food
by Emily Patrick
Photos by Rich Orris
Tomato Jam wins Chefs Challenge
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Owner, Daniel Wright carries the title of Best Chef in WNC Going into the final round of Chefs Challenge, Daniel Wright saw himself as a dark horse: He was seemingly inexperienced for the competition. To compete, chefs must prepare three courses, fine-dining style. Wright owns a sandwich shop near Mission Hospital, Tomato Jam Café, so he doesn’t often cook and plate for fine dining. “Somebody has to make really bomb-ass sandwiches,” he says. “I can’t stress enough how good simple food is.” At the Chefs Challenge final on Saturday, Aug. 24, he won the title of Best Chef in WNC and $5,000 in prize money. The cook off took place during the Asheville Wine and Food Festival. Wright competed against Anthony Cerrato of Strada Italiano, an upscale Italian restaurant downtown. Restaurant teams used a secret ingredient to prepare three courses each — usually appetizer, main
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course and dessert — for a panel of judges (and in the early rounds, audience members). For the finals, the secret ingredient was Sunburst Trout. The dessert course presented obvious challenges, but Wright was unfazed. He prepared a cinnamonbrown sugar polenta cake topped with berry compote and trout caviar-whipped cream, one of the most successful dishes of the afternoon. Strada’s highest scoring dish was a take on a lettuce wrap. It consisted of chard-wrapped trout with black sesame seeds, pear and heirloom tomatoes, and was served with a sesame-fennel vinaigrette. The restaurant teams prepared all the food in a portable kitchen, using sauté stations, so the types of dishes they had means to prepare were limited. Still, Wright turned out potato gratin, which is usually baked. Even with his new title, Wright says he’ll continue to prepare homestyle sides and sandwiches at Tomato Jam. “I knew we had the potential to do it,” he says. “You can leave your element and come and do something that’s this upscale, and still go back to what [you] were doing.” X