hand your keys to the valet, wink at the paparazzi
3) Order some drinks or wine from the list of 200 and make it rain, as you're seated and greeted by the talk of the town
4) Open an enormous can of Holy Crap NC Competition Dining Awesomeness and enjoy!!
Tonight the Mandrake and Dogwood crews competed for bragging rights, entry into semifinals and a $2000 check. Each team made 3 courses: a starter, main course and dessert. And the secret ingredients were ... drum roll...Organic Arugula and Calvander cheese from Chapel Hill Creamery. First you sample the ingredients in their purest "naked" form and then the dishes start flying out of the kitchen!! After each dish you rate it on a smartphone app based on everything from Presentation to Aroma to Use of Secret Ingredient. Votes are tallied in real time, separated by the Pros and the Joes, celebrity guests and chefs like our own CM Nikki and people who just like to eat. At the end the teams come out and run through the crowds soaking in the glory, until one is crowned champion! Tonight Dogwood Southern took the prize handily. Both teams had some amazingly creative dishes with spectacular flavor combinations that included uses of the cheese in everything from grit cakes to ice cream, and the arugula in everything from Spaetzele to gelato!! Wow! This is quickly becoming a "must do" annual event here in Charlotte!!
Oh and almost forgot step #5 - "accidentally" swap valet keys for the Maserati parked out front and drag race on South Boulevard...just kidding!Or am I??