Fine Dining

Here are the 2010 Winners

1st Place
Ashten’s
Southern Pines

2nd Place
Table at Crestwood
Boone

3rd Place
Deluxe
Wilmington

Chef: Ashley Van Camp
Years as a Chef: 14
Hometown : Southern Pines, NC
Culinary Education : Reading, Watching, Asking, Doing
Culinary Influence : Parents.  Ashley’s Grandmother’s old fashioned country food which was always cooked with love. 
Cooking Philosophy: Fresh and Simple.  If you cook from the heart, cook with passion, it will always be good.
Cooking Philosophy :
Favorite Meal :Grammy's Stewed North Carolina Blue Crabs
Best Dish in NC background : 2nd year of participation,  2009 Fine Dining Finalist
Entered the Best Dish in NC contest because : As a restaurant, we can use our menu to get people excited about local food.  Once people know where their food comes from, they feel a certain responsibility to help sustain it.

Chef de Cuisine: Matt Hannon
Years as a Chef: 17
Hometown : Coventry, Rhode Island
Culinary Education : West Bay Technical and Sandhills Community College
Culinary Influence : I have worked with and learned from many European Chefs and I am always watching the coming trends in food and the work of Thomas Keller, Grant Achatz, Marco Pierre White and Rick Bayless
Cooking Philosophy : Simple is as simple does. Let the food speak for itself.  When you have a great product, showcase it.
Favorite Meal : Anything that I do not order myself.  I love to go out to eat and not look at the menu.  All of my best culinary experiences have been when the chef just sends out what they want me to try.  There is nothing more exciting.
Best Dish in NC background1st year
Entered the Best Dish in NC contest because :-love for local food

Pastry Chef: Jen Curtis
Years as a Chef: 4
Hometown : Cape Cod, Ma.
Culinary Education : Self taught and Baking and Pastry at Sandhills Community College
Culinary Influence : My father, who is an organic farmer, great cook and the best dad! Also Tony Bourdain and Thomas Keller
Cooking Philosophy :Use the freshest local seasonal ingredients and let them speak for themselves. Also, ALWAYS EAT DESSERT!
Favorite Meal :Seared Sea Scallops in a Citrus reduction with sauteed local Greens and a dusting of Fennel Pollen
Best Dish in NC background 1st year
Entered the Best Dish in NC contest because : who wouldn't want to be involved?!

Chef de Cuisine: Charles Jett
Age : / Years as a Chef: 16
Hometown : Massillon, Ohio
Culinary Education : Associates Degree in Culinary Techonolgy from Pennsylvianna Instutite of Culinary Arts
Culinary Influence : Mom was a huge influence growing up where she had cooked her way thru many of baking cookbooks. At age ten, I knew that sugar needed to be 235 to 240 degrees so we could make fudge. There was always bacon grease by the stove for many uses. Since then I have learned a few things from some professional Culinarians as well. Chef Dieter Kiessling was the Dean of Education at P.I.C.A when I was attending. Chef Kiessling is one of five original master chefs’ to be accredited by the American Culinary in 1981 and set the bar for all who followed. Learning his methods at the start of my professional career put me in a great place to springboard from.
Cooking Philosophy : Many have heard the creed location, location, location, when it comes to opening a restaurant. It has now been brought one step further, Anthelme Brillat-Savarin once said "Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are" I think he got it right but he was talking about the cuisine of Europe. Thanks to many chefs including Alice Waters the push is local, seasonal, sustainable, and organic. We are eating what is in season for us. We are getting away from having the same tasteless things all year round that are produced in far away countries, picked when it is way under ripe and sprayed with argon gas to ripen on the way to your grocer. We are changing menus more often using local ingredients keeping farmers in business and reducing our carbon footprint. We try to work on getting the most nutrients out of the best local food.
Favorite Meal : I love anything Italian. Prosciutto, pancetta, guanciale, sopressata, bresaola, fava beans, olive oil, whole animal utilization. I make a real mean Lasagna and try to keep some in the freezer at all times. Fresh pasta is my favorite starch. You really can't find anywhere that makes it right unless you make it at home. The Cheese, all of the wonderful cheeses, back home I had some Sicilian friends that would smuggle cheese back with them it was the best thing ever. It was made in small batches in small villages the same way for hundreds of years. The wine and olives grown in the volcanic dirt of Mt. Etna were considered by the Greeks to be far superior to one grown in Greece; Risotto served table side with Parmesan Reggiano. The canned tuna and anchovies, panettone I really could go on and on.
Entered the Best Dish in NC contest because : We entered into the contest to get our mission out there to the local farmers. We are a big entity and need huge support from farmers in the suronding area. We have some farmers that plant and grow with our menu in mind. We would like to sow more seeds of progress towards our farm to table concepts.

Executive Chef: Denny Trantham
Age : / Years as a Chef: 19+
Hometown : Trantham was raised in Haywood County, North Carolina
Culinary Education : attended Johnson and Wales University in Charleston, SC
Culinary Influence : Grandmother, John Besh, Frank Stitt
Cooking Philosophy : Be passionate about all things you do in the kitchen & always lead by example. 
Favorite Meal : Filet Mignon with Lump Crab & Bernaise; Authentic Southern Braised Collard Greens, Anything Bacon & Grandmother's Cathead Biscuits with Homemade Peach Jam   
Best Dish in NC background: Our first year in the competition.
Entered the Best Dish in NC contest because : Passionate about our pledge regarding Farm to Table sustainability both here locally in WNC and in North Carolina.

Chef name Jimmy Reale

Italian heritage, born in New York and spent most of his childhood in Fayetteville, NC.
Strong Mediterranean and Italian influences show through today in Chef Reale's cooking. He received his formal culinary education from Johnson & Wales University in Charleston, South Carolina.

He feels very strongly about the use of local organic and sustainable products and works very hard to strengthen the Carolina Inn's relationship with local Chapel Hill farmers. Chef Reale participated as a guest chef for the "Farm to Fork" event featuring Carlo Petrini - the founder of Slow Food International.

Chef Reale was part of The Carolina Inn restaurant team that was twice invited to the prestigious James Beard House in New York City. As Executive Chef of this award-winning Chapel Hill restaurant, Reale has also participated and led numerous cooking classes and demonstrations.

Chef Reale and wife Leigh have two children - five year old son Conner and two year old daughter Caroline. When not cooking, he enjoys spending time with his family, golfing, bass fishing and, of course, Carolina basketball

Chef name Charles B. Park IV
Age: 28
Hometown: Charlotte, NC
Culinary Education : Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, NY and Hotel Intercontinental, Hilton Head and Miami
Culinary Influence : Augustine Escoffier, Julia Child, Dieter Faulkner, Uwe Hestner, Tim Ryan, Paul Bocuse, Paul Prudome Graham Kerr and Jeff Smith
Cooking Philosophy : Rely on technique and preparation for flawless execution.
Favorite Meal : Dinner at Berns Steak House, Tampa, Florida. The meal was traditional "old school" and the service was perfection.
Best Dish in NC background : Collard Soup - collards being a local staple, it was a natural to give them a twist by making a soup. Flash Fried Whole Flounder - another local product, often served fried but not whole as we do it. Tuna Salad Napoleon - we get some of the freshest Yellowfin around, so serving it raw with an Asian profile was an obvious choice.
Entered the Best Dish in NC contest because:
I own and operate 2 restaurants, the "Beaufort grocery and Shepard's Point in Morehead City. I have a self published cook book, "Closed on Tuesday's", am an ACF Certified Executive Chef and on August 20, 2008, was chef a the James Beard House in NY, NY. 

JOSEPH KELLY MORROW
Chef de Cuisine
Gallery Restaurant
17 years of culinary experience
Prior to joining Gallery Restaurant, Morrow held Saucier Chef and Poissonier Chef roles at the number one Zagat-rated restaurant in Philadelphia, Fountain Restaurant at the Four Seasons.   In these capacities, Morrow learned from all the chefs at the Four Seasons and gained extensive experience with diverse seafood dishes and sauces.

Before that, Morrow served as an apprentice to celebrated Chef Tony Clark, named one of Food & Wine Magazine’s 10 Best New Chefs in 1997. 

From 2000 to 2001, Morrow worked under award-winning Chef Bruce Lim, as a Sous Chef at Cibolette and as a Saucier Chef at Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine, both in Philadelphia.

Morrow resides in Charlotte with his wife and two young daughters, who continue to inspire him everyday.

DAVID MOORE
Executive Sous Chef
Gallery Restaurant

Most recently Moore was named Executive Sous Chef of Gallery restaurant which achieved Forbes four-star rating in its first year of operation. A native of Spartanburg, SC, David Moore has amassed 14 years culinary expertise
Graduate of Spartanburg Methodist College
In 2003 Moore was appointed to the position of Executive Chef at the Meadowbrook Inn in Blowing Rock, NC at the age of 22 and also served as Pastry Chef under Chef James Welch at Crippen’s Country Inn.
Moore also oversees participants in Johnson & Wales’ externship program and teaches the popular Cooking School at The Ballantyne Hotel & Lodge.
Chef Moore looks forward to gaining new knowledge, experiences and making “food memories” for others on a daily basis.  He resides in Charlotte, mostly in the kitchen!