THUNDER BAY -- After four years of competing in Top Chef Thunder Bay, Daytona’s has come out on top.
The restaurant bested 12 local outlets at Saturday night’s event in which all 500 dinner guests held the same voting weight as the celebrity judges.
Daytona’s head chef Andrew Stone led his team in making a stout and cheddar soup. It called for fried chicken skins to be dipped in buttermilk, then seasoned with old bay, herb goat cheese and honey.
Stone called the recipe simple but it was strong enough to bring the award plate back to his restaurant.
“It’s something I’ve been trying for for a few years now,” he said.
“It’s four solid years of a lot of hard work.”
ExCuria took home second place as well as the Judges’ Choice Award, while Moxie’s was awarded third place.
The bite-sized, savoury dishes were rated out of 25 points, 10 for taste, 10 for originality and another five for presentation. Those votes were then tallied, giving the judges 50 per cent of the and the other 50 per cent was up to the audience.
To host the event, organizers recruited celebrity chef David Rocco, the host of David Rocco’s Dolce Vita on The Food Network.
Rocco said every chef was on the same footing in that no one was cooking on “home ice.” When cooking in that kind of an environment with those rules, he advised chefs not to overthink the event and to stick to creating their best dish.
Rocco had never been to Thunder Bay and he was dazzled at not only the quality of food available but the support from the community.
“Thunder Bay does it right. I do a lot of these throughout Canada and I can say this is one of the best,” Rocco said.
“I’ve tasted pretty much every dish and they’re amazing. Thunder Bay has a great food scene.”
