Abbey's Kitchen Stadium

When I was in university, to procrastinate from all the assignments I used to have, I would stick on the TV and watch hours upon hours of th...

When I was in university, to procrastinate from all the assignments I used to have, I would stick on the TV and watch hours upon hours of the Food Network. My favourites were, Top Chef, Chopped, Restaurant Makeover,  and Iron Chef America.

Well this weekend, I got to experience something similar in person. Dream come true!!

The lovely Abbey Sharp from Abbey's Kitchen, invited Clive and I to Abbey's Kitchen Stadium:

"Abbey's Kitchen Stadium (AKS) is a celebration of Toronto’s vibrant food culture that brings together the city’s hottest restaurant, food truck and pop-up vendor chefs to raise money for local food initiative, My Food My Way. AKS has been modeled after the popularity of reality Food Network competition programs such as Chopped, Iron Chef, and Top Chef. It combines the already proven successful model of a casual pop-up party, with the diner interaction and entertainment quality of an action-packed cooking competition."
We were invited to the 3rd instalment, where Toronto's top chefs battled it out for a place in the finale on October 27th at the Delicious Food Show (Definitely wanting to make it to that one as well).

Tickets were $10 each online and a portion of the proceeds were given to an awesome charity called My Food My Way.
This is how it works:
-Tickets retail for $10 online at uniiverse.com, where a portion of all ticket and food sales go to My Food My Way
-At each event, there is a secret ingredient chosen that will be revealed when guests show up to the event.
- Four Toronto culinary superstars each prepare two dishes that showcase the chosen ingredient, and guests have the chance to purchase whatever their heart desires for $5 per item. Delicious 40 Creek Whiskey, Sam Adams beer, Rosewood wine, Dillons Distillers cocktails, Limonana and Tea Emporium tea samples are also available throughout the duration of the event for $6.
- Beginning at 2:30 PM, chefs are invited one at a time to present their dish to the five celebrity judges on the stadium stage. The judges provide appropriate commentary and evaluate the dishes on taste, presentation, and originality.
- Meanwhile, all of this action is filmed and projected live onto a large screen for guests to watch, between which our DJ provides entertainment. Most importantly, we also hold a huge raffle draw for wicked food product gift baskets and restaurant gift certificates, from which all of the proceeds will be going to My Food My Way!
- After each of the three consecutive battles, a winning chef is selected to move onto the championship battle that will commence at the Food Network sponsored Delicious Food Show on the big celebrity stage. The final “wild card” competitor for the championship battle will be selected by voters via an online poll after the event.
The secret ingredient was apple sauce. YUM!

See the fun for yourself :)




This interesting looking dish was biscuit with quail.
I had never had quail before so I was a bit intrigued, but let me tell you, was it ever delicious. 






The judges were:
Vikram Vij (Celebrity Restauranteur) @Vijs_restaurant
Alex Lifeson (Rush Guitarist & Rock Hall of Famer) @RushTheBand
Liem Vu (Host for Global TV's The Morning Show) @LiemVu
Dee Brun (Cocktail Deeva, Stephen and Chris Show) @CocktailDeeva & @GhettoFoodie
Susan Merry (Owner, All the Best Fine Foods) @AlltheBestFF


The lovely Abbey Sharp, doing her thing.





The tamale concoction was really weird and had an interesting texture. The brown side was sweet and had an amazing cheese in it, while the other side was made of cornmeal and a whole bunch of stuff I could not even distinguish. All in all, deliciousness. Worth the wait, for sure.




The chef were:
Carl Heinrich (Richmond Station, Food Network's Top Chef Winner!) - @richmondstn & @ChefHeinrich 
Dave Sidhu (Playa Cabana) - @PlayaCabana
Thomas Davis (The Stockyards) @TheStockyardsBBQ
Dustin Gallagher (Acadia, Food Network's Top Chef Competitor) @AcadiaToronto & @DustinGallagher





My favourite of the night was this delicious apple tart. Word actually cannot describe how amazing it tasted. The texture of the tart, was perfect, not to soft but not too crunchy, and the apple filling was just to die for.  





The winner of the night. 

I'm excited to go to the finale on October 27th at 4 PM at the Delicious Food Show!
Will you be there?





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